Interview for Makery (French magazine for Makers)

> Is Naomi Wu your real name ?

It's my English name, but the one all my friends know me by. I have a Chinese name of course but I don't use it much and it's possible to get a lot of personal information in China with just that so it's not something I talk about.

> Why and how did you create this "Sexy Cyborg" character. Is it all persona or is it the real you also. More simply : when you are not a maker, are you still dressing as sexy ?!

Other way around, I actually wear more conservative clothing when taking Maker pictures and video for English speaking social media than I do normally just walking around and running errands. Westerners just seems get enraged over silly clothes. Well, Americans and the United Kingdom mostly, Europeans and South Americans just think it's funny and exciting like Chinese do usually.

I have what I call the Auntie Test- do Chinese women over about 50 or so have any problem with my clothes? The Auntie who cleans the halls in my apartment building has twice sent me back home for a sweater haha, but that is just because it was winter and catching a chill is a matter of Chinese Traditional Medicine. I was raised properly and am respectful. If the day comes and the neighborhood Aunties tell me not to dress so sexy I won't. But so long as they smile and wave at me I don't really think it's anyone's business what I wear in my own country.

>Is it a vindication of yours and why ? Do you see yourself as feminist ?

Feminism has very specific political implications in China and I avoid politics. I try to encourage other women to pursue careers in STEM or at the very least technical self-sufficiency. The specific challenges we face in China are quite a bit different than in the rest of the world so I have to use different tools. Anything labeled "feminism" has become a very difficult tool to use unless you have a very powerful support base- which I do not.

> You say you are working as a developer under a male name. Have you ever tried under your real name/a girl name ?

No. I'd imagine my experience would have been quite different. I code to earn a living though so I can't really afford to take chances with my work.

I don't spend a lot of time on this subject because I don't want people to think it's a solution for the problems many women face in tech. Working anonymously or under a pseudonym means being limited much lower paid online work since you can't really use any Open Source contributions or other work for a resume.

> Your projects are quite girly, with a hint of James Bond to them. I love your pocket shoes ! How would you describe your style. What are your inspirations ?

Some Makers like to build homemade versions of commercial products- a streaming web radio with a Raspberry Pi for example. I come at it from more of a DIY point of view- I want cool gadgets, and if the kind I want don't exist or I can't afford them I'll make them. There are not that many tech gadgets and wearables targeted at women that address our specific use cases, so there's endless room to make new and fun things- even if some are not all that useful.

Most of my inspiration comes from Chinese historical artifacts and inventions. My Maker Coin (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1862575) and vise (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1867367) both come from traditional Chinese designs. Pictures of ancient Chinese 两当铠 armor (http://i.imgur.com/rY4FEd4.jpg) inspired the design for my Infinity Skirt (http://imgur.com/a/2sVBk), my Blinkini (http://imgur.com/a/pk2Xd) from traditional fan dancing, my Pi-Palatte (http://imgur.com/a/4aAPS) with it's "smart mirror" came from reading about the ancient Chinese 透光鏡 (magic mirror http://i.imgur.com/9c9lryD.jpg).

>Do you have a message you want your project to carry ?

As for a message, I suppose the most consistent message with all my projects largely comes from an early encounter I had when wearing my underlit LED skirt. A couple of expatriate girls loved the idea but were a bit scandalized- partially by me, partially by the shortness of the skirt. When walking off I heard one whisper to the other "if she can do it- how hard can it be?" which once I thought about it was the perfect message for me. Take away any excuse to not pursue greater technical competence. Tech is not just for your stereotypical geek girl or computer science graduate- these things are really within the reach of anyone now.

- You have now started to film Shenzhen making places, like electronic market or 3d printing cafe. How is Shenzhen maker community ? How is the open source movement ?

We don't really have a Maker community. We have some well funded "Makerspaces" but the tools are rarely used and they are only really opened for foreign reporters or government dignitaries. We do great at commercial hardware development, but that's something different.

As far as "Open Source" it's just a marketing term factory bosses like to put on things. Few local Chinese know what it means let alone are interesting in following the terms of the licenses for the projects they use. I try to do what I can as an advocate, and the hardware groups humor me but there's only so much one very pushy person can do when everyone is doing something else.

>- You seem to have some griefs with Raspberry Pi and Make. Do you think that to be a woman in the maker community is still challenging ?

I think when trying to participate in a community being an outsider is always an issue. There are obviously plenty of female Makers featured in Make and on the Raspberry Pi Foundations website so that alone is not the issue.

That there was a deliberate decision to exclude me is something pretty much everyone agrees on. Whether it's justified is really the only point of contention. Make had been in contact with me for months but felt it was preferable to have no female Chinese Makers at the Shenzhen Maker Faire in October rather than have me: https://twitter.com/RealSexyCyborg/status/823334807635537920

...and Raspberry Pi's issues are clear enough:
https://twitter.com/RealSexyCyborg/status/823335105284345856

Two years ago when I came across Making and all the books and magazines said they wanted people like me I assumed that it was true. Now I know more about "social capital" and "virtue signaling", that people can achieve status within a community simply by saying they have certain values- without the inconvenience and wasted resources of acting on them. It's much the same in China, bureaucrats hang banners espousing high-minded ideals to inspire people- but no one actually does that stuff. Shenzhen is "Maker City" except it has no Maker community only engineers working in factories- it's just a slogan for the tourists and foreign media.

As far as Make and Raspberry Pi sure I'm disappointed, but that's my fault too for being naive and expecting foreigners to somehow be "better" than Chinese. I'm hardly going to be shocked to encounter the same barriers in the West I've known all my life in the East. I learned this before I could crawl. It's not about what you do- it's about who you are, what your parents could do for you and where you come from. That is like telling any Chinese person that water is wet. Active participation in the Maker community and media is for privileged people, preferably White, with a Western education. Every demographic study, every Maker Faire attendance study shows it. It would have been nice if all the talk of inclusion was real, but it's just for show. It's not even a Western thing, life is exactly the same here.

So sure, I poke at Make and Raspberry Pi a little, but really the decision is with the community and the ingroup not really wanting outgroup participation is as old as time.