
Guanxi - 5partan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanxi
======
hyh1048576
As someone who was born and raised in China I just like to remind people that
the real meaning of "guanxi" is a function of location and time. i.e. the real
meaning of "guanxi" is different from 20 yrs ago to present, and the word has
different meaning from small cities to big cities like Beijing and Shanghai,
also it doesn't mean exactly the same thing from, say, southern China to north
east China.

In general in big cities "guanxi" plays a smaller role, while in small cities
especially the underdeveloped ones it plays a bigger role, to the extent that
even doing some fairly trivial business (or even things like getting a
passport or going to hospital) needs you to have some "guanxi". By "needs one
to have some 'guanxi'" I mean it's not impossible for one to do without
"guanxi" but it's just way smoother and faster if you know someone who can
help. That's also one of the reasons people prefer to live in big cities. It's
just more fair for young people without acquaintances in every possible field.
On the other hand, parents are more familiar with "guanxi".

The existence of "guanxi" also makes people doubt if they have failed to
lubricate some "guanxi" if they got rejected or failed for something (e.g.
U.S. visa, or a reasonable exam) even if there are other reasons more likely
to cause it.

"guanxi" sometimes even helps one to pass the test for driver's license, oh a
big facepalm to road security...

(What I said above is not to confuse you guys, the wikipedia page is still
worth reading though.)

~~~
zer0gravity
I guess people from ex-communist countries understand this phenomenon better,
where almost everything is obtained as a favor from somebody in a privileged
position, to whom you will have to return the favor.

It has a lot in common with corruption but in a communist state it is the
norm. Because communism fails at selecting performance, nothing really works
and the state institutions are the first affected, but it spreads eventually
in the whole society. Thus, the only way to get something is as a favor from
someone. You don't go to the institution but you go to someone who "works"
there.

So another way to describe these guanxi is : networks of influence with favors
as money.

~~~
smallnamespace
> I guess people from ex-communist countries understand this phenomenon better

I'm always amused when people project a Western-centric viewpoint when talking
about China. This has very little to do with Communism and everything to do
with China's own history and cultural development.

Chinese culture has always placed a strong emphasis on interpersonal
relationships because institutions besides the state have always been
relatively weak, and the _agents of the state formed a close-knit, elite class
that interacted with one another personally_.

For over two thousand years, the state bureaucracy has been the strongest
institution in China at the local levels. Even during the Nationalist period
and in pre-modern times, you'd better believe the average person would a good
relationship with their local official if they wanted to get anything done
effectively.

Controlling nepotism and corruption within the bureaucracy has been a
perennial concern during every single dynasty of China, going all the way to
the Qin dynasty in 200 B.C.

Also, you definitely need good interpersonal networks to do business
effectively in Singapore, Hong Kong, or Taiwan, despite the fact that none of
those polities have experienced direct Communist rule.

~~~
radu_floricica
I was born in communist Romania, and what he said is spot on. We called it
"relations" (not in a familial sense), and you literally used them to do
everything, including getting a passport or going to the hospital. Even basic
shopping was a function of "relations". For example as a kid I was surprised
to find out that the bakery occasionally gave people half-breads (half a bread
or a bread and a half and so on), because we always got as much as we needed,
never portions. Because relations.

~~~
smallnamespace
China isn't Romania though.

The Communists in China were actually markedly less corrupt than the
Nationalist officials they replaced, and in fact the corruption of the
Nationalist administration was one reason they lost the Civil War.

Remember that China was still basically a pre-industrial nation in 1949 --
it's hard to have impartial, clean institutions in a nation of China's size
without modern communications and mass culture.

I'm pretty sure Romania was a more modern place than China was before WW2, so
imposing a Communist system was a step backwards, but that doesn't generalize
to China's experience.

~~~
varjag
Another guy grown in Soviet bloc here. All former Marxist cultures, no matter
geography and prior history, share a substantial legacy in culture, behaviour
and psychology. I would know how to get to the bottom of things in Cuba.
Transplant a person from communist Albania into North Korea, and sans the
linguistic and culinary* difference they'll find themselves at home.

So yes, Romanian experience is very relatable to this aspect of China.

[*] i.e. which unobtainable food items are coveted most.

~~~
MichaelMoser123
i was told by a guy from ex-Czechoslovakia that he could tell a joke from his
place to a person from China - it would still seem funny to both of them
because of the shared cultural norms.

The funny thing is that all communist countries used to be very bureaucratic;
however Max Weber says that there is a blessing in bureaucracy - it is
supposed to be impersonal, so in theory it should be objective and be able to
ignore personal biases/preferences, provided that you just stick to the
procedures. Now Guanxi seems to take the better of that theory.

~~~
varjag
True. We even had a different concepts of travel. Trips to Socialist block
friends were valuable; you'd have a chance to buy some _deficit_ things yet
you knew it's not _really_ abroad. Tours to "Capitalist countries" (i.e. rest
of the world, ranging from the USA to Bangladesh) however were like oral sex
to a Catholic priest: rare chance to see sinister but attractive world, and
raise your social status among the peers for rest of your life.

> Max Weber says that there is a blessing of bureaucracy - it is supposed to
> be impersonal, so in theory it should be objective and just ignore personal
> biases/preferences provided that you stick to the procedures.

Oddly enough it was bureaucracy that was cementing life order in socialist
bloc in identical way, and Guanxi/personal corruption is a manifestation of
it. This really stems as consequence of implementation of Marxist tenets and I
maintain is deterministic and unavoidable. It seems many can't really
comprehend how big a footprint Communist effort leaves after its gone.
Historic and cultural continuity is typically destroyed or at least mauled.
All ex-communist countries have shared experience in the same way all rape
victims regardless background have it.

------
tantalor
_Don Corleone: We have known each other many years, but this is the first time
you 've come to me for counsel or for help. I can't remember the last time you
invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother
to your only child. But let's be frank here. You never wanted my friendship.
And you feared to be in my debt._

~~~
hkmurakami
Genuine question: is that quote an example of this?

 _> Guanxi largely originates from the Chinese social philosophy of
Confucianism, which stresses the importance of associating oneself with others
in a hierarchical manner, in order to maintain social and economic order.
Particularly, there is an emphasis on implicit mutual obligations,
reciprocity, and trust, which are the foundations of guanxi and guanxi
networks._

The "hierarchical" part seems to be crucially lacking in your example.

A good example imo of Guanxi networks in the West are College Alumni Networks,
as well as the more recent but analogous Startup Accelerator Network. The
"older/younger class" relationship makes these Hierarchical.

~~~
pcr0
How is the hierarchial part lacking? Clearly the Godfather is in a higher
position, as a result of simply having more associations and mutual favors
than anyone else.

~~~
hkmurakami
Hmm, the "non-official" nature of the power relationship lead me to think
otherwise, but I now see your position. (I do still think that Guanxi
manifests itself in more "officially connected" ways -- but maybe I just don't
know the Mafia hierarchy well enough!)

Thanks for clarifying.

------
lunaru
For anyone confused and reading into it too much, it's really just a Chinese
word for what is a universal behavior across all human societies.

When Elon buys SolarCity and the CEO is his cousin, that's guanxi.

When your boss gives a promotion to guy who plays golf with him, that's
guanxi.

When you give your buddy a referral to a job because he helped you out with
yours, that's guanxi.

It's a necessary social lubricant that also spawns nepotism, favoritism,
cronyism, corruption, etc and can be found in every business large enough,
especially the government.

And unlike what some posters seem to think, it's not a Chinese-only thing.
It's a universal thing that has a Chinese word that nicely refers to it, and
thus more recognized in Chinese society.

~~~
dmix
It's also a useful defensive mechanism for clandestine organizations, such as
mafias (Sicilian), deep states, and intelligence networks. By only allowing
'family' into the organization you can weed out the risks of informants/law
enforcement/rats which might compromise your organization. So the person won't
be easily bought or turned. The level of trust is much higher than just a
typical self-interest business relationship. Something that goes deeper that
you can depend on in the face of adversity and risks.

------
girzel
To what others have said here I'd add that, in my observation, the prevalence
of guanxi is connected to a lack of fair, functioning, transparent social
systems. You often need connections to get things done, because the existing
systems (legal, administrative, etc) simply don't function. This could be
anything from getting your kid into school, to being seen by a (competent)
doctor, to protecting your company from frivolous, malicious legal action.

I know plenty of Chinese people who are highly annoyed or disgusted by the
necessity of cultivating guanxi, but know that they're not going to get what
they're after otherwise.

------
hueving
>In 2013, a CCP (Chinese Communist Party) official criticised the government
officials for using public funds of over 10,000 yuan for banquets. This totals
to approximately 48 billion dollars worth of banquets per year.

Is it just me, or has the yuan significantly appreciated in value...?

~~~
inimino
The meaning is throwing banquets that cost more than 10000 yuan (per banquet).

------
anhtran
This word in Vietnamese is `Quan hệ`. It's very close to China social. `Quan
hệ` is important but you do not need to make a friend or a real relationship.
For me it's just a little affected or cursory inside my mind.

------
kev6168
Extreme lack of trust between all entities (individuals and institutions) is
the fundamental reason for the extreme guanxi phenomena in China. Practicing
guanxi is for __survival__ in China, not merely for getting a better deal, as
is often the case in developed countries. This is the difference those who
have lived long enough both in China and other developed western countries can
appreciate deeply.

Chinese often try to sugarcoat guanxi. But to put it bluntly, it is for
law/rule breaking or law/rule bending favors to acquaintances. Only because
the Chinese have practiced it for millenniums as a daily surviving activities,
just as eating and sleeping, the Chinese have forgotten that it's an ugly way
of life. Guanxi in China is not a shameful matter _at all_, but a proud and
face-boosting accomplishment which is often boasted in meetings and banquets,
on social networks, and announced publicly and proudly to anybody as a show of
strength.

So, the absolute necessity of guanxi, the enormous amount of utilities, the
glories associated with it, most people not grown up in China/Taiwan would
find it impossible to play at China's extreme level.

What's the secret source to crack guanxi in China? IMHO, it is this: always
remind yourself __the lack of trust is at the core of the Chinese society__,
and deduce from there. Law and law enforcement are not trustful, so you need
to have friends in the government. Business contracts are not to be trusted at
all, so constant monitoring and vigilance are absolute necessary during the
entire business interaction with your Chinese partner, even though the
contract signing ceremony was attended by high level governmental officials
and announced on national newspapers! Doctors and nurses will probably give
sloppy or delayed treatment because they are expecting money and gifts from
you or your relatives before they treat you, if they are not in your guanxi
network, so always work on your network to include someone in hospitals. Don't
trust the law to punish the bad doctors for such cruelty, there is no such
thing. You get the picture. Now anybody still say it's similar in developed
western countries? :)

So how to go about build guanxi in China? If you have overcome the unbearable
loath on the whole matter and said to yourself, I am gonna play it all the way
to fucking make it in China. My advice is, do what the Chinese do. The No.1
approach used by Chinese to build guanxi is to __inject fixed|irremovable
elements into your relationship with someone__ if you want to guanxi that
person. Such fixed|irremovable elements include things such as born in the
same province, graduated from same school, served in the same division in the
army, have worked in the same company(maybe at different time), related to
each other by blood no matter how distant that is, basically anything that
will not change for the rest of your life, and preferably the elements
happened in the past, not recently, as history and time add a little
seriousness and trustworthiness to it. In contrast, fickle things in
relationships (in the eyes of the Chinese) are things such as your abilities
and accomplishments, your credentials, social status, the promises made,
member of the same club at this moment (this helps a bit but needed further
enhancement), etc. Fire up your imagination and creativity to find out the
fixed elements in guanxi, promote it, enhance it, and build from there.

~~~
gbog
"the lack of trust is at the core of the Chinese society" you get it
completely wrong. It is the opposite actually. People trust each others to
"give back" and that's why guanxi are very effective. That's also why
foreigners are not included in these circles: they have proven enough they
can't be trusted.

The lack of trust is at the core of the State and the legislative system (cf
Hobbes) which is distinctive of Western societies.

~~~
kev6168
I think people don't trust each others to "give back", and that's the reason
people rely on guanxi, instead of trusting normal social contract and normal
civil relationship between strangers. They want to have extra
fixed|irremovable elements embedded (such as born in the same county, having
blood relationships, etc, etc.), so they can have a bit protection in
social|business transactions, to accomplish anything in China's trust-less
environment.

In the past Chinese have lived in small villages. Even though the land is
vast, people rarely moved to other places due to lack of means and the
atrocious government policies. So ordinary people dealt with relatives and
village folks in their entire lives. Trust was based on the threat that you
would be practically dead if you behaved badly and were shunned by the
village.

Now coming into the 20th century, people started moving into cities to
interact with strangers. It's a new and somewhat shocking experience, because
most of them only knew the way of life which you just obey the orders from
parents/senior family members, follow the old rituals. Unlike the western
countries which went through centuries of Enlightenment, the new Chinese
cities are almost void of social and civil code, void of sensible law and law
enforcement. That's what China has been through in the last century. Quite a
few, now escaped from the watchful eyes of folks back in the villages, use the
newly gained freedom to conduct unlawful activities, from fabricating their
credentials, to using dirty recycled oil to prepare food, all the way to
bribing and accepting bribes to drive people away from their home in order to
build a shopping mall. So imho ordinary Chinese do not trust each other that
much. They seek insurance(strong guanxi is a form of it) in all daily
interactions, and hope others would behave.

~~~
gbog
"For thousands of years Chinese have lived in small villages." that's not
specific to China.

"instead of trusting normal social contract and normal civil relationship
between strangers". What's "normal" to you? Western way of life?

"unlawful activities": because there's no such thing in the West? It is
actually the opposite: Chinese people are less prone to do criminal
activities, so much that I'd let my 10 yo daughter walk at night almost
anywhere in China, while even a male adult wouldn't walk unaccompanied in many
places in the West. I do not say that it is because of some special essence of
Chinese people, to me it is simply because of a better education.

------
zem
i grew up in dubai, which had the very similar concept of "wasta".
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasta)

~~~
hyh1048576
I found this paragraph in the Wikipedia page pretty amazing:

> Roughly equivalent words in other languages include sociolismo in Cuba; blat
> in Russia; guanxi in Chinese and Vetternwirtschaft in German, protektzia in
> Israeli slang, un pituto in Chilean Spanish, In Brazilian-Portuguese it is
> referred to as "pistolão", "QI" (Quem Indica, or Who Indicates), or in the
> slang "peixada", "Pidi Padu" in Malayalam, "arka" or "destek" in Turkish.

------
gbraad
Guanxi is a concept that most foreigners will never completely grok. It is not
only about relationship. Most foreigners call it even the G-word when spoken
about. It is different how we see relationships being maintained. There is a
lot more play and rituals involved.

It differs how much it influences daily interactions, citywide or regionally.
In Beijing it is noticeable in a lesser degree, but often is perceived by
outsiders/foreigners as 'bribing' when a small present is involved.

Edit: I do not mean anything bad. I have lived in Beijing, China for many
years (married to a Chinese). Just some foreigners have more difficulty to
understand this (as the reasoning why they call it the G-word). I hate to call
this a 'cultural difference', as I believe it is mostly related to
misunderstanding. This is all due to a different upbring, in a different
environment (and receiving a different sense of what is common). This can
often lead to misunderstandings as people perceive the actions in the wrong
way. It might help to have a look at Cultural Dimensions
[[https://docs.com/gerard-braad/1061/cultural-dimensions-
asia](https://docs.com/gerard-braad/1061/cultural-dimensions-asia)]. This
explains some of the things involved. Just a translating it to 'relationship'
does not mean it has the same meaning. Many words and concepts are different
between cultures. TL;DR It is definitely not the negative words mentioned
below. Just 'smoothing' a relationship which seems beneficial should not be
seen as brown-nosing. Above; hyh1048576 explained it very well. People blame
themselves if they got rejected for something... others might judge them as
saying they haven't put enough 'effort' into it. When the relation seems
beneficial, they will try to do something to 'smoothing' the relationship. But
as mentioned, in Beijing this happens in a much lesser degree but not
invisible.

~~~
yen223
I'm genuinely asking as a Chinese guy: How is it difficult to grok? There's
nothing mystical about 'guanxi'. It is literally the Mandarin translation of
"relationship", nothing more.

There's nothing uniquely Chinese about the notion that having strong
relationships with the right people can make your life easier.

~~~
HarryHirsch
_There 's nothing uniquely Chinese about the notion that having strong
relationships with the right people can make your life easier._

In Germany we have "Vitamin B", i.e. beneficial relationships. In America, on
the other hand, they have this _strange_ concept of meritocracy.

~~~
ekianjo
> In Germany we have "Vitamin B", i.e. beneficial relationships. In America,
> on the other hand, they have this strange concept of meritocracy.

American is the land of legal lobbying. I'd say this is pretty close to that
concept too.

------
SZJX
I would say this is actually not something very specific to China or East
Asia. People actually act like this all around the world, this is especially
true in the US, where connections and background are important for a variety
of things (even more so than in China), quid pro quo is a commonality, and
interest coalitions are unbreakable and control everything. This is just how
the human society work more or less at the current moment.

------
RCortex
Simple questions:

1) How do you build guanxi?

2) How do you maintain guanxi?

3) How is guanxi lost after it's been gained?

4) Give me an example with two people where one has far more guanxi than
another. How are they treated differently by the third party they have guanxi
with? (No direct familial relation)

~~~
girzel
Guanxi is basically a kind of transactional friendship. You make guanxi the
same way you make friends, by spending time with people, and going through
things together. Some guanxi is built on real friendship (or on something like
having gone to the same school together), in other cases it's pretty obvious
to both parties that it's just a quid-pro-quo thing. In both cases, though, it
sort of looks like a friendship from the outside.

Treating people to dinner and getting them drunk is a pretty common way of
building guanxi. I've had people invite me to dinner and give me alcohol I
don't want, hoping to then get something out of me later. The whole thing is
terribly uncomfortable, largely because I simply don't like going to dinner
with people I don't know well, and do not feel like I owe them anything
afterwards (if anything, I'm annoyed that they've imposed on my time). Then
they call up week or two later and say "hey, can you help me out with this
thing", and then I have to decide what to do about that.

Like I said in my other comment, though, plenty of Chinese people don't like
working this way either. My friends are real friends, and the people I usually
work with are professionals, people who don't need to pretend that now we're
blood brothers and we'll bend the rules to help each other. I've been in China
for 15 years, and I've seen this kind of professionalism slowly supplanting
the old system.

You lose guanxi by pissing off your "friends", or not returning favors. In my
case, I can play the "I'm a weird foreigner and don't understand your rules"
card, and I've only ever mildly annoyed a few people.

~~~
zhemao
Yes, a lot of Chinese, especially those who have lived in the West for a time,
are uncomfortable with the social expectations inherent in _guanxi_. My
parents usually refuse to accept gifts or invitations to dinner from other
Chinese that they don't know very well because they know this will usually be
followed by a request for some rather annoying favor later.

This also leads to somewhat amusing cultural disconnects. For instance, I was
once interviewing a Chinese student for an officer position in the student
club of which I was already an officer. (This is at a US university and I'm
Chinese American) He came to the interview and gave me a bottle of 7-up.

------
userbinator
Here's an example of how it works in practice to create a very different
environment for tech:

[https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4297](https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4297)

~~~
colordrops
Gongkai means "open" or "public". Very different word from "guanxi".

~~~
userbinator
I'm aware of that, just saying that guanxi is necessary for such ecosystems to
succeed.

------
ekianjo
Guanxi is written as 関係, and in Japanese (読み方：かんけい) this means
connection/relationship in a broad sense. I don't see anything special to this
word or very specific to China at all.

~~~
jpatokal
_Kankei_ is used rather literally in Japanese for "connection", without the
heavy overloading of the Chinese term:

"The build is broken, did your push break it?" " _Uun, kankei nai_ " = no,
it's unrelated.

Which is not to say that Japan doesn't have its own complex web of social
obligations and favors (giri, osewa, senpai/kohai etc), they just don't use
the same word for it.

~~~
ekianjo
It can be used as ビジネス関係 too so I am not sure what your point is. 関係 has tons
of implications in Japanese. The expression 関係がよい is also very common in
Japanese.

~~~
jpatokal
Simply put, if you have _guanxi_ in China with somebody, you can call in a
favour from then.

But if you have 関係 with somebody in Japan, then that simply means there's
_some_ sort of relationship (vendor/customer, former schoolmates, whatever),
not necessarily the kind that lets you call in favours.

~~~
Chathamization
> But if you have 関係 with somebody in Japan, then that simply means there's
> some sort of relationship (vendor/customer, former schoolmates, whatever),
> not necessarily the kind that lets you call in favours.

That's the same as Chinese, though. If you want to say two people you'd use
guanxi (”关系不好“ "guanxi bu hao" “have a bad relationship"). Even your above
example is used in pretty much the same way guanxi is used. Here's an example
from the Baidu entry on guanxi: "小王跟这件事没有关系" "Xiao Wang has no connection to
that thing."

From what you write, it sounds like the Japanese use of the word is fairly
similar to the Chinese use of it.

------
douche
Interesting, I wasn't aware of this meaning - just the geographical region and
the post-Imperial Guangxi Clique warlord organizations[1]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangxi_Clique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangxi_Clique)

~~~
kelnos
Guanxi (關係) and Guangxi (廣西) are not the same thing (nor are they related).

~~~
jonathankoren
Mr. Burns: I wonder if this Homer Nixon [(meaning Homer Simpson)] is any
relation [to President Richard Nixon]?

Smithers: Unlikely, sir. They spell and pronounce their names differently.

Mr. Burns: Bah! Schedule a game and I'll ask him myself.

