Written by: Alexis
'Time Difference Reporters' is an original column for Uncommons, covering Ethereum and other crypto conferences, as well as frontline reports from global pop-up co-living cities, gathering voices of Mandarin-speaking participants in the offline crypto context.
Differentiating from industry media reports, this column will focus more on the frontline subjective and authentic perspectives of the participants, immersed in the matter, anchored in the community, and traversing through diversity.
Co-living means maintaining thought even while wearing slippers.
The first time I met the relaxed Erik was in Longomai. He sat at the piano in the community hall playing 'The Outside World is Wonderful,' casually singing with Guan Hua, returning to his familiar environment.
The first time I truly met Erik was on the streets of Paris. After we struggled to find a place to stay, Erik had already been waiting for us at the door for a while. He was wearing a torn blue t-shirt, carrying two large bags and a guitar. Upon seeing me, he took the guitar out from behind and played a simple song.
The first time I truly met the relaxed Erik was in Longomai. He sat at the piano in the community hall playing 'The Outside World is Wonderful,' casually singing with Guan Hua, returning to his familiar environment.
But every time, Erik gives a contradictory impression: he is well-educated yet lacks elitism; he has clear political ideas yet appears calm; he is against capitalism yet particularly likes Chinese supermarkets.
I summarize this sense of contradiction as a commonality among many similar communities:
They wander on the fringes of modern society, wanting to create alternatives but find it hard to escape reality.
Part 1 Longomai
Stepping off the train in Marseille, it feels like stepping into a different France. Located in the northern Mediterranean, along with a large number of North African immigrants, Marseille is humorously referred to as the capital of North Africa. Erik led us through piles of garbage, saying we should visit a local 'alternative space' before leaving Marseille for Longomai.
The walls of Marseille are covered in graffiti Source / Author
With gazes from both sides, we dragged our luggage down the cobblestone road, passing through Marseille's famous Cours Julien district, where the walls and ground were filled with a multitude of graffiti. It is said that this is France's largest street art area, gathering local designers, artists, thrift shops, booksellers, and comic book stores.
Videodrome is an independent screening room with multiple levels, right across from an outdoor bar area. Here, whether on weekends or weekdays, it is crowded, bustling like a market. The day we arrived, the screening room was scheduled to show a film exploring intimate relationships, with simple DIY dinners and beer supplied by the space.
Except for Erik, the others seemed a bit awkward; we sat at an outdoor long table crowded with people, with plates of mushy vegetarian food. Erik said that compared to the flexible Paris of capitalism, the atmosphere in Marseille made him feel closer.
A night in Marseille was a hurried glance; we did not really get to know this city, but rather got to know Erik's favorite urban life: the alternative, non-mainstream discourse. And I felt a bit uneasy, not knowing if others were prepared for 'entering Longomai.'
After shopping for enough vegetables and condiments in a Chinese supermarket, Eli picked us up in his small truck. Driving north from Marseille, the roads in southern France rarely have flat highways. After two hours of winding driving, we finally saw 'Grange neav' located halfway up the mountain.
The Grange neav we are going to (in the following text, Longomai without suffix refers to this Grange neav community) is the earliest and largest community in the Longomai network, located in the Provence region, its French literal meaning is 'new farmhouse.' This village was originally indeed a farmhouse, renowned for producing limestone. Like many old villages in France and even China, this village has gradually hollowed out in the urbanization process, with many stone houses dating back to the 13th century being transformed, repaired, and expanded by community residents into the current community living spaces.
Community stone houses hidden under the woods
Basically, they have a history of five hundred years Source / Author
Originating from the Longomai community network established in 1968, the early participants were mainly students from the French countercultural movement. This movement once swept through the entire Western world, attracting countless youth to join leftist actions and anti-mainstream cultural practices.
In the early 1970s, seven students from different backgrounds and some socially conscious students gathered in Austria, hoping to jointly fund a different anti-capitalist social experiment. Some sold their houses, fundraising together and raising the initial funds to purchase land in southern France's Provence, which is now Longomai. The seven student leaders thus became the seven founders of the Longomai community network.
In the feminist library of the nearby town
Books containing the history of Longomai
The author now also lives in a small town Source / Author
In the local dialect, Longomai means an existence that continuously persists. They created their community name using this imagery of the dialect, hoping the community will exist for a long time.
This seems to be a prophecy, although Longomai and the student movements of the 60s and 70s have gradually faded from people's sight with the resurgence of neoliberalism and the passage of history, this community network has managed to be preserved and developed to this day.
We live in a small house with a hippie touch, which also has its own name: Fatza.
According to Longomai's consensus, a person must live here for at least three months to be eligible to apply for community membership. In its more than 50 years of history, hippies and DIY-spirited backpackers have spread the word, leading many people to travel through communities and communes from North America to South America and then to Europe, and many have come here, with some living here for decades.
During our stay, to facilitate both ourselves and those who come later, a group of travelers with a DIY spirit built a house for living and short stays, giving birth to this hippie-style rammed-earth building called 'Fatza.'
The room is dark but not eerie, with leather sofas and blankets casually placed in the small living room. The walls of the living room are covered with French graffiti and messages left behind, 'Let us live and create' (Laisse nous vivre et creer), 'Hippies, let's compost together' (Les hippies, au compost). The simple wooden wall shelves are filled with books in various languages, just like the countless different cups here and the shoe racks piled at the entrance, reminding you that 'there are countless traces left by people here.' A nondescript wooden ladder leads up to a hidden second floor, which can even accommodate four people; opening the small door on the second floor reveals a hillside at the back of the house, where the Milky Way can be seen with the naked eye when going to the bathroom at night.
Thick notebooks are filled with words left by people passing through Fatza.
I think this is a place that allows you to connect with past individuals.
Graffiti on the walls of Fatza covers the entire house Source / Author
In Longomai, we encountered Holand, who has the Chinese characters for 'Dao' and 'Tai Chi' tattooed on his hand. Nearly 70 years old, Holand is one of the original seven founders. Every day, he sits under a tree beside the community hall to sunbathe, read, and chat. Interestingly, although these seven founders are still involved in Longomai, they basically do not live in the same community. Holand now resides in another Longomai community in Costa Rica and plans to share experiences in different communities across Europe on this trip.
Currently, the Longomai network has a total of 11 communities, in addition to the 3 in France and 1 in Costa Rica, there are 7 scattered in various other places in Europe, such as Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Each community has different focuses and characteristics, but they share the value orientation of 'anti-capitalism.'
In Longomai, Costa Rica, they provide accommodation and agricultural cooperatives where refugees from Nicaragua and other parts of Latin America can work for food, thus becoming not just a 'community' but also an agricultural cooperative with a population of 700.
In fact, it is not only communities in Costa Rica; in various places in Longomai, after members reach a certain amount of daily labor, everyone can enjoy food within the community for free. Those living in the community, regardless of whether they are residents or volunteers, work for 4 or 5 hours daily, a couple of hours each morning and afternoon. During the rest of the time, they do not have to work and can enjoy various food and public facilities within the community, including wine and bread for free. Therefore, apart from a certain amount of working hours, most of the time you can see people sitting under trees chatting and reading, occasionally participating in collective activities and external sharing exchanges.
Public goods are close to infinite, which is what they refer to as the work and organization method of a 'cooperative'.
At the main entrance of the community hall, there is a plain wooden board where everyone updates the community's current situation, tasks to be completed, and cooking arrangements daily. Most daily work is done spontaneously, while important or complex tasks are discussed and arranged through meetings.
Chatting and playing cards with members in the community hall Source / Author
This hall is also the place where all community residents dine and gather together daily. Lunch and dinner are automatically claimed by someone to cook for all residents; if no one cooks, the community cafeteria will not open, and residents will need to cook for themselves or find food.
In the process of community autonomy, there is a certain anarchistic color, and it is very free.
Most 'governance' takes place in community meetings, where members discuss pre-scheduled topics after dinner every Monday. Whenever important issues arise (like housing allocation or new construction projects), the corresponding proposed group will urgently discuss with members until a consensus is reached.
Although most of the production is agricultural, members of Longomai actually have different types of work. Over a few days, we participated in nearly ten different tasks in a workshop format: making jam, honey, bread, managing the radio, meetings, and documents...
Longomai has achieved an 80% self-sufficiency rate in production; most of the food, clothing, and daily necessities can be produced by themselves, with only a small portion of consumer goods (like shower gel) that cannot be produced but must be purchased from outside. The money for purchases may come from individuals or from community funds.
This community foundation established in Switzerland since the 1970s is still operational, supporting the 20% that cannot be self-sufficient. Under specialized fundraising operations and management, relying on the attention and participation accumulated in the movement, the foundation receives a significant amount of donations every year.
All cash income generated from community labor will be pooled into various community sub-funds of this community foundation, and if there are reasonable expenditure needs, it will be used after application by various communities.
Cedric is an anarchist who never self-identifies as such; he is also an active participant in various social actions across France and even Europe, and his attention to actions around the world has kept him involved with Zinzine.
The community radio Zinzine, which has a history of several decades, is still reporting on citizen actions and human rights actions from around the world. They meet weekly in project groups to discuss content and regularly compile and publish information to send to various parts of the world. In various places of the Longomai community, if you look carefully, you can see radio transmission towers standing on a hill, from where signals are sent to various parts of southern France and also transmitted worldwide through the internet.
One day after dinner, we sang and played the piano together, and when we got excited, a friend started to sing the International, from a solo in Chinese to a duet in Chinese and French with Cedric, and then to a chorus in both languages, as if to confirm the 'international status' of the 'revolutionary old area.'
Sometimes he shares with me the complaints among the French left, and sometimes he cares about the current practices of young people. He knows that sharing information in the form of a radio is no longer mainstream, but he insists on 'the way of his generation.'
He is interested in the so-called 'crypto-punk' and internet actions around the world and invites, 'If you want, I can take you to see anarchism in various parts of France.'
'Community' operating methods, how to govern, and how to calculate workloads may be secondary for them. What matters more is political participation and action, as well as the political stances they hold. After forming a consensus and long-term cohabitation, the specifics seem unnecessary to calculate for them.
In their practice in France, they do not actively document the methods they use for these activities, nor do they focus on community theories and experiences, but rather express their voices and realize their political aspirations.
'Community' is only seen as a medium for political action and not regarded as an important dimension. This is my observation of those engaged in this work in France. Whether it is Longomai or other matters, people tend to treat political metaphysical things as important dimensions, while community governance may be placed in a secondary position.
But in any case, in this green and blue land in southern France, 'life' is the priority.
At a glance, it is the sprawling green and blue Source / Author
Part 2 Traditional Dream Factory
Using a computer in Longomai makes me feel out of place, but in TDF, it seems a bit different.
The decision to go to TDF originated from my friend Nico, who shared this new community located in southern Portugal on her website www.agartha.one/. Just right, TDF is located between Lisbon and Tamera, giving us the opportunity for a brief visit here. Practically speaking, since we visited during Portugal's dry season, TDF's simple buildings, against the backdrop of desolate grasslands, resembled not so much an ecological community as a dilapidated factory.
But in fact, this is exactly what TDF wants to change.
Sam, the founder of TDF, worked in the United States and later served several high-tech companies, during which he roamed the world while working remotely. But he was not merely completing work while wandering; in South Africa, the United States, and Europe, he was also looking for a place to realize his ideas—a place that could realize the ideals of OASA.
OASA is an online community where he and like-minded friends realize their regenerative ideals. In their words, it is 'A Web3-powered nature conservancy network serving regenerative human living spaces and the planet.'
Familiar Mycofi on the TDF bookshelf
It feels like everyone is in 'the same movement' Source / Author
In the OASA white paper, you can see the visions of network states, mycorrhizal networks, and regenerative futures integrated into a complete narrative. Starting from a regenerative vision and blockchain technology, OASA describes another possible future: an anti-dystopian, solar punk optimistic technological imagination.
What is envisioned here is not a future of high technology and low life typical of cyberpunk, but a future where humans and nature coexist harmoniously under the driving force of technology. In Cedric's words, this seems to be 'a new generation of practice.' But before these complex stacked concepts are materialized and fused into a specific experimental site, no one knows what it should look like.
OASA white paper, about Web3, also about regeneration
Available for download on the official website Source / OASA official website
Sam and friends from OASA have been seeking a place to carry out their experiments and ultimately chose Portugal. Since the 21st century, Portugal's position in Europe has been quite subtle, increasingly resembling China's Yunnan or Dali. Like Yunnan, Portugal is located in the southwestern part of Europe, far from traditional economic and political centers, with a beautiful natural environment and low living costs. These shared factors seem to give regions like Yunnan - Portugal - California - Central America and Southeast Asia similar development prospects: a possibility of alternative development.
TDF Hall, tired in the coworking area
So you can lie down and work Source / Author
The area where TDF is located used to be a chicken farm next to a small town, which has a population of just over 1,000, with the main industries being farming and agriculture. The land in southern Portugal has become depleted due to generations of agricultural cultivation, and many areas face desertification. This small town has also become desolate due to industrial decline and environmental destruction. TDF was established with the hope of changing this land, aiming to make it vibrant again through regenerative, not just sustainable, ways of living.
When we were on a community tour with guide August, he pointed to another farm in the distance: 'The farm across often sends out the cries of animals, and you can hear them from here too. We see that world so close to us, it seems to remind us that we cannot live in a bubble, and also reminds us of what most of this world is like.'
With the support of local councilors, Sam took out a loan to purchase this land and began practicing here three years ago. Three years is not long enough to change the ecological environment of this land, but it has been sufficient to form a small habitat. From just a few people at the beginning to now more than ten, many long-term and short-term residents have come here to participate in life and practice. Starting from a chicken farm, various ecological buildings and food forests have gradually begun to grow here (although their swimming pool project remains just a pit of stones to this day).
What I see is the integration and balance of TDF residents: they issue currencies, but do not let the so-called quantitative governance dilemmas come offline; they use technology, but respect people's rhythms of life and natural health; they draw from the experiences of communes, but do not fall into the paradox of detachment from modern society.
Although it originated from a traditional factory, I believe it can become fertile ground for many dreams to grow.
On the TDF website, you can see their visions for the future
Although the swimming pool is still just a big pit Source / TDF official website
Part 3 Tamera
Tamera exists in different impressions among different people: open relationships, love and peace, social experiments, ecological protection, solar technology... In the fragments, it is difficult for anyone to form a complete impression of what Tamera is before coming here.
Signboard at the entrance of Tamera
The first time I came across Tamera was in a community in Dali, where a friend casually shared their recent documentary screening plan titled 'The Village of Lovers,' which tells the story of the Tamera community.
After missing the screening in Dali, I helped organize screenings and promotions in Guangzhou and other cities. Through a corner of the documentary, everyone’s impression was that it was an overly beautiful promotional film. Later, in the national organization (A New Us) screenings, among ten different community cases, Tamera seemed to show me another side: the ecological and natural side.
It seems that it is not just about fulfilling the mission of a living community; it seems to want to experiment more within this community: to become a sample of another possibility for society.
Origins
In Germany, there is a well-known ecological community experiment called ZEGG that is still in operation today. In the 1990s, it was initially known as the 'Center for Social and Cultural Studies' or 'Social and Cultural Experimentation Base.' After the countercultural wave of '68 swept across Europe, a group of practitioners who had begun various social experiments in the 1970s finally arrived here, filled with ideals, to start their explorations.
But clearly, this group does not share completely consistent ideas. Under the leadership of members Dieter Duhm and Sabine Lichtenfels, a group of Germans came to Portugal with the idea of 'creating a place to establish a global healing biocommunity project,' founding what is now known as the Tamera social experiment.
Dieter Duhm's famous book discusses new cultural forms
Source / Tamera official website
Dieter Duhm is a sociologist whose thoughts on capitalism and modern civilization have influenced countless Germans, while Sabine Lichtenfels has a unique gift for spiritual exploration and communication with all things. Under their leadership, Tamera has formed a unique character. It is said that a social activist who comes here will begin to explore spirituality, while a spiritual explorer will start to engage in social and political activities.
It is worth mentioning that what looks beautiful now in Tamera was once a desert over 30 years ago. Due to long-term over-cultivation, southern Portugal generally faces serious land degradation and desertification issues. This group of practitioners has transformed this place into an oasis over thirty years.
Tamera believes that there are 'two worlds' on Earth: one is the world that creates our world (the natural world), and the other is the world we create (modern society). Modern society, modern urban civilization, and the capitalist system have gradually detached from natural systems, forming an independently operating system and beginning to make massive transformations to nature.
Above the International Peace Research Center
Like a floating city in the air Source / Author
In their view, the fundamental characteristic of contemporary capitalist society is fear, which permeates all aspects of life and affects people's ways of thinking. It is predicated on scarcity, using competition as a means, leading people into states of repression and unhappiness. Human initiative is restricted, more embedded in the established industrial system.
In the face of this situation, Tamera tries to create a 'healing habitat,' opening up an alternative space within the capitalist system. In this space, they explore a self-operating non-capitalist system, pursuing a way of life where humans and nature coexist harmoniously, with the core being the construction of a new civilization based on love and trust.
Why love?
Within the entire capitalist system, family is the existence that is hardest to observe.
As a realm and place of private life, it is difficult for individuals to focus their gaze on others' families. Therefore, all private spaces and hidden areas provide a very good operational field for capitalist systems and patriarchal societies. As long as one controls these two families, it is basically difficult to shake this system. Therefore, the family is actually what we initially referred to as the nuclear family, which is the core of the entire system.
What they want to do is very simple: to dissolve or change family structures. Because people's needs, possessiveness, and the one-to-one relationships of the current nuclear family are not naturally occurring, but are closely related to cultural constructs.
If we can liberate one-to-one relationships, people can love within the community, support each other in groups, and no longer be limited to one-to-one relationships.
He believes that such people can step out of narrow personalities, out of the fear of loss and the fear of people leaving. If we can change family relationships, it is very likely that people can be liberated from fear systems and construct a social system centered on love and peace.
Why spirituality?
In Tamera, there is a place that every visitor hopes to visit but also maintains a sense of awe: the stone circle.
The stone circle consists of 96 different stones. Visits are made according to special locations, with different symbols on each stone. It is said that this formation allows people to better perceive higher energies or feel the flow of energy here.
To be honest, I am not a very spiritual person. When I came here in the morning to participate in the 'Circle of Power' morning meditation, apart from getting drenched in rain, it seemed that no high-dimensional energy affected me.
I am willing to respect but also very curious; in the many enduring communities I have seen, it seems they all lean towards some belief in certain values, consensus, or even objects, part of which is abstracted into a kind of faith. Is this really the fate of every community?
Concepts
Tamera is not a production-oriented community; unlike other communes that have developed subsequently, it leans more towards self-sufficiency, obtaining basic expenditures through external donations, course content to exert influence, etc. He mentioned that there are no transactions within the community, nor is there any currency collected. Although they follow a nearly communist approach, they allow community members to work externally and rely on external visitors for course income and donations.
They hope to support many other similar action groups or organizations around the world to carry out similar peace and love studies and schools, and they will exert their influence externally through platforms such as the United Nations.
Thus, although they focus on daily life and use it as a form of alternative practice and expression, this expression also partially alienates their lives. During our communication, many members expressed dissatisfaction with the concept of open relationships, and many new residents felt unhappy with the community's governance and ideas dominated by the older generation.
The world is connected to the world, and we together constitute one Earth.
Source / agartha.one
And this kind of contradiction seems to occur in many other ecological villages as well. During our visit, an old resident from the oldest Findhorn ecological village in Europe also came here and shared his story. It seems that these communities, once composed of hippies, alternative lifestyle explorers, spiritual seekers, and political dissidents, are all facing similar dilemmas. How to continue to survive in a developed capitalist society? How can we continue to invite more young people to join this movement? How to truly influence mainstream society rather than being marginalized by it?
They are still searching for answers, and perhaps so are we.