- Well, I guess this is it.
They're kicking me out.
I came back to China and I found out I have three days
to gather my things and then get out.
(cool instrumental music)
So, a week ago I booked a flight back to China.
I was super pumped up to come back
and start shooting season two of "Strange Parts."
And then I got a WeChat message that changed everything.
So, this is from the apartment manager of the building.
I'm gonna blur his face and name
but basically they're doing huge renovations
and I have to leave and I don't have much time.
So, basically I'm getting kicked out of this apartment
and studio here in Shenzen,
where I've been for basically three years now
with a week and a half notice.
I found out on the 15th and I flew back yesterday,
which was the 22nd and I have to be out by the 26th.
Needless to say, this is a huge kick in the teeth.
And as you probably saw in the messages
as the apartment manager said,
this is all because his boss got a sudden urge to remodel.
But I literally just got done moving back in
and getting resettled after the last time
the boss got a sudden urge to redecorate.
I think it was only three months
but it felt like six months of this huge saga
of them wanting to re-wallpaper all of their units,
and so I had to move pack everything up
and then pay off the boss to not re-wallpaper,
because well but let me show you what exactly how...
So this is the hallway, which is it's not too bad,
but wait till you see inside the rooms.
This is the wallpaper,
there's no way I can shoot against that
so I had to do something.
It looks like the Bates Motel.
I couldn't have that as a background.
So I paid him off in order for the privilege
of them not wallpapering,
so that I could hire my own painter
who turned out to be terrible.
Did only half the work
before storming off in a fit of rage
because I was being too picky...
And then we discovered that the roof was leaking
and that took a solid three months.
I even paid for the roof to be repaired.
And so then just before I left China for Christmas
I was finally sort of feeling settled back in here.
I got, did sort of little miniature make-over on lighting
and I've got some acoustic foam and stuff,
and a new chair,
and I was just finally feeling like I was back in a place
where I could work and shoot in here.
And so to come back to China
and the very first thing I have to do
is pack everything up and find a new place to live
and a new place to shoot.
Well, it's taking a lot of the wind out of my sails.
So you might be asking, how can they evict you like this?
How is this even legal?
There's a few things
I haven't really been fully honest about I guess.
I don't know , just not sharing with you guys.
And the reason is just for personal safety.
Basically, I don't want people knowing exactly where I live
because I don't want them coming to my door.
Well, I've been trying to not expose too many details
about the building that I live in
and exactly what street I live on,
I shoot a lot in my neighborhood
but I try and not shoot directly on my street.
But now I'm moving out
and by the time you guys see this video
I will be completely gone, so screw it.
I'm just gonna share the full details.
So, the deal is that this is actually a serviced apartment.
It's fully furnished,
so there was a bed and table and chairs,
desk and chairs.
They provide sheets for the bed and towels
and they like to come in and clean a little bit every week
and wash those.
They also provide power and water and internet,
so that I don't have to contract all of those separately.
Technically this place is a hotel.
So, and that's important in China
because all foreigners must register where they are staying
for every night they are in China with the local police.
If you stay at a hotel,
they have a system where they can do that at the hotel,
so you give them your passport,
they take a copy and they take a photo of you
and they get a little bit of details
and then they send that off to the police
through the computer.
If you're staying in an apartment that you're renting
or you're staying with a friend or something like that,
then you have to go to the police station
every time you come and let the police know
where you're staying.
So, because they're technically a hotel
they were able to take care of all of that for me.
Basically, they're just handling a whole bunch of stuff,
that's a pain in the butt and isn't worth
spending a lot of time worrying about.
So, I've been treating this place like a normal apartment
even though I don't have a lease
and I'm just paying month to month.
I guess that means they can do whatever they want
including evict me on super short notice.
And there's really not much I can do about it
other than sort of beg and plead,
which it doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere.
So, that doesn't leave me any time
to find a new apartment to move into.
Finding and renting an apartment in China
is a major project, particularly in a place like Shenzhen
that's growing so rapidly and is such a big city.
I was actually pretty lucky to find this place
and avoid that whole project for as long as I have.
I'm staying in a hotel right now,
because I don't really have a full guarantee
as to when they're gonna start construction
and construction in China,
even just remodeling invariably means jackhammers
at all hours of the day,
from very early in the morning until very late at night.
And that's kind of the last thing I need
when I'm all jet lagged coming back from the US.
This is the sound of progress in China,
that sounds a lot like jackhammers.
And that is the sound of hammer grills upstairs.
My big focus right now is just on saving
as much equipment and tools and parts
from this apartment as I can, before we get kicked out.
I'm trying to get everything packed up today and tomorrow
and then hopefully on Monday moving into self storage.
I've never done self storage here in China
and I don't really fully understand how it works,
so that's gonna be an adventure.
And then once I have everything safe in storage
I'll start looking for a new place.
Now, there is a silver lining to this,
I did want to find a new studio workshop space
here in Shenzhen this year,
I was just hoping to do it on a bit of a different timeline.
The plan was to hire a head of operations producer
as I mentioned in the last video.
This is the perfect project
for someone like that to take on,
finding a new studio space and lining all that up.
But, this is happening now.
So I'm just gonna have to jump into it with both feet
and sort of embrace the chaos
and trust that it's taking me in the right direction.
I'm actually really excited about the prospect
of having a new space.
I'm really looking forward to having more space
where I can make noise, and make messes,
and have big machinery,
and generally have others work with me.
This is a very, very tight space.
I don't know, this is sort of the little shooting area,
but it's very, very small.
Just that desk there, and that desk there,
this is the rest of the apartment.
That is the bed that I sleep on
and that is the bathroom over there.
And honestly it looks just barely enough
for one person to exist in
and as I grow the team here, we're gonna need more space.
I'm hoping I can find somewhere
that is kind of light industrial,
maybe alongside some other workshops or something.
That's not like a boring like apartment
or just office space.
And then lastly, I'm really excited
just to have a place to shoot and work
that is not like six feet from my bed,
which just turns out is not the ideal thing
for mental health.
So, what does all this mean
in the short term for "Strange Parts"?
First off, this is gonna be one
of the last videos in this space, obviously.
I do have one or two videos that I mentioned
I had shot some of before.
So I also won't have an electronics bench/
like workshop space for at least a little while.
Which means the projects
that I really wanted to tackle when I came back,
like the Polaroid camera that I got in Tokyo,
the gotcha pawn synth chips that I also got there.
Like I wanted to do some reverse engineering,
like modification projects.
I'm not gonna say too much about that,
but all of those are kind of on hold for the time being
until I can find a new space
to spread out all my equipment in
and start shooting again.
So, that means I'm gonna be focusing on making videos
for you guys in the short term
that are not here in the studio in a workshop.
So factory tours, I've been talking with several factories,
I have a couple more to reach out to, that are really cool,
very excited about that.
There are some markets
that I would like to go check out with you guys
that I haven't even checked out yet,
but I've heard through the great finder are quite cool.
And then also potentially some more travel.
It's gonna kind of depend.
I have a number of places that I've been wanting to visit
where I have cool story ideas, cool technology,
manufacturing, supply chain things to check out markets,
but I need to figure out how much time
do I need to spend here, finding the new space,
kind of getting everything set up again
versus being on the road.
So we're gonna have to balance that,
not quite sure how that's gonna work yet.
It's pretty bittersweet leaving this apartment in general
while it's definitely been a headache at times
and I'm excited about what's coming next.
It's where I got my start with "Strange Parts"
and so it's kind of a special place
and I'm looking out the window right now
and even though it's super dirty, and it's an overcast day,
and there's trash hanging from the trees,
there's blossoms on the tree just outside the window.
And I've really enjoyed looking out over this view,
there's this big picture window behind the camera
as I've been talking to you guys over the past two years.
It's obviously time to move on now
but I'm gonna really miss it.
This place actually has a bit of a history.
It's been a little bit of the like hardware-hacker,
open-source-hacker-hostel sort of deal dormitory maybe.
There's a better word in Shenzen.
So a bunch of geeky people have stayed here over the years
and have lived here over the years.
Ranging from the MIT folks to open-source hackers,
to people in the HAX accelerator program.
It's been kind of a cool atmosphere.
You kind of you never know
who you're gonna run into in the hallway.
And there are a least two rooms including this one
that have 3D printed add ons to the showers
'cause the shower heads
are not always where they need to be,
are pointed in the right direction.
So I may or may not have made a 3D printed adaptor
for my shower head and it may or may not have been inspired
by someone else who did the same
before me in a different room.
This has always been the kind
of like cheap/shitty place to stay,
but also you could kind of get away with doing a lot
that you might not get to do somewhere else.
Ultimately, this whole situation,
this is what being in China is like.
One of the reasons that I've always loved coming to Shenzen
and spending time here is this relentless fast pace
at which everything is constantly moving and changing.
Nothing ever stands still here
and it makes this an incredibly exciting
and novel place to spend time.
I feel like every day when I walk down the street
I see something new that I just never knew existed.
It also makes for this place of incredible opportunity
which I suppose is why so many people come here,
both Chinese and foreigners to seek their fortune
and to follow their dreams.
But at the same time, that's a double-edged sword.
When things are constantly changing and evolving
you can't ever stand still.
If you stand still often
the carpet gets ripped out from underneath you.
So I've been asking myself,
is this a kick in the teeth or is it a kick in the pants?
And I suppose it's all about how I choose to look at it.
I am trying very hard right now to treat this
as a kick in the pants to go find
that next awesome "Strange Parts" studio and workshop.
And I'm sure in the process,
I'm gonna learn a hell of a lot about Chinese real estate
whether I want to or not.
If that sounds like your kind of adventure
and you'd like to wait in and help me take "Strange Parts"
into the next chapter, please get in touch.
I am looking for someone to work with me full-time
in like a head of operations producer role.
There's more information here.
But for now I need to get packing.
I only have a couple of days
before all of these needs to be in boxes
and they are kicking me out.
Please wish me luck.
I'm Scotty from "Strange Parts."
Stay tuned for more adventures.
I'll see you guys again soon, hopefully.
(cool instrumental music)