Open Systems and Opening Societies: Guo Liang on China's Internet

GL: Many of my colleagues in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences used my ‘PhilNet’. But it was not based on the Internet. In January 1996, China started to provide Internet access to the public. At the same time, a friend of mine became an editor for a full page IT edition on Southern Weekend (one of the most popular newspapers in China). To help him, I started to write columns, and the first one was entitled ‘Follow me to the Internet’- all kinds of basics about the ABC’s of the Internet, like, what is the Internet, how to buy a modem, how to log on to the Internet, what is ftp, what is gopher, and how to check email.

RK: So you were popularizing the Internet in China.

GL: Yes, I didn’t think I would talk about the social and political impact. I just try to help people to use it and hoped for them to realize how great the Internet is.

RK: So that was the most attractive to you that you mentioned earlier, the ability to get the information and also the idea of expression, both of those issues. So how did you make the transition from these early days of the Internet to taking on the task you now do- the large scale survey of internet usage?

GL: I wrote four columns about the Internet, computers, and some related social issues in two-three years. And, in late 1996 a publisher wanted to publish a book series about the Internet and its impact. At that time in China, and even around the world, there were not many books talking about the social impact of the Internet. I started as an editor-in-chief of that seven books in a series sponsored by the largest network company at the time – Yinghaiwei (meaning ‘information highway’). The company does not exist now but the boss’s idea was good. She didn’t spend money asking me to write for the company. She just wanted me to edit the books to encourage more people to go online, whatever network they choose. Most of the authors didn’t really know the Internet at that time. And, I even went to their homes to help them set up access to the Internet. I thought, if you were going to write about the Internet, you should know the Internet. One book was about the Internet’s impact on media, one was about e-business, and one was about its impact on military and international relationships, one was about women and the Internet, one was about culture, and so on.

Because the book series was about Internet impact, I thought there should be a book about the Internet itself. So I decided to write a book about Internet history. That was the turning point for me. Before that, though I was an ‘Internet expert’ in China, in that I knew how to help people to access it, I didn’t really understand what the Internet is. After learning the history of the Internet, I had the idea that if I have to use one word to describe the Internet, I would say ‘openness’ — it is an open system.

Up till now, I still have the same opinion and all my research is mainly focused on this issue of ‘openness’. By using an open network, it could make people more open - that is the impact. My later survey reports are more about the descriptive research but my idea is more about the social impact of open technology.

The opportunity came in 1999 when I was invited by the US ambassador to visit the United States, sponsored by the US government. During that one-month stay, I met with many scholars, researchers and companies, and had lots of meetings, including one with Jeff Cole from UCLA. At that time, he hadn’t started the Internet survey but had an idea of some kind of research on the Internet and its social impact. The idea became the project now known as “World Internet Project” and there are 25 countries or regions in the world conducting the survey on not only how people use the Internet, but also on its social impact. At that time, I didn’t really know how to do surveys, but I decided I should do this. I cooperated with Professor Bu Wei from the Institute of Journalism and Communication in CASS, who had experience in doing surveys in China.

RK: How many surveys have you done so far?

GL: Only three. We started from 2001 when we signed a contact with a Chinese company and they supported the research financially.  Then because the Internet bubble burst, the company didn’t have money anymore to sponsor the research.  But I was lucky. In 2002, I got funding from the Markle Foundation. I was moved when I first talked to Zoë Baird, Chair of the Foundation. She said, ‘We support your research only because we think it is valuable. It will be your research: you design it and you conduct it. The only requirement from us is that when you publish your report, you should say that it is funded by the Markle Foundation.’ Without their support, I could not do all these surveys after 2002. The funding was sufficient in the first year, so I not only did the research in big cities, but also in small towns in China. The third one was in 2005, and thanks to the Markel Foundation, we will do the fourth one in early 2007.

RK: Your research has become probably the most cited research concerning Internet use in China, more prominent even than the research that comes from CNNIC, the Chinese Internet Network Center (http://www.cnnic.cn/). You are probably the most famous Chinese Internet researcher, and have been quoted in the Economist, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and have been interviewed on CNN and many other media in the West. You also had a role in popularizing and explaining the Internet through your writings in the Southern Weekend newspaper. This is a little bit of a different role that we normally associate with academics.  How do you balance these demands, and how do you conceive of the role of the academic, whose research has relevance in social and political issues?

GL: I changed my research area and entered into this area mainly because I believed this (the Internet) is great for common people. I didn’t really think how much it would contribute to academics; I just wanted to help more Chinese people to use the Internet. I am now too busy to write any columns, although more media have asked me to, since I talk about IT in a simple language that most people can easily understand. More and more people can now do this kind of work. My work is more academic now. And, because the Internet has such a strong impact on society, my research is related to policy making and research. I used to be a very ‘academic philosopher’, but even at that time I already believed the academics should contribute to a society - it is a Chinese tradition. Chinese history and Confucianism will tell you that it is a commitment for the well-educated people to contribute to the society.

RK: But it also means that you get lots of government scrutiny.  Does that create a problem for your research?

GL: Up till now, it is OK. I think my survey reports are mainly descriptive, not much comments on government policy. And my purpose is to help China, and also help the government, not just be an enemy of the government. I think that attitude is important…I sometimes also criticize some government policies though, even in China. Sometimes I may not say it directly but just imply it, which is a typical Chinese way of expression.

RK: So within the role of a helper the government is less likely to be antagonistic, less likely to control you as long as you ….

GL: Now my research is going on well. I think it helped. I may not directly use my report to support the government, but I know there are several government policy researchers using my data to do their research. And so do some western media who want to understand the Internet in China. Data is data. Different people can use it for different purposes (laugh).

RK: Give us a snapshot. For those who don’t understand the Internet in China, what is happening? Who is using the Internet and how is it being used? We can download your report (http://www.wipchina.org/en/), but can you provide a glimpse of what is happening?

GL: Firstly, I would say Internet use is growing very fast in China. Currently, there are about 123 million users in China, ranking the second largest Internet country in the world after the US. Secondly, there is the issue of the digital divide, which many Western scholars are interested in. In theory, rich people and better educated people are more likely to need a computer and they can afford it. So they may access more information and may have more opportunities to get even richer. But I think the digital divide is not mainly because of digital but economy. According to my research in small towns, a lot of people don’t have to buy a computer. They just go to the Internet café for RMB 1 (US$0.12) per hour. In large cities, it’s something like RMB3 per hour. Here in Brisbane, I just saw it is 3 Australian dollars per hour in an Internet café. I once went to an Internet café near Broadway in New York and it was US$1 per 20 minutes. In an Internet café close to the University of London, it cost me 1 pound per 20 minutes in 2003. So it is quite cheap to have access to the computer in China. And that is one of the reasons for the fast growth of Internet users. But the question is that, when considering the large population in China, the users are only less than 10% of the entire population, and mainly in cities, not in rural areas.

Another problem is that in the cafés, most users are young people who mainly use the computer to play games and chat. This is quite different from the situation in the West, I think. So people suppose that the Internet is an information highway, but in China, it is more like an entertainment highway. I have a lot of data to support this conclusion. So Internet development in China is still at its early stage. The typical users are well-educated young males. The interesting thing is that in China about more than 30% Internet users don’t have an email account. Less than 30% of those who have an email account check their emails every day. It does not necessarily mean that they don’t communicate with others. They prefer instant contact by QQ, which is a Chinese version of ICQ. People used to only have address on their business cards. Then, they have phone numbers or even fax numbers. And then, they have email address. Now, many people put their QQ account number on their business cards.