"\"Not to Show Off but to Express Love for Life\": Management and Presentation of Older Square Dancing Groups via WeChat and Video Communities in China"

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) support community engagement of older people to improve their quality of life. Prior research has explored how Information and Communication Technologies(ICTs) enable older people to social connectedness, activity engagement, self-expression, and identity development in older self-organized communities. However, there have been comparatively few studies on how mainstream ICTs help older people manage and develop self-organized communities in China, where the ICTs context differs greatly from the Western world. This study examined how older square dancing groups maintain and develop groups through WeChat groups and video communities. We interviewed fourteen elderly dancers from eight dance groups. We show how the WeChat group and the video community positively contributed to the internal management for maintaining cohesion and external presentation for seeking social identity. We present insights from members’ historical and cultural lens, describe ICTs practice from experiences throughout the country’s previous collectivization phase and provide design implications for further research in this direction.

Technologies(ICTs) enable older people to social connectedness, activity engagement, self-expression, and identity development in older self-organized communities.However, there have been comparatively few studies on how mainstream ICTs help older people manage and develop self-organized communities in China, where the ICTs context differs greatly from the Western world.This study examined how older square dancing groups maintain and develop groups through WeChat groups and video communities.We interviewed fourteen elderly dancers from eight dance groups.We show how the WeChat group and the video community positively contributed to the internal management for maintaining cohesion and external presentation for seeking social identity.We

INTRODUCTION
"Active Ageing" states that continued active participation in social, economic, cultural, and public affairs enables older people to improve their quality of life [70].Meaningful community engagement is crucial for older people's health and well-being [19,32,46,50,94], but also facilitates the success and sustainability of communities [65,66].Older self-organized communities with a bottom-up structure are voluntarily constructed than mandatory by the government and empowered by self-management, self-education, self-service, and self-regulation [64].Today, many older people work in worthwhile roles in self-organized communities [9,10,43,44,54,68].However, the management and development of older self-organized communities have suffered many challenges, including maintaining cohesiveness, getting social identities, accessing financial support to maintain normal operations, and attracting more people to join [59].
Prior research has explored how Information and Communication Technologies(ICTs) enable older people to social connectedness, activity engagement, self-expression, and identity development in older self-organized communities [8,22,33,73,74].However, there have been comparatively few studies on how ICTs enable older people to manage and develop self-organized communities in China, where the ICTs context differs greatly from the Western world.It is important because different socio-cultural and historical political contexts have significantly impacted the ICTs practices of older communities [20,35,79].Although prior research has investigated technological artefacts making practice of older Chinese hackers community [80], little attention has been paid to the mainstream ICTs practice of older self-organized communities in China.WeChat and video communities(e.g., TikTok, Kuaishou, Caishi) are popular emergence of instant-messenger tools and social media among older people in China [17,87,90].Although research explored how these platforms maintain older people's communication, learning, presenting, sharing knowledge, and payment [52,96], little attention has been paid to how to support construction of older self-organized communities.
Given this research gap, we sought to understand how ICTs enable older people to maintain self-organized communities and move forward with community goals in China.We used a case study of the use of WeChat groups and video communities to manage and develop older square dancing groups.A semi-structured interview was conducted with 14 older dancers from 8 dance groups in Beijing, China.We characterized 'older people' according to Chinese retirement age [26](60 for men, 55 for female civil servants, and 50 for female workers).Most square dancers are retired in their 50s earlier than expected.
Based on the interviews, we found that square dancing groups manage internally to maintain cohesion and present externally to seek social identity.As a closed micro-community for dance groups, WeChat groups enable regular members to exchange messages frequently to some extent more "private" and easily managed than other SNSs(e.g., Facebook).In order to achieve the cohesion of group goals, groups set strict rules, develop leadership and run an affinity atmosphere through WeChat groups.Online interactions of video communities helped square dance groups construct social identity.Groups highlight the collective image and the aesthetic attitude of loving life, breaking stereotypes of 'Chinese Dama,' a collective of middle-aged and older women.Our participants create, share videos, and interact with other community members, which are all influenced by the mechanisms of video platforms.We discuss the implications of how ICTs enable older people to maintain community and move forward with community goals.
We contribute to the HCI literature in two ways: First, we have explored how WeChat groups and video communities maintain group cohesion and seek social identities of older self-organized communities in China, where the ICTs landscape differs significantly from the Western world studied in prior work.This study also calls attention to members' experiences throughout the previous collectivization phase in China.
Second, inspired by 'turn to community, ' we discuss how to define and understand older people through square dancing groups in history and cultural contexts.We also provide design implications for reconstructing social identity and reflecting maintaining cohesion for further research in this direction.

RELATED WORK
This section will briefly review the history and notions of selforganized communities in the literature and research on older community engagement with ICTs and self-expression and social identity.

Self-organized Communities
A "community" is a group of connected people who form personal connections through social networking [24], which is used more broadly to refer to people who have common objectives and social ties, and have made it possible to feel a sense of community [8,49].Community engagement can decrease functional decline [5,30,69] and lessen depressive symptoms [14] to enhance the quality of life.Participating in community groups and activities helped older people make friends with their age group, reducing social isolation and loneliness [2,36,48,50].
Top-down and bottom-up structures are common in older communities.The top-down approach is structured around expert leadership given by external resources that conceive, carry out, and assess development initiatives [60].The bottom-up structure is local, driven by grassroots organizations, and empowered to help themselves [64].In contrast to top-down communities, the selfmanagement, self-education, self-service, and self-regulation activities of bottom-up groups are more voluntary than mandatory.Many older people volunteer in self-organized communities with bottomup structures greater than other age group numbers [9,43,68], and work for affairs as worthwhile roles [10,44,54,82].Urban community building has been a significant trend in China since the 1990s.Many older Chinese self-organizing communities with bottom-up structures, such as choir, dance, calligraphy, and painting groups, have emerged [12,89].
Researchers have concentrated on how to enhance the management of self-organizing communities fundamentally.As mentioned in previous studies, many problems and difficulties need to be solved in maintenance to form, develop, and maintain self-organizing communities.The first concern is how to improve internal cohesiveness in communities, have active participation in the community, build social identity and attract more people to join in.Second, grassroots organizations are self-funded [59], receiving little to no financial support from the government and venue resources.As the most vulnerable demographic, older people frequently require more significant resources, such as ongoing support from group builders and external financial assistance, to create meaningful communities.Third, group organizers need to develop leadership to bring members together and be the driving force of the group's development [61].
Over the past few years, there has been an interest in the construction of older self-organizing communities [10,61,93].The majority of study, meanwhile, has been in the fields of gerontology and social sciences.The use of ICTs in maintaining and developing the older self-organized community has yet to be thoroughly investigated in past research.

Older Community Cohesion with ICTs
The ways in which ICT promotes cohesion in older self-organized groups are mainly through promoting social interaction, activity engagement and a sense of belonging among members.ICTs enabled older people to participate meaningfully in their communities through phone calls, blogging platforms, online hacking forums, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook live, Zoom, and community displays.According to studies, older people who participated in community group exercise had adherence rates of roughly 70 %-75 % [25,83].Older groups maintained their physical activity levels during the COVID-19 epidemic, planned outdoor walks with friends while maintaining the recommended distance or made plans to converse on the phone while walking separately [74].The church heavily influenced their lives.As such, church-based social activities, including worship services, bible studies, and support groups, were relocated online to sites like YouTube, Facebook Live, or Zoom [74].ICTs provide a platform for creating and maintaining social connections with peers.Older bloggers make posts on the BlogSpot platform, which keeps them socially engaged in crucial ways [8].
Most online communities also demand membership, which is subject to a series of rules and activities influenced by the technological platform [22].
Recent research, however, raises the possibility that a sense of belonging may only persist across some online communities, particularly in the case of older people who perceive that particular online communities are not intended for them [7].Older people said that interactions with their closest friends and groups occur primarily in private and small groups, not over the phone or online communities.Their requirements in terms of intimacy and connectedness to large groups still needed to be met [74].Additionally, they are less likely to interact virtually with strangers [74].Older people perceive that discussing communication on social networking sites is frequent and ongoing [37], superficial [8].As a result of working separately from one another, the senior forum needs more technology platforms for internal communication within the nonprofit organization and among the various elements of the media team [73].
However, these types of applications applied in older communities have not gained popularity in China.ICTs practices are related to regional customs, political systems, and cultural norms of older people [20,35,57,79].WeChat has been widely integrated into the lives of older people in China, especially compared to mainstream media in Western countries [34].As an instant messaging tool, the WeChat group supports people quickly and regularly discussing viewpoints [28].Given that how WeChat groups support the cohesion of older self-organized communities is rarely documented in the literature, we seek to fill this gap in this research.

Self-expression and Social Identity
Prior HCI research has provided in-depth insights into content creation and sharing for self-expression within social groups [84] as a means of building and maintaining social connections [3,57,62].Through online channels like blogging platform [8], electronic hacker forums [80], Instagram [63] or YouTube [40], older people promoted their local communities and expressed themselves.They seek to break ageing stereotypes and express their life attitudes and values to society.Additionally, the older dance teachers and participants thought their YouTube performances showed them as vibrant, active, and skilled in their chosen activity, thus combating ageing stereotypes [40].Older women use digital literacy and the affordance of Instagram to connect, be inspired, promote themselves, have fun, and express themselves to achieve visibility [63].Older people's motivation to create content has been widely influenced by learning and growing confidence [73].
Collective activities are a way to shape social identity, which brings together like-minded people and clarifies individual and group identities.Individuals build social identity by expressing their values and hoping for positive social evaluation and support.Individual and group identities are established via repeated performances of self and in anticipation of the expectations, social rules and discourses available within a specific context [45].Community members, who do not necessarily know one another, seek social identity through analogue media [85,86] and technological artefacts [80].Age Speaks, a radio show hosted by older people, utilizes Twitter to promote its activities, spread the word about the show, and educate listeners about ageism and aging [73].Brewer, etc. [8] found that blogging encourages self-expression.Elderly electronic hackers believe that a sense of collective identity is continually reinforced through online and offline contacts [79].
A lot of older people, however, have privacy concerns about sharing information on SNS and view these platforms as venues to show off [8,31,41,49,88].They think it unsettling that their videos can be viewed by the "whole internet" [27].According to certain studies, older people feel that Facebook and other online social platforms may not support them and that they require reciprocity and feedback [37,49,56].Furthermore, older people's digital participation level may vary in digital rates across countries and regions.China had more than 1.03 billion internet users by the end of 2021, with 119 million citizens aged 60 or above [16].In 2018, an average of 63 million older users aged 55+ remained active on WeChat each month [87].Short video usage in China reached 873 million users by the end of 2020, with 81.8% of them being over 50 years old [17].Although there is also research on the performance of older people on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, it is unclear how these older self-organized communities use video communities to move forward goals in the Chinese context.

RESEARCH CONTEXT
Square dance groups are one of the most popular Chinese older self-organized communities.There are approximately 200 million square dancers [58], who can be seen in a wide variety of public spaces.There are usually one or two leaders at the front of the group, and people behind follow.Performers are in a very relaxed state and are relatively open to joining and exiting.However, if someone wants to have a membership, they should participate in activities regularly, and some groups require dues.The dance can take on any style (e.g.line dance, ballroom dance, modern dance, folk dance), with the support of loudly played music to keep the group in time with one another [72].
It is worth noting that most square dancers are female [42] and retire earlier than would usually be expected.There are various definitions of 'old age,' such as biological decline, third-stage of life [55,67,79].In China, people are regulated to retire at 60 for men, 55 for female civil servants, and 50 for female workers since the 1950s [26].Many square dancers born in the 1950s or 1960s have entered the retirement phase but are still in their 50s.When they were young, this generation was integrated into the state's system for allocating public life as a component of the work-unit system.When they were students, they danced on campus.When they were working, they danced in work units; both were "dancing for the collective" in a collective culture.During this time, they developed the value of collectivism, which is sacrificing individual interests to achieve the collective good.After the reform and opening up, individual identity increasingly waned as the work-unit system disintegrated, and people could no longer identify as "work-unit people" [58].Neither roles in their family nor institutional identities are sufficient to represent one's identity.It becomes a challenge to re-embed themselves into society with a new identity.Individuals are increasingly eager to have a platform that meets their emotional and social needs.The emergence of square dance evokes individuals' memories of their collective lives.They are aware of the passion and dreams they can feel [92].
Today, information technology is integrated into many aspects of older square dance groups' lives.'Tangdou' is an application focusing on middle-aged and older square dance groups.Its content covers square dance teaching, interest community, life services and other aspects through a combination of short and long videos, pictures and text.It has become the largest comprehensive mobile square dance community in China, with more than 100 million users [15].Other apps that function similarly to 'Tangdou' are, for example, 'Jiu Ai Square Dance' and '99 Square Dance'.Different from the popular video communities in China(e.g., Tik Tok, Kuaishou), 'Caishi' [90] is a video community and social platform dedicated to the use of middle-aged and older people, which features include live streaming, making photo albums and videos, creating interest groups and more.Square dancers use 'Caishi' to create dance videos and electronic albums.

METHOD 4.1 Interviews
We performed semi-structured interviews with 14 square dancers from 8 square-dance groups in Beijing, China (Table 1).Two were interviewed in the communities near their homes, and the rest were interviewed in the laboratory.Each interview lasted approximately one hour and a half, and participants received CNY 80 per hour.Our interview questions included how they constructed, managed, and developed square dance groups with ICTs, their motivations to maintain groups, their positive and negative experiences with using ICTs, and their challenges while engaging with groups.During interviews, our participants showed us their dance videos and photos, as well as the content of their WeChat group chat and personal space of the online video community.

Recruitment and Participants
We recruited by sending direct messages on video community platforms, messaging to the WeChat accounts disclosed on their public online video communities, posting recruitment posters on the lab's WeChat public accounts, and the participants recommended.We searched popular video communities of square dancers(i.e., Tangdou, Caishi) using square dance-related keywords and sent direct messages to dancers.All participants are retired and resided in cities, and they were able to support themselves with retirement pensions.Their work and educational backgrounds were diverse.All have joined WeChat groups and created dance videos before or are used to doing so and have been using smartphones for more than three years.Details about each participant's demographics and technology usage are shown in Table 1.
To build rapport with square dancers who agreed to be interviewed, we identified ourselves to them two weeks prior to the interviews, while we started to watch their videos in video communities, got to know each other face-to-face at their offline dance venues, and joined the WeChat group called 'Ruyi Color Silk Song and Dance Group' with group leaders permission.This allowed us to ask focused, informed questions about their group practices during the interviews.

Data Analysis
All interviews were done in Mandarin Chinese and later transcribed.
A grounded theory approach [13] was used by all writers to review, debate, and code the interview data.As themes began to emerge, we further had more questions about these themes in subsequent interviews and focus groups.Furthermore, we refine these themes through open coding and axial coding.All participants agreed to record and analyze visual and audio materials at each interview, as well as online content of WeChat group and video communities.
In this paper, we will use representative quotes, which were then translated into English for this paper to illustrate our points.We got consent from users to show their video screenshots and chats.

FINDINGS
The ecology of ICTs employed by older square dancing groups is described in this section.We explain how dancing groups are organized internally to maintain cohesion and externally to seek social identity through the WeChat group and video community.The interactive behaviour of older square dance groups and ICTs is rooted in the broader history and social context.

Group Composition.
A square dancing group's structural shape is a circle of interaction between the 'leader' (also the group organizer), the 'backbone members', and the 'ordinary members' [91].The 'leader' and 'backbone members' belong to the management of groups.Leaders P1, 3, 4 and 5 described that they have limited time and energy for managing groups.Therefore, they set up the role of 'backbone members' to assist them in organizing, dance teaching, and communicating with external resources.For example, P4 described that she appointed some members with good dance skills as backbone members, responsible for organizing dance training activities in her absence.For preparing the dance performance, P3 appointed two backbone members responsible for contacting costume manufacturers, ordering costumes, and registering members' expenses to reduce her workload.P1 found that P2 was good at writing and making videos, so he appointed P2 to be in charge of external presentation affairs.

Outline of ICTs.
We outlined the ICTs environment of older square dancing groups(Figure 2).As prior studies reported, many networked practices span an ecology of new communications technologies and commercial and mass media rather than a single application [29,57].Similarly, multiple apps coexist and support one another in our study, and the two primary media platforms used were WeChat groups and video communities based on our findings.WeChat groups play a critical role in managing its internal affairs to maintain cohesion, and video communities serve as a "grassroots" venue for external presentations to seek social identity.WeChat groups were set up by dancing group leaders and backbone members acting as "group administrators." Members can send music and dance videos through WeChat groups to share their dancing experiences.It also provides a way for group members to learn dance movements, which will be described deeper in 5.2.2.In addition, leaders highlighted group rules and event notices by the 'group notice' function.They used 'group solitaire' to count the group members who wanted to participate in the forthcoming dance performance.On the other hand, being external presentation platforms, video communities(like Tangdou, Caishi, and Douyin) provide a platform to help groups post dance videos for the public.Groups also could get instructional dance materials from video communities, where some members got inspiration for choreography from video communities.Figure 2 reveals that the video-creating process is fragmented and complex.P3 and 14 used various applications that searched for dance music and videos in the search engine, created in video editing software, and then shared on video communities, which we will describe more in 5.3.

Internal Management: To Maintain Cohesion
We primarily identify the cohesion of groups in three factors: management techniques, organizer leadership, and group atmosphere.These three factors serve as the "core spirit" of self-organized older dancing groups that establish, expand, and maintain.Based on these factors, we further detail how ICTs support dancing groups to develop and sustain cohesion.

Gatekeeping
Rules.The strict access mechanism filtered members.Six participants noted that the rules of upholding "unity and positive energy" were set as group goals.As described in Section 3, When they were young, they were shaped by the collectivist value that people should unite to ensure the survival of the collective [58].'Positive energy' is a popular social byword in everyday Chinese on social media [71] values of upward struggle [58].Five participants would not casually invite strangers to join WeChat groups concerning that they would undermine its "unity and positive energy" goals.These strangers may include someone who commits financial fraud against older people or spreads false and negative information.P1 said,"Anyone who joins this group must abide by the law, and prohibit the release of statements that endanger individuals." In order to "filter" new members, P2 and P4 also mentioned that they usually get along with new members for a period of time to know their morality before allowing them to attend the group chat.P1, P3, and P5 described that members could not simultaneously participate in multiple other dancing groups, which is detrimental to group cohesion.Cohesion comes from the sense of loyalty of members to the group as a whole.It is the 'betrayal' behavior for P3, "Joining our group means you recognize and believe our group.If you leave, do not come back." Additionally, there is rivalry among various groups.P5 was worried that other group might have duplicated their dance when joining the dance competition, so she would ask members who left the group to exit the WeChat group, to protect information about the preparation of the dance performance in the group chat from being leaked to other groups.
Non-compliant information could not be shared.Five participants(P1, 2, 5, 11, and 12) mentioned that sending messages containing inducement shopping is banned, which protects members from being deceived or lured.On the other hand, too much non-related dance activities information might lead members to overlook important group notifications.As mentioned in prior studies, group chat context collapse is a problem [78].Like this, P4 built two group chats: one is only for sending official notifications and discussing internal affairs.Another is used for an informal chat where members could gossip or joke.P3 told backbone members to repeat announcements in the group chat to avoid members missing important information.However, enforcing strict rules may hurt members' self-esteem.P1 and P12 criticized members for breaking group rules and were concerned it would hurt them.P12 said, "Some older people have a deteriorating memory and forget rules sometimes.When I notice they send information that is not allowed, I would say 'no' and criticize them directly.I am afraid that this may offend them." The need for members to build attendance and time awareness.Four participants(P1, 4, 5, and 11) reported that members were asked to take time off in the chat when they were not available for activities.Because groups need to schedule rehearsal of dancing performance in advance; otherwise, it would affect their general training progress and arrangement of dance formations.P10 mentioned that strengthening the time awareness of the group members was also due to the limited time available in the venue, which they could only occupy at a fixed time and could not take time away from other people's use.

Developing
Leadership.Leaders of self-organized communities as the driving force [4] and engine [11,47,59].WeChat group enabled older people to develop leadership.This includes enhancing their dance skills and work capacity, caring for vulnerable members, and offering patient instruction and equitable presentation opportunities.Members' expressions of appreciation and support promoted group leadership.
Upgrading dance skills not satisfied with the current level.Five participants(P4, 5, 8, 11, and 12) reported that the leaders' excellent dancing and teaching abilities boosted the members' participation.Four leaders actively engaged in video communities to improve themselves and acquire choreographic inspiration.P4 said, "I purchase several courses from professional dancers and carefully practice after learning live streams of Douyin, I can not dance well otherwise." As a choreographer, P5 innovated on existing dances.She discovered online videos of the "Bully Whip dance" from Douyin, an Intangible Cultural Heritage, and got in touch with the uploader online.She blended the "Bully Whip dance" with square dancing to create the new performance style, "I sent the uploader a private message, and he responded with some practice skills and recommendations, which I then shared with our group members." Responsible for teaching and caring for members.Eight participants(P1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 13, and 14) reported that leaders should be responsible for the well-being of all their members.The majority of the members are amateur dancers with poor dance skills.Leaders reported that they patiently guided members through training and offered encouragement.Members received instructional videos for pre-learning in the WeChat group, which helped leaders teach more effectively.P4, 5, and 13 all mentioned that they would post a group notice, sending music and videos of the new dance in advance before learning it.
Seven participants (P2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, and 14) mentioned that daily dance training videos in WeChat groups support self-reflection.To better self-reflection, leaders recorded and edited videos to tailor dance instruction for members.P4 edited the video with the "paintbrush" to highlight the wrong part (Figure 3) when she could not teach members face-to-face.P11 mentioned that the leader would make it in slow motion and split it into many clips, which is easy for members to understand.As viewers, P10 said, "I realize the gap between my peers and me when I watch the videos and am motivated to learn from better peers and keep up with the group." However, features of WeChat groups unsupported their goals, such as follow-up conversations with members as they practised.Members occasionally post questions about movement details in the group chat, but the leaders have difficulty answering them online.P4 said, "It is hard to correct movements in the group chat.After members had watched the video, we explained the movement details in person the next day." There are interesting tensions between wanting to present as talented yet reducing dance complexity for safety reasons.As older members have a greater risk of falling and getting injured in dancing [76], five participants reported that members had been made for dancing at a reduced level of difficulty with the goal of safety, even though they hoped for better performance.P13 said, "I cannot force older people to be exceptionally perfect...I just want them to be safe, happy, and joyful."P4 and P5 stated that although members would sign consent before dance competitions, they would still be concerned about any injuries they suffer.P3 described that some with limited mobility are not recommended to participate in competitions, which led someone to reduce community engagement, "Some members not chosen to perform would be discouraged and leave the group." The careful egalitarian efforts regardless of dance skill.Eight participants reported that leaders needed to avoid exclusion, marginalization, and discrimination against any member as P4 said each member needs to be featured in videos during the dance performance.P5 also stated, "Some do not have the tall height or body types.However, each member has the right to present themselves as beautiful and should not be treated differently." To take care of members' self-esteem, leaders would adjust the core positions of dance performances, providing members with more present opportunities.
Members' recognition promoted leadership.The WeChat group chat allowed groups to express gratitude and appreciation for leadership, enhancing their sense of community.In ancient Chinese culture, values of selflessness and sacrifice of personal interests for the group are regarded as noble and honourable.P10 used the 'Favourites' function to save the message written by P11 in the group chat: "Every morning with the birth of the sun, our sunshine dancing group, led by Teacher Zhao, starts this one-hour sunny practice, and I am really involved in it and impressed by the positive atmosphere of it.Teacher Zhao sacrificed much rest time to learn a new dance for the group and then patiently taught it to us.Thumbs up for her dedication and leadership".After the dance performance event, group chat members expressed their gratitude to leaders and backbone members (Figure 4).P1, P4, and P5 stated that they received membership recognition as though their efforts had been rewarded.The members' support encouraged them to put in more time and effort for groups.
However, some members and leaders had inconsistencies in training goals and dance aesthetics perspectives.Some members reported that they aimed at physical exercise rather than better performance quality, which leaders asked for.Leader P3 said, "Participation is voluntary, and members may not pre-learn and reflect on the dance videos, nor can I force members to do."In addition, P3 and P4, as choreographer enthusiasts, mentioned that some members did not understand their aesthetic expression and suggested changes in movements.They thought it disrupted the thinking process and did not want to take their suggestions.

Affinity
Atmosphere.WeChat group is used as a closed internal community to enhance emotional connections in online and offline contexts.Nine participants reported they did not feel alone anymore, which attracted them to stay in groups for a long time.P14 said, "Learning dance is not the most important thing for me.We all get along very well, which is why I chose this group."The pursuit of an affinity atmosphere is rooted in earlier experiences.Square dancers from the 1950s and 1960s lived through a collectivization era during which people were closely connected.The collective society slowly vanished in China after reform and opening up, leaving this generation feeling alone.Square dancing groups help to reawaken collective memory and create community among members who have similar experiences and values [92].
The family-like relationship revived in the WeChat groups.Eight participants reported that the happy group atmosphere made them forget life's troubles.Members call each other "the teacher" or "the sister" in the chat.P2 said,"We are like sisters.Maybe sounds exaggerated, but it the real friendship.We will miss if some day does not see each other."P1 and P4 mentioned that whenever a new member joined the group chat, group members would welcome them with messages such as "Welcome sisters to the group.We hope you will have a good time in this family".Additionally, six participants expressed that the process of recording group videos promotes offline interactions.P4 said, "It could be the spice up during the boring training process of dance." Members could discuss together how to record, and what the subject, style and dance formation are.

External Presentation: To Seek Social Identity
Online interactions of video communities in the public space helped square dance groups to realize social identity.According to social identity theory, the formation of identity involves a process, which not only strengthens the similarity of the same group of people but also strengthens the difference between different groups of people [1].In this section, we reported how dancing groups present themselves differently from other groups through creating and sharing videos, what values they stated, and what challenges they have encountered.

Presenting Beauty.
Our participants reported how they make efforts to present their beauty in video communities.As amateurs, our dancers do not have a professional filming environment or team, and it is challenging for them to create by themselves.To make "The White Fox" dance video, P3 used a virtual background in place of the factual background to better fit the dance theme (Figure 5).In the recording, the greater the color contrast between her and the real background, the better the visual effects of the virtual background.To increase the contrast between her and a white wall(a real background), she rearranged her furniture to get a space with a white wall and applied coffee-coloured makeup on her face.P3 also described how to use go pro, and a mobile phone recording from different angles, checked movements in the video and repeated recording if she was not satisfied.Then, she imported the music downloaded from the internet and converted videos for editing in Corel VideoStudio (PC editing program).Our participants switched between multiple applications for better visual effects.P14 thought video templates in Jianying app(video-editing app) were better than Caishi's, so she usually created them in Jianying and uploaded them to Caishi.However, it is worth noting here that our participants are enjoyable and inclusive rather than complaining about the complicated process.P11 said, "It's something like helping us.It is inseparable from us and adds some colour to our humdrum life."On the one hand, P13 described that creating made up for the fact that when they were young and did not have enough resources to support their pursuit and present beauty.Her view was representative of most of our dancers' perspectives.Within specific historical eras, citizens were called upon to work hard and build the country when they were young.There was little difference in clothing between women and men in the past period of China, and beauty expression was discouraged [92].Now, they could freely present beauty to reconstruct their social identity different from the past.
On the other hand, these retired dancers are often described on social media as 'the Chinese Dama,' representing a group of late middle-aged, a little older, colourfully attired [38,97].However, there is more negative news than positive ones in social media that 'Dama' does not fit the traditional mold of the dignified, family-oriented aging matriarch and shows off their anachronistic appearance [38,53].Our participants tried to break the stereotypes and share on video communities to express positive and elegant aesthetic attitudes to a larger group of social connections.P6 said, "We share videos not to show off but to express love for life.We have not lost interest or passion for life.We are not the unrefined 'Dama' mentioned online." P13 also said, "We dance with the beautiful scenery.I wear a cheongsam.I'm 68, but I can dress like an 18-year-old.I will still be so beautiful when I am 80. " 5.3.2Highlighting 'Big Scene'.The dancers grew up in a collectivist culture, building a consensus on the image of the 'big scene, ' which is a striking visual effect created by the overall magnificent scale effect of the group and the unity of movements by highlighting the whole and downplaying the individual [95].Five participants(P1, 3, 4, 5, and 14) thought that online videos of dancing groups highlight the collective group to the public rather than individual activities.
Collective activities stimulate, maintain, or reshape certain psychological states in the group, which reinforces collective memory and group identity [21].They used to congregate in the squares to dance with synchronized movements and large-scale displays during the work-unit era.The overall magnificent scale effect of the square-dancing events recreates the scene of the past, which resonates with everyone's memory of collective activities, brings personal narratives into the public sphere, and eventually reconstructs their identities within the dancing groups.
Our participants(P1, 4, 5, and 14) would check from the audience's perspectives to create a collective image of the big scene.P4 said, "I can't upload a video to the internet if the dance movements are not consistent.I have to have that click rate, right?".P5 would only add little visual effects during creation because she thought it would interfere audience's vision.Our dancers also shared several ways of recording and training.Leaders played 'Director' and 'Conductor' roles in the recording.For instance, P1 and P4 reported that they did not feature specific members but collective groups of performance for large-scale effect.We observed P1 standing in front of the camera and giving gesture orders.In the follow-up interviews, we asked the reason.P1 said, "It was like we were conducting a chorus.Members watched the gestures of my left hand and right hand, adjusting out-of-sync dance movements".P5 guided members to shout a dancing beat simultaneously in training for the unity of movements.

Platform Mechanisms.
To seek social identity, our participants create, share videos, and interact with other community members, which are all influenced by the mechanisms of the platforms (e.g.Caishi, Tangdou).
Platforms have certification and monetary incentives for creators whose videos have a high number of views and uploads.P3 and P13 describe how the monetary rewards are not large enough to make a living, and they value the certifications to give them a sense of accomplishment.P3 said, "Identity of 'original' gives you a sense of balance and confidence.It (Tangdou) sends me a text message every month:'Hi, your certification has been approved again.'I would feel so confident".These means promote video community engagement of creators.P3 must work hard and upload the above three choreographed works per month to the video community(Tangdou) to keep this certification.
Videos should fulfil platform rules to be uploaded.It also guided and helped them to upgrade their level of creation.P13 described, "The horizontal and vertical layout of the video should not be mixed, videos with black borders are not allowed, the video is not long enough, and the content is not positive, which will not be recommended by the platform to become a popular video.Videos indeed look not good without these rules." The social interaction mechanisms of video communities help dancers enhance their visibility.P13 mentioned that once she joined Caishi groups, her videos were more likely to go viral by the group leader recommended them.Additionally, she needs to interact with followers frequently to keep popularity: "We need to gift each other 'coloured beans' or 'diamonds' (the currency of Caishi), especially when you have received a gift from someone else." Still, some indulged in video communities affected their health and daily life.They marked their account names of video communities(e.g., Caishi) with 'eye disease and less interaction'.P13 is one of them, "I create videos late into the night and need sleeping pills to fall asleep.My eyes are uncomfortable.But when followers comment on your videos, you still need to reply.The name(eye disease and less interaction) can indicate a polite rejection of followers' request for more interaction".It challenged personal time management.As a leisure activity, creating videos should not interfere with regular household chores.P14 described that for better care for grandchildren, she reduced or even stopped spending time on video communities.
Confronting whether the platform recommends videos or videos going viral or not, five participants(P1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) reported that they had convinced themselves to keep equanimity, maintain emotional stability, and reduce anticipation.Equanimity, however, did not imply that they were truly unconcerned; instead, it was a strategy for being modest in the face of positive feedback and consoling oneself in the face of negative criticism.P3 said, "Your recognition for yourselves is most important.I should not care about whether others approve or not".P4 said, "I do not want to be complacent because of others' praise.I want to keep pursuing better dance performance and prove my ability with strength".

DISCUSSION
In this section, by reflecting on findings, we discuss the implications of how ICTs enable older people to maintain community and move forward with community goals.

Turn to Community
Defining and understanding older people is key in HCI research.However, prior studies have shown that representations of older people built by designers and developers from the perspective of the outsider researcher, might not always correspond to the selfidentity of older people, failing to take full advantage of technical design [18,39].This is the challenge designers, and developers face staying 'out there' of older people.To deal with the problem [6], researchers proposed design thinking of 'Turn to Community' [75] to approach older people.That is, older people should be defined through communities of everyday practices instead of chronological age, which encourages designers to acknowledge the specificity of the place where design is carried out in terms of institutional, cultural, commercial, and historical circumstances [77].Moreover, with the emergency of ICTs, the changing media circumstances have made this issue even more challenging.
Inspired by 'turn to community, ' we use Chinese square dancing groups as a case study, contributing an empirical understanding of how older people use mainstream ICTs to maintain and develop older self-organized communities.We also refer to life course theory [23], go beyond chronological age and focus more on life experiences strongly over square dancers' lifetime.As shown in the findings, the identity of the older individual is formed within the dance groups in which he or she lives.Older people maintain group cohesion through WeChat groups to reconstruct collectivist memories of the past period.Before the reform and opening up in China, individual strengths had to be pooled, and the meaning of individual life was realized in collectivism to achieve those goals of an ambitious and holistic nature.Chinese women participated in collective and public activities.After the reform and opening up, collectivism was no longer emphasized.The once familiar atmosphere of the 'acquaintance society' has also diminished [26,58,92].When Chinese women retire, they have a greater sense of loneliness and meaninglessness.They build and maintain dance groups to find social meaning and value in life.Additionally, Square dancing, a distinctive Chinese phenomenon, is a relatively common group activity.Similarly, in Australia, there is also 'line dancing, ' a form of group dancing for retired people [40].The difference is that Australian line-dancing groups are more loosely based than squaredance groups.Australian line dancing is considered an exercise and leisure activity [40], while Chinese square dancing is more focused on the social nature of the dance event.
In similar studies in the future, facing understanding older people's challenges, researchers could consider framing research questions starting from older existing communities in which older people share common interests and experiences in specific institutional, cultural, commercial, and historical circumstances.The driving force of research and design is a given practice, common interest, and specific context rather than preconceived age, gender, and capabilities [75].

Reconstructing Social Identity in An Acceptable Way
Social identity is the content of an individual's self-image derived from the social category to which they perceive themselves to belong.If social identity is unsatisfactory, people will try to leave their current group and join a more favourable group, or they will try to make their current group more satisfactory [81].Our findings show that square dance groups try to construct satisfactory selfimages for the public by presenting beauty and the 'big scene.'However, there is more negative than positive publicity for square dancing groups on social media.They describe dancing groups as presenting an oppressive visual clash and a deafening musical output in the open outdoors [97] to confront mainstream dance artistic concepts and highlight the presence of their groups.
There is no denying this exists, but this creates a stereotype of all square dancers.Previous work has shown that older people resist aging stereotypes through self-expression in blogs and Instagram [37,63], and our case study analyzed how square dance groups tried to break stereotypes by creating videos.Their aesthetic perspectives have gradually changed and improved in recent years.To re-embed themselves into society with a new identity, our participants positively expressed their aesthetic attitude of loving life and being elegant and healthy rather than showing off by creating videos.
In future studies, more online teaching resources of video communities could be considered to help older self-organized groups construct self-image in a way that is more acceptable and appreciated by the public and gain social acceptance.Amateur square dance groups need more education providers to help close the aesthetic distance between them and the public.Dance groups conveyed their passion for life through a form of 'aesthetics' accepted by the public.For example, courses in video communities could cultivate older dancers' imaginative expression of dance, awareness, and understanding of the aesthetics of the body.

Reflections on Maintaining Cohesion of Diverse Groups
Group cohesion is often defined as a strong sense of belonging and pride in being part of a group, which is important for the group's sustainability.How to enhance cohesion is a long-standing topic in sociology, management and psychology.Self-organized communities face more challenges in maintaining cohesion than top-down organizations because they are self-managed with a bottom-up structure.
According to group dynamics theory [51] and our findings, group cohesion building relies on the satisfaction of individual needs.In contrast to previous studies, we fill a gap in empirical understandings of how group chats maintain group cohesion by satisfying individual members' needs.WeChat is the most popular instant messenger among older Chinese people [87] and is a more private online space and infrastructure than other SNSs such as Facebook.Leaders met members' learning and emotional needs through WeChat groups and offline dance learning instruction.The gratitude of the members also fulfilled the leader's sense of achievement.Secondly, as a group, it is not defined by individual characteristics but requires rules for the collective good.Still, we found challenges in the use of the group chat.For example, the group wanted to welcome more members to the group but to filter rule-breakers and people with harmful motivations; the functionality of the WeChat group did not support their dance practice goals, such as following up conversations with members on movement details during practice.
Given these considerations, we suggest that designers and developers consider diverse types of self-organized groups for group chat (e.g., interest groups, volunteering work and religious organizations) to meet members' needs and construct group cohesion.For example, our findings suggest that dancing groups need community details of dance movements.Volunteering groups need to encourage members to do something good for the environment [44].The church could maintain continuity in various relationships and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic [74].

LIMITATIONS
Demographics of our sample are limited to older dancing groups who reside in Beijing, China's capital city.The results might not apply to other geographical areas, such as rural areas, where older people's digital adoption differs.
Square dancing groups' members are gradually getting younger.A person of different age may have various values towards the use of technology, as well as distinct historical experiences and identity development needs.Additionally, although male square dancers may have different needs and perspectives on ICTs, this study is instructive for most square dance groups, with most square dancers being female.
Other older self-organizing communities(e.g., volunteering work and religious organizations) are not covered, which is a potential limitation to our work.However, as the most popular older self-organized communities in China, square dancing groups are instructive for related research to some extent.

CONCLUSION
We conducted interviews to understand the construction of older self-organized communities through the case study of older square dancing groups in China.We have explored how WeChat groups and video communities maintain group cohesion and seek social identities of older self-organized communities in China, where the ICTs landscape differs significantly from the Western world studied in prior work.This study also claims findings from members' experiences throughout the previous collectivization phase in China.Additionally, inspired by 'Turn to Community, ' we discuss how to define and understand older people through square dancing groups of daily practice in history and cultural contexts.We also provide design implications for reconstructing social identity and reflecting on maintaining cohesion for further research in this direction.

Figure 2 :
Figure 2: The Eco-system of ICTs Used by Older Square Dancing Groups.

Figure 3 :
Figure 3: P4 edited the video with the "paintbrush" to highlight the wrong part.

Figure 4 :
Figure 4: Screenshots of the conversation in the WeChat group of the older square dancing group:(a) Members expressed appreciation to each other for video performances and thanked the recorders.(b) Members expressed gratitude to leaders for their efforts and sense of belonging.