Kees is a special Dutch blogger: he grew up in Shenzhen, speaks Chinese better than many locals, and understands Chinese culture deeply.
Thanks to his upbringing, Kees has a unique perspective — he is both a "foreigner" and "half a Shenzhen native". When traveling across China, he notices cultural details: why southerners love soup and northerners love noodles, why "guānxi" (relationships) matters so much in Chinese society.
His travel content skips tourist traps, heading instead to small cities and old neighborhoods to chat with locals. Real Chinese culture, he says, is not in guidebooks but in markets, parks and every alley.
Kees often says Shenzhen is his "first hometown". Through his own story he tells the world that China is not just a country — for many people it is truly home.
Kees (b. mid-1990s), Dutch, grew up in Shenzhen and is called "Shenzhen foreign son". His videos record a foreign child growth memories in Shenzhen.
His Shenzhen childhood: his parents came to work in Shenzhen; he attended primary and middle school here, speaks fluent Chinese and feels about Shenzhen as if it were home.
Videos: "old Shenzhen vs new Shenzhen", "a foreigner who grew up in Shenzhen", "Shenzhen 1990s memories" - using personal memory to sketch the city transformation.
His perspective: as a "Dutchman who grew up in Shenzhen", he is both outsider and insider - he knows every corner yet keeps a foreigner observational sensitivity. This dual lens makes his content special.
Significance: he represents a generation of "foreign children raised in China" - unique "cultural hybrids" born of the reform era.
Lesson: his story shows home is not necessarily where you are born but where you grow. He treats Shenzhen as home, and Shenzhen treats him as its own.
He has a wish: to make a documentary about Shenzhen, from the 1990s fishing village to today metropolis, weaving 30 years of family photos into the city growth story. He says "Shenzhen is my home; I want to do something for it." That "homesickness" makes Shenzhen netizens cry "welcome home".
To close: he is collecting old photos for his Shenzhen documentary. We are all waiting for that "a Dutchman love letter to Shenzhen".
He also found childhood "evidence" across Shenzhen - his old school, a familiar park, the dessert shop. He films each place "as it is today" against his memory. He says "the city changed, but my memory has not." That private affection for a Chinese city makes Shenzhen viewers truly treat him as a fellow townsman.
He is also learning Cantonese - some of his Dutch family are from Guangzhou. He says "for the language of family, one more language is worth learning." From Mandarin to Cantonese, a Dutchman nails himself firmly to China with two dialects.
His documentary project has also won support from Shenzhen cultural figures. The two-way devotion between a city and a Dutchman continues.
