
A Chinese copy of GitHub.com - yong
https://code.csdn.net/dwzteam/dwz_jui/issues?closed=0
======
yiransheng
CSDN is a tech forum/news site, kinda like Techcrunch. It has been around for
quite a few years. This github like thingi seems like a joint effort between
CSDN and Tencent, whose open source projects (currently six of them) can be
found at [https://code.csdn.net/Tencent](https://code.csdn.net/Tencent).

Traditionally, China doesn't have a strong open source culture and Github was
being blocked every now and then. Hopefully a Github clone backed by big
players can change that.

~~~
turingbook
Editor in Chief at CSDN here. CSDN is the biggest online community for
developers and IT pros in China with more than 30 million registered members.
Its news and discussion service part is more like HN or Reddit/programming
other than Tech Crunch. And it also has services for blogging, code hosting,
programming training and careers, all developers centered.

The code hosting service under discussion is based on Gitlab, developed and
operated by CSDN staff. Tencent became a sponsor this year.

And because there are not enough open source projects and contributors in
China, we are instead building user community around open source projects at
first. It will be a little different with Github way.

~~~
gbraad
The 'real' Github clone in China is called gitcafe, available at:
[https://gitcafe.com](https://gitcafe.com)

I have been involved with the community for many years... and therefore I do
not completely agree with your statement: "there are not enough open source
projects and contributors in China". We have them, and they generally
contribute directly to the projects involved (as it should be as you do not
want to create islands/insular projects). Local (and localized) initiatives
are great and I hope this is what you meant.

~~~
turingbook
I mean that the number of people who contribute to, the quality and activity
of local projects is not very good, compared to the projects on Github. And
the contribution from China to international projects is also not very big.

The open sources community in China is still small and lack solid industry
support. We should build a bigger community and let more people have the
ability and will to contribute.

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austinz
I wonder what sort of technologies are popular in China. Heard rumors that
there was a thriving golang community there, but that's literally the extent
of my knowledge.

~~~
yeukhon
I don't really think there is anything special. I don't actually grow up in
China as a programmer but when I was a kid PHP was a big thing due to the
popularity of BBS like phpBB and Chinese's Discuz!. You can find Python, Java,
C++, and .NET just like in America. Though I find (based on limited
experience) Ruby is not a very popular language in China.

 _edit_ : here is a list from 2012:
[http://www.ithome.com/html/it/25225.htm](http://www.ithome.com/html/it/25225.htm)

chart 1, 2, 3: Shenzhen, Shahai, Bejing

chart 4, 5, 6: worldwide, US, India

Since many Chinese projects are system-level and scientific. Plus there is a
huge gaming industry in China.

~~~
laowai_time
Wow, those charts are really surprising. Maybe it's just because I'm a web
developer and sort of walled off inside the foreigner tech scene, but in my
experience most companies here (in Shanghai) seem to exist in either Java or
PHP land (based on what my boss has said about hiring and job postings I've
seen).

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hunvreus
GitCafe is more like a straight up clone of GitHub:
[https://gitcafe.com/?locale=zh-CN](https://gitcafe.com/?locale=zh-CN)

~~~
dubfan
They've even got their own StackOverflow clone, SegmentFault:
[http://segmentfault.com/](http://segmentfault.com/)

~~~
_zen
Wow, that is a really nice site. I'm looking at it in my iPad Mini Retina and
it's way better looking than Stackoverflow.

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est
Can we stop label everything from China as "copy"? It's a hosted Gitlab
service, that's all.

~~~
polskibus
Or maybe we should start calling Github a SourceForge copy ;)

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xuesj
Any copy to China of Opensource is welcome.

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finalight
the chinese really good at copying

look at xiaomi phone; android phone with iOS feel

~~~
NaNaN
One thing, different styles. One world, different lives. _Humans are always
cloning humans._

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lambdasquirrel
I used to think that the Chinese copied things that other people did because
they wanted to make a living off of it. But lately I've been wondering if
there's (1) a culture-wide case of not-built-here-ism, (2) a fear of doing
things differently, and last but not least (3) the fact interactions in
Chinese culture seem remarkably and subtlely different from interactions in
Western culture.

(1) explains why they would clone something as mundane (and not wildly
profitable) as github (as linked elsewhere in these comments). (2) explains
why I have heard Singaporean friends from school say, lets make a Singaporean
Yelp! Westerners say, lets make a yelp for <different purpose>. (3) explains
why they would want their own forums and "public spaces."

These reasons seem as plausible (and a lot less malicious) than merely, the
Chinese copy everything for fun and profit (even though there are elements of
that elsewhere), and I think it's worth thinking about these differences in
culture, because it helps us look into our own faults.

~~~
hocuspocus
Not sure why you were downvoted, I think you're making fair points; I live in
Korea and see very similar mindsets here.

Another reason specific to China is that it's downright impossible for a
foreign company to operate an internet service there, the required licenses
are incredibly complex to acquire. For instance, in order for Microsoft to
launch Azure in China, they had to partner up with the biggest Chinese hosting
company (21Vianet).

~~~
lambdasquirrel
Trying to talk about these things in Western circles is kind of curious. I
could make these points with my Native-born Asian friends from college just
fine. Actually, I can see some of them saying these things outright. There's a
weird line drawn where you can say "A Chinese copy of Github," with all the
implications it entails, but you can't go further than that. In my mind, the
title is inflammatory; I was borderline being apologist, and suggesting there
are ways in which the West is no better, which means that no one is happy.

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ChristianMarks
It has everything--except for an ex employee to "open source" a sexual
harassment and hostile workplace scandal on social media [1].

1\. [http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/04/22/the-
githu...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/04/22/the-github-
scandals-bizarre-transparency/)

