Reconstruction and Reconfiguration of Rural Constitutive Communities—Based on an Investigation of L Village in Chongqing City

Traditional rural communities have been profoundly damaged by rising mobility and openness in rural society, changing farmers into "atomized" entities, and communal identity has become illusive. We performed an in-depth analysis in Village L, Chongqing, using the constitutive community communication theory and the research methodology of cyber-ethnography, to evaluate the function of WeChat groups in altering local identity and sustaining rural order. According to the study, L village residents who are gone from their hometowns can establish a "virtual presence" by joining WeChat. The social relationships and structures of the rural community are reorganized in the "public space" created by WeChat groups, thereby realizing the reconstruction of the rural community.