In the Chinese TV series “A Little Reunion,” released in the summer of 2019, middle-aged father Fang Yuan pretended to go to work every day after being laid off. Lately, a similar scenario has been playing out in real life with the emergence of so-called “pretend-to-work” companies in Shenzhen and other Chinese cities — people are actually paying to simulate a day at the office.

At the old Dongjiang Column headquarters in Dapeng on Aug. 29, student performers brought 1944 to life in a tense, moving reenactment of Lt. Donald W. Kerr’s rescue — and in the audience sat the man who keeps that story breathing.

“I've always found Shenzhen to be one of the most energetic and creative places in the world,” Steve Kuhn, founder of the Pickleball Champions League (PCL), said during an interview with Shenzhen Daily on the sidelines of the PCL Asia Finals on Saturday. “When I first came here in 2004 and 2005, it already felt like the city of the future. Now, 20 years later, that’s even more true.”

In Shenzhen, towering skyscrapers and bustling streets are a familiar sight. Yet, tucked away in various corners of the city, be it beneath old residential buildings or nestled deep within a bustling industrial park, secondhand bookstores act as quiet refuges seemingly forgotten by time.