SHENZHEN — Towering buildings with rooftop gardens, full-size football fields, even a futuristic Tron-esque door that lights up and opens with the touch of a hand. These are all the things you can expect to find in public high schools in Shenzhen, China.

In a video of the Shenzhen Senior High School East Campus, for instance, students can be seen playing basketball across at least seven separate courts, all lined up alongside an eight-lane running track.

Posted last Tuesday (Jan 9) by TikTok user "shenzhen90s", the video has garnered 1.9 million views to date.

Along with videos featuring the students themselves, this TikTok user often publishes videos showing off the infrastructure and facilities of different high schools in Shenzhen.

Other top videos on the profile include a similar one of the architectural design and infrastructure at Shenzhen Julong High School, with 1.2 million views, and a video taken at Shenzhen Yanchuan High School, which shows the aforementioned hand-activated door, with 2.8 million views.

In a scene straight out of a cyberpunk science fiction film, a student is seen placing her hand on an unassuming white door, which then flickers to life and triggers a light trail animation before sliding open.

This particular installation appears to be well-known even on the Chinese sister platform Douyin, where "Yanchuan sensor door" is a popular hashtag.

Foreign online users have expressed awe and envy at the Shenzhen high school videos, calling them "dream schools" and remarking that they look more like universities or even luxury hotels.

One TikTok user commented on a video of Shenzhen Futian High School: "If I (were) a new student here, I (would) be lost every day." 

Referring to Shenzhen High School Guangming Science City School, another wrote in Bahasa: "This school looks like a really luxurious luxury hotel."

Under the videos, many viewers made references to Japanese light novel and anime series Classroom of the Elite, which is set in a prestigious Tokyo high school.

Some wondered how much high school tuition in Shenzhen costs, while others joked about travel time.

A top comment read: "Imagine having your next class on the other side of school and you (have) only five minutes to get there."

The hashtag "shenzhenhighschool" has 70.8 million views on TikTok, with many related keywords also trending on the platform.

Likewise, the recent popularity of these school architecture videos seems to have led to a renewed interest in the famous "Shenzhen school uniform" — yes, singular — with the hashtag "shenzhenschooluniform" racking up 64.7 million views on TikTok.

WHY IS THE SHENZHEN SCHOOL UNIFORM SO POPULAR?

For those not in the know, all public school students in Shenzhen wear the same uniform, regardless of which school they attend.

Since the city first adopted its standardised uniform policy in 2002, the uniform has grown to become a symbol of Shenzhen youth and community.

A Shenzhen native Xiao Caixuan said in a 2017 post on Quora, a question-and-answer website for people to get general information: "Among students in China, Shenzhen is famous for its school uniform.

"Some schools have a badge sewed on the cloth, to make their students more distinguishable, but the rest is all the same."

In a 2015 report by English-language Chinese daily Global Times, fans of the uniform have even created social media accounts on microblogging platform Weibo and Instagram that call on Shenzhen students to post photos of themselves wearing their uniforms.

Ms Xiao added that both the summer and winter versions of the uniform are widely available on e-retail site Taobao due to their popularity among people from other Chinese cities and provinces.

And now, consumers may even find them on Shopee and Lazada in Singapore.

A photo carousel by TikTok user "waiwainotsleep" advertising the international sale of the Shenzhen school uniform has attracted 270,400 views, 27,100 likes and 4,300 saves since it was posted on Dec 14.

"Waiwai", who claims to be a current Shenzhen high school student, stated in the photos that the school uniform can now be shipped overseas and is available online in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.

In response to a Filipino TikTok user, the student added that it can be found on Shopee and Lazada.

A check by TODAY on Thursday found the uniform sets available on the Singapore sites of both e-commerce platforms as well, with prices starting from S$15 for a pair of elementary school summer uniform shorts.

Comments ranged from amusement to discomfort, with the top comment coming from a Malaysian student: "Real but where would I wear this?"

A TikTok user joked: "I'm dying, people are romanticising (the) Shenzhen uniform."

Another wrote: "(This is) starting to get weird. Who outside of China would want these?"

Yet, the post also saw genuine interest, with TikTok users from different countries such as Canada, India and Pakistan asking where they could buy the uniform.

Others were simply confused by the sudden virality of Shenzhen high schools, asking: "Help... Why (is) this Shenzhen school thing popping (up) everywhere?"

THE UNIFORM IN POPULAR CULTURE

This is not the first time that the Shenzhen school uniform has been acknowledged outside of China. It has a rich history, especially for natives of Shenzhen as a migrant city.

This is perhaps best explained by the Victoria and Albert Museum in England, which featured the winter version of the Shenzhen high school uniform in a 2015 exhibit in London.

At the time, curator Kristian Volsing told Global Times: "The uniform has created an identity for the citizens of a city that didn't exist 40 years ago."

A record of the uniform on the Victoria and Albert Museum website states: "Many continue to wear it after graduation and this allows them to recognise other former Shenzhen students when living in cities elsewhere in China and abroad.

"The very simple design has become an object of communal experience and belonging for a generation educated in a city often criticised, even by its own inhabitants, for having no identity."

The website also states that the Shenzhen school uniform has "entered popular consciousness" in recent years, with features in manga and themed events such as the Shenzhen School Uniform Day.

Indeed, some TikTok users on student Waiwai's post suggested that buyers of the uniform might also be getting it for cosplay purposes since various editions of the uniform are often featured in popular Chinese dramas such as iQiyi's 2016 hit series With You.

K-pop boy band Seventeen's Jun (born Wen Junhui), who is known to take pride in his Shenzhen roots, has appeared in broadcast and social media footage wearing the same winter uniform exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum.