China, where “making” in the DIY sense collides with China’s image as the world’s largest manufacturer?

Here we explore what goes into making a hackerspace community in China today. In doing so, we debunk two common myths: first, that maker culture is inherently apolitical, and second, that innovation is limited to so-called post-industrial or developed regions functioning on the principle that wealth production comes from “ideas, knowledge, skills, talent and creativity” [ 5]. Our explorations are based on a two-year collaboration between the co-authors that unfolded through a series of engagements, including ethnographic research, the organization and attendance of workshops and conferences in the field of DIY and maker practice [ 6], and exchanges through emails and social networking sites. This ongoing collaboration includes members of XinCheJian as well as people in our network in and beyond China [ 7].

One of the points we make is that establishing a hackerspace in China is necessarily entangled in both the nation’s wider economic and political transformations and the global maker culture. The story of setting up a hackerspace in China is not about the linear transfer of knowledge and tools from the West to the East. On the contrary, the story of China’s hackerspace community critiques such a view and highlights how technologies and values are sites of negotiation, remaking, and constant appropriation as they are translated into particular local settings. By looking at hackerspace developments in a place like China, where commercial hardware manufacturing provides employment for many, we provide an alternative perspective on dominant stories of innovation and peer production.

Making Community

The establishment of XinCheJian in Shanghai marked the beginning of a nascent community in China committed to both the technological and ideological processes of free and open source software. It consists of six hackerspaces across the cities of Nanjing, Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Haerbing. Their members share ideas across several mailing lists, collaborate on projects, and attend or organize international technology and arts events. For example, in April of this year, they organized the first Mini Maker Faire in Shenzhen and a maker carnival in Beijing that drew participants from China and abroad.

Members of the growing scene
are not only into making and
remaking technologies, organizing
workshops, and showcasing their
work to others, but also are actively
engaged with political debates. For
example, the announcement by the
Shanghai government to support
the establishment of hackerspaces
as innovation houses has been the
subject of heated debate. At the
maker carnival in Beijing, Ricky
Ng-Adam, one of the co-founders of
XinCheJian, initiated a discussion
about the official announcement,
proposing that it “only focuses on
the tools and physical space without
consideration for the community—
the aspect which ought to be the
most prevalent.”
Financial sustainability is a con-
stant issue for hackerspaces and the
subject of continuous reflection. The
Chinese hackerspaces are not the
first to wrestle with how and when
to seek or accept support from insti-
tutions. Mitch Altman, one of the
co-founders of a hackerspace in San
Francisco and a long-term member
of the U.S.-based maker community,
sharply criticized O’Reilly Media
for its acceptance of DARPA fund-
ing for an educational mentoring
program aimed at bringing “the
practices of making into education
and [to] extend the maker move-
ment into schools” [ 8]. Altman’s
concern was a principled one, based
on tying the maker movement, a
grassroots organization, to the goals
of the defense industry and the U.S.
military [ 9]. Altman recently toured
through China, where he promoted
hackerspaces as community spaces
that bring together people who are
committed to doing “what they love
doing,” even if it might entail giving
up a secure job and taking some
risks: “Hackerspaces are supportive
communities for people to explore
what they love… You might find
that if you love what you are doing,
you can make a living off of it. The
Internet is all fine, it’s a great tool.
But it’s not real community. When
people come together in physical
places and share what they love,
magical things happen. That hap-
pens all day long and all year round
in a hackerspace.” For Altman,
hackerspaces have the potential to
independently sustain themselves,
because first, they have access to a
global community of like-minded
people who support one another,
and second, they know how to make
technologies that can be sold direct-
ly to the consumer, rather than
depending on institutional funding.

November + December 2012