The Flow of the River

In 1979, Deng Xiaoping designated the Pearl River Delta a Special Economic Zone, transforming its farmlands and backwaters into an industrial powerhouse as part of his Reform policies. Today, the infrastructures of the major southern cities—Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Macau—are being further integrated in a bid to boost the region’s economic, and, inevitably, sociocultural, growth. Among those at the forefront of the metamorphosis is collector and entrepreneur Frank F. Yang.

Although not a native southerner—he was born in Wuhan in the 1970s—Yang was deeply influenced by the radical shift that followed Deng’s Reform policies and the opening up of China to the world, in particular to Western culture. At an early age, he had