Difference between revisions of "Guanxi (China)"

Yet economic prosperity and the increasing globalization of the Chinese economy have indeed brought changes to ''guanxi'' culture. The post-Mao increase in instrumentalized ''guanxi'' that blurs boundaries between ''guanxi'' and bribery has already been mentioned. The second change has been in the nature of the gifts given in return for expected favors. Whereas in the 1980s, it was enough to give cigarettes, alcohol, and banquets to officials, now there is gift inflation and the “sexualization of ''guanxi''.” Male entrepreneurs trying to cultivate guanxi with officials will sometimes invite them to enjoy the women working in massage parlors, karaoke nightclubs, and brothels. Thus, a variety of women’s sexual services have become the new “gifts” of ''guanxixue''. Tiantian Zheng<ref>Zheng, Tiantian. Red Lights: The Lives of Sex Workers in Postsocialist China.  Minneapolis:  University of Minnesota Press, 2009. </ref> and John Osburg<ref>Osburg, John. Anxious Wealth: Money and Morality Among China’s New Rich.  Stanford:  Stanford University Press, 2013.</ref> have written about the cementing of masculine bonds between entrepreneurs and officials as they get together to talk business and enjoy women at these establishments. The third change can be found in the increasing transnational dimension of ''guanxi''. Not only Chinese capital and businesses expand across the globe, but also Chinese educational and cultural networks extend overseas, thus enabling Chinese both inside and outside China to gain new opportunities abroad through transnational ''guanxi'' networks, which now may even include non-Chinese. Finally, with new social media technologies, personal guanxi networks have found a new medium to activate its members and expand their geographical and social reach. The technical properties of We-Chat (''weixin''), which uses mobile phones to send simultaneous messages to one’s personal contacts, is uniquely favorable to the personal network form of ''guanxi''. Scholars have just started to study the confluence of ''guanxi'' and We-Chat networks, and how these have been increasingly significant for the local mobilization of public protests and street demonstrations in China.

Yet economic prosperity and the increasing globalization of the Chinese economy have indeed brought changes to ''guanxi'' culture. The post-Mao increase in instrumentalized ''guanxi'' that blurs boundaries between ''guanxi'' and bribery has already been mentioned. The second change has been in the nature of the gifts given in return for expected favors. Whereas in the 1980s, it was enough to give cigarettes, alcohol, and banquets to officials, now there is gift inflation and the “sexualization of ''guanxi''.” Male entrepreneurs trying to cultivate guanxi with officials will sometimes invite them to enjoy the women working in massage parlors, karaoke nightclubs, and brothels. Thus, a variety of women’s sexual services have become the new “gifts” of ''guanxixue''. Tiantian Zheng<ref>Zheng, Tiantian. Red Lights: The Lives of Sex Workers in Postsocialist China.  Minneapolis:  University of Minnesota Press, 2009. </ref> and John Osburg<ref>Osburg, John. Anxious Wealth: Money and Morality Among China’s New Rich.  Stanford:  Stanford University Press, 2013.</ref> have written about the cementing of masculine bonds between entrepreneurs and officials as they get together to talk business and enjoy women at these establishments. The third change can be found in the increasing transnational dimension of ''guanxi''. Not only Chinese capital and businesses expand across the globe, but also Chinese educational and cultural networks extend overseas, thus enabling Chinese both inside and outside China to gain new opportunities abroad through transnational ''guanxi'' networks, which now may even include non-Chinese. Finally, with new social media technologies, personal guanxi networks have found a new medium to activate its members and expand their geographical and social reach. The technical properties of We-Chat (''weixin''), which uses mobile phones to send simultaneous messages to one’s personal contacts, is uniquely favorable to the personal network form of ''guanxi''. Scholars have just started to study the confluence of ''guanxi'' and We-Chat networks, and how these have been increasingly significant for the local mobilization of public protests and street demonstrations in China.

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