Guan-xi @ Kuan Tai

I'd like to talk about Guan-xi in this post. This topic was an important topic in ABE last semester. I benefit and understood much of the relationship between peoples. To enhance a good friendship, A and B must work together.

Guanxi is a Chinese term, generally translated as "networks" or "connections," that is increasing discussed in Western business circles and among academics studying such aspects of community as affective networks and social capital.

Guanxi is a mechanism for dealing with social uncertainty in a complex social environment.

For Western businesspeople, the idea of guanxi is a useful reminder that trust, understanding, and personal knowledge can be vital components of economic relationships. The development of guanxi is not something that takes place instantly.

Most guanxi relationships are based on individuals' having something in common, a phenomenon called tong in Chinese. The commonalities may be the fact of having attended or graduated from the same school, having the same place of employment, working in the same industry, or coming from the same village or region. Guanxi relationships often have a strong emotional element, something easily overlooked by outsiders.

The essence of guanxi is that each relationship carries with it a set of expectations and obligations for each participant. A guanxi relationship may lead a person to feel obligated to help someone get a job or a promotion, or, conversely, may lead a person to have the expectation that a connection will help with a job search or a promotion.

Similar obligations or expectations can be held with regard to gaining entrance to a school or university, meeting with an influential official, getting access to a desired material good, or receiving (or offering) help to family and friends. Those who meet these obligations gain face and status and expand their guanxi network.

Refusing to help is a sign of inhumanity and can bring disgrace.

Thus, in addition to the instrumental and emotional components noted above, guanxi also involves the notion of honor and respect, two core values in Chinese society.

Guanxi is of interest not only to Western businesspeople, but also to Western sociologists and network analysts. Pressing research issues among Western scholars and analysts include the content of guanxi ties, what types of ties and networks tend to go together, and the relationship between guanxi networks and other sorts of ties.

Those studying online network building are particularly interested in *whether electronic media and global connections can allow the development of the kind of intricate human bonds the Chinese call guanxi.*

Some people call the Internet and the other communication technologies of the twentieth century guanxi enablers. They point out that e-mail address books and speed dial lists make it quicker, easier, and more affordable to make contacts and keep those contacts fresh. There are in fact a variety of customs and practices in the West that reflect concepts similar to those used to explain guanxi, concepts and rules that define the relationship between individuals and groups.

It provides a useful way to corral a wide variety of human connections under one term and to see that networks of relationships have a kind of life of their own.

http://guanxi.pbwiki.com/