Recent writing requirements drew my attention to the issue of organizational forms of online communities in China. I am not going to discuss in details since a lot of ideas are in the making.

China opened its doors thirty years ago. In my field work in China, my informants told me that from the 1980-90, China was materially opened. Materially, China received foreign goods manufactured in capitalistic economies. Chinese merchants can earn a windfall profit just by buying goods in Shanghai and resell them in inland cities. From 1990-2000, China was informationally opened. Internet arrived in the later part of the 90s. From 2000 to now, China was ideologically opened. Chinese youths born in the 80s have come of age and are joining the workforce. They have experienced capitalism all of their life. They are introducing new mindsets and ideologies into the Chinese society.

The Chinese online environment contains a lot of new communities. Many are not a few years old. Chinese people collaborate with like-minded people and build these communities. As I have mentioned, having that short history of open door policies imply that the Chinese have many things to learn in a short period of time. The western knowledge of online community building includes open sharing and discussion, independent production, and building portfolios that helps make a career. Have the Chinese learned all these in thirty short years? If not, how are they building online communities?

With that as a backdrop and an end to my note, there is a large part of my thinking that I am leaving out. But that is the nature of blogging--an informal way to report on developing interests. I will leave the details that are still being crafted.