Is KangAi Commune a Cold Fundraising Machine or a Community with Warmth?

Our understanding of this question has swung back and forth over the years.

In 2014, Hunan TV sent a film crew to Shanghai to interview and film the Anti-Cancer Commune. After they arrived, they asked to film some Commune activities.

But at the time I was at a total loss, because there were no activities at all to film.

At the time, my thinking was: the Commune is just a thing that helps people raise money, like an ATM—cold and impersonal. You set the rules; if you meet the conditions, it dispenses money, otherwise it doesn't. The fewer people involved in running it the better, because more people means higher costs, more chances of error, and more all sorts of trouble.

But the TV host even treated me to a meal and shared some of his ideas—namely, to make the Commune a truly interactive community that connects people through rich activities. At the time, though, I did not accept the idea.

The TV station had nothing to film, so the report was never made. A great pity.

The Commune's later development was in fact a compromise unfolding between these two notions. On the "community with warmth" side, it was driven by members in various places—enthusiastic members kept organizing activities and connecting fellow members, which brought the Commune to life. But I myself was always somewhat on guard, worried it might bring unpredictable new problems, so I was also very strict in refining and enforcing the rules.

Now, these two ideas are still constantly fighting within my own thinking. For example, a child who has not yet passed the waiting period falls seriously ill: by the first way of thinking, they cannot be aided; by the second, they must be. So the impression the Commune gives may also be contradictory: some feel it is cold, others feel it has warmth.

What do you think about this question?