Guanxi

There is still debate on whether a global public relations model may be applied in any cultural setting. This article contributes to this discussion by presenting empirical evidence about how Chilean export firms develop public relations strategies to Chinese audiences and the dual dimension-global and cultural-of their practice. Two main findings are discussed: on the one hand, Chilean companies have mostly developed a global approach to reach general audiences. On the other, the actual practice of relationship management-through their firm's executives-is carried out by placing culture as critical for successful public relations efforts. Specifically, Chilean executives use guanxi as the main driver of their relationship management.

China, one of the biggest players in the global economy shares its growth to the international community. It developed and established economic partnerships with various countries, businesses, and regional organizations over the course of a few decades. The Philippines, sharing a rich history of bilateral relationship with China, continues with its trade and economic relations with the economic giant amidst political tension over territorial claims. It now becomes a question as to how political issues such as the tension over the disputed islands effect economic decisions and trade relations between China and the Philippines. Are economic decisions affected by political issues? If so, how do these political tensions affect the overall economic relations? If not, why are political issues separate from economic issues? How, then, do businesses work within and beyond the political issue? The research aims to explain the interplay between the political and the economic. This would be explained through the concepts of Social Capital, Social Embeddedness, and their Chinese manifestation, guanxi. The research employs a quantitative research design which includes content analysis and thematic coding. By the Chinese concept of guanxi, the research shows that economic actors are able to make economic decisions despite political issues. This is enabled by the establishment of networks of social capital by economic actors that utilize
their guanxi.

This study investigates the effects of Chinese companies’ institutional environment on the development of trust and information integration between buyers and suppliers. Three aspects of China’s institutional environment are salient: legal protection, government support, and the importance of guanxi
(interpersonal relationships). This study uses structural equation modeling to analyze data collected from 398 Chinese manufacturing companies. Government support and importance of guanxi significantly affect trust, which subsequently influences two elements of information integration, namely, information sharing and collaborative planning. Furthermore, the importance of guanxi has a direct, positive impact on information sharing, and government support has a direct, positive effect on both information sharing and collaborative planning

目前关于腐败的研究大多集中在从宏观上分析腐败产生的政治、经济与社会环境。本文则从微观层面上分析腐败行为，特别是：贿赂行为是如何在行贿人和受贿人的操作下进行的。在此基础上，本文特别探讨为什么“关系”在腐败交换行为中有不可替代的重要性。通过具体的实证分析，本文得出结论：贿赂行为的过程不是一些无序的分散行为的简单集合，而是遵循特定的规则和惯例。这些规则和惯例可以被视为替代市场来推动腐败进行的非正式交换机制。本文论证了“关系”以及与此相关的一系列行为正是这种非正式交换机制的具体体现。它的主要功能是：通过将腐败交换与社会交换稼接以排除妨碍腐败交易进行的法律、道德和认知障碍并将腐败参与者的交易安全风险、道德成本和认知失调最小化。目前学界通常认为：是中国的“关系”文化诱发了腐败。本文持相反观点：即，是腐败制造了“关系”文化，因为“关系”作为一种替代市场的非正式交换机制是腐败的必要组成部分。

Since the 1990s China's modernization was a particular pathway of modernization of the Maoistic Chinas society and its political Jacobinistic program. This article identifies some typical feature, which we recognize in the meantime. It is necessary to mention that the Chinese modernization was an intrinsic achievement. The political system of China has initiated it and thereby changed the structure of the Chinas society essentially. China's society follows a different pathway than the Western modernization. That means we witness, for instance, a restructuring of the economic system towards a market orientation. But the characterization of Chinese economic lays in the interconnection with the other functional systems and the social interaction by social network communication beneath this functional level. To understand the social change in China it is essential to emphasize that the economic modernization goes along with the stabilization of the political center, the continuation of the network communication and solidarity, which is also refers to the interpretation of the cultural background of China's tradition and historical experiences.

Guanxi is deeply ingrained in Chinese society and business etiquette; therefore, it is critical to understand and appreciate it to gain a commercial foothold in China. This paper explores the fundamental differences between Chinese and Western approaches to business dealings, to identify the factors that make it difficult for Western managerial practises to adopt guanxi. The authors identify the differences in the perception of trust in both societies and how this ultimately leads to clashes in cultures. However, there is also a need for Western practices to be more flexible and appreciate guanxi and its implications if multinational corporations are to succeed in China. The paper concludes by suggesting a possibility for both approaches to co-operate well, given the relative success of each approach in their respective cultures.

黑手党产权经济学理论是盛行于西方的有组织犯罪理论。该理论着重研究从事犯罪保护和法外执行的犯罪集团，这对于中国大陆学者探讨新形式的犯罪具有重要价值。然而，黑手党理论的移植需结合中国现状，即：中国社会中关系与法的共存，使得中国的法外保护与腐败紧密相联。法外保护的提供者不仅仅局限于有组织犯罪集团，腐败官员已成为犯罪保护商品的主要供给者。犯罪组织通过关系网建立警（官）匪联系、获得犯罪保护；腐败官员通过关系网进行权力寻租、获取非法利益。事实上，腐败交易双方所形成的关系网成为促进犯罪交易、降低交易成本和逃避法律制裁的重要机制。因此，腐败关系网是中国最具特色的、也是最为重要的法外保护形式。

Unlike most current academic studies on corruption in China, which focus on the theme of how political, economic and social environments have caused corruption at the macro-level, this paper takes a micro-view. It concentrates on the question of how corruption, notably bribery, takes place between a briber and the bribed. Moreover, it examines what exact role guanxi-practice plays in corrupt exchange and, more importantly, why it constitutes a critical element. Through in-depth case-studies derived from extensive fieldwork, this paper comes to the conclusion that the micro-level operation of corruption in China is not due to some haphazard aggregation of sporadic acts but follows certain rules and codes of conduct, which should be seen as an informal institutional mechanism facilitating the contracting process of corrupt exchange. This paper also demonstrates that guanxi-practice embodies such rules and codes of conduct. Such conduct purports to remove the legal, moral and cognitive barriers impeding the contracting process of corrupt exchange by grafting a corrupt agreement upon a social setting, in which risk of exchange safety is controlled, and moral costs and cognitive dissonance are reduced. Therefore, this paper contends that the causality link between guanxi-practice and corruption is the inverse of the view held by many. It is not that the participants of corruption are compelled to corrupt conduct because of the existence of the guanxi-practice, but on the contrary, these participants adopt guanxi-practice as an alternative operating mechanism that facilitates corruption.

Despite the growing interests among both academics and practitioners in the west, the concept of guanxi is not much questioned and there is considerable confusion about its implications for business. This paper explores the nature of guanxi by using a multiple definition approach.

"Corruption has become one of the most popular topics in the social scientific disciplines. However, there is a lack of interdisciplinary communication about corruption. Models developed by different
academic disciplines are often isolated from each other. The purpose of this paper is to review several major approaches to corruption and draw them closer to each other. Most studies of corruption fall
into three major categories: (i) rational-actor models where corruption is viewed as resulting from cost/benefit analysis of individual actors; (ii) structural models that focus on external forces that determine corruption; and (iii) relational models that emphasize social interactions and networks among corrupt actors. Focusing on actors’ behavior and the social context, this article explains corruption concepts taken from sociology, economics, organization studies, political science, social anthropology, and social psychology."

While Chinese academic excellence is gaining increasing international recognition, plagiarism, corruption, nepotism and other negative practices are reportedly rampant in academia in China. Many point the finger at fundamental flaws within the tizhi, the highly structured Chinese socio-political system. I propose re-examining Chinese academia and its practices by applying and expanding Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of field as this framework helps to identify the predicament of the “deep water” in which Chinese scholars and institutes find themselves. The four fields I outline – ideological, quasi-official, fame–profit and guanxi fields – spotlight academic practices with “Chinese characteristics.” I elaborate on my own experiences and reflections as both an insider and outsider to these practices, a position which I refer to as a third-eye perspective. I argue that despite the constraints of the “deep water,” the field-oriented angle of investigation reveals that the depths and types of “deep water” vary from one institute to another and also that the internally generated ongoing initiatives promise a step-by-step transformation in Chinese academia. To provoke further thought, I contend that the Chinese case is both a non-exception and alternative to the Western (and other) practices. In so doing, I call for a balanced perspective to re-examine Chinese academic ecology.

Keywords: China; academia; field; intellectuals; ideology; education; universities

摘要: 随着中国学术界的研究水平在世界范围内逐渐获得更大认可的同时,据报道剽窃、腐败、裙带关系以及其它消极学术实践亦不乏见。许多人均将这种现象归结于高度结构化的政治社会体制。本文将使用并延伸布迪厄有关“场域” 的观点来重新审视中国学术界及其实践, 笔者认为这个理论构架有助于更好地理解学者和学术机构陷于“深水” 之中的困境。本人将中国学术界具体划分为意识形态场、准官场、名利场和关系场等四大场域来剖析具有“中国特色” 的学术实践。此项研究是着眼于对本人“局内人” 和“局外人” 双重身份的反思, 这便是本文所称的“第三只眼” 的视角。笔者认为固然“深水” 造成了种种限制, 但是“场域” 的审视角度却揭示出不同的机构陷于“深水” 的程度和类型都是不尽相同的。此外, 这种分析框架还可以展现出中国学术界内部持续衍生的动力促成其总体环境实现积极转变的前景。最后, 本文提出同西方和其它地区相比当前的中国学术实践既可以算作特例也同样可以当成一个通例来看待。由此, 笔者提倡一种平衡的视角来重新认识中国学术生态。
关键词: 学术界; 场域; 知识分子; 意识形态; 教育; 高校


Academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.
                                                                                                            Attributed to Henry Kissinger
What makes a university is not its imposing premises, but its first-rate scholars.
                                                                                                      Mei Yiqi 梅贻琦  (president of Tsinghua University, 1931–1948)
Belief is inedible, hence insignificant. Democracy is inedible, hence insignificant. Freedom is inedible, hence insignificant. Principle is inedible, hence insignificant. For the Chinese, nothing is significant unless it is edible. We believe in the life principle of pigs, thus we are faced with the same destiny as them – we will be eaten by others sooner or later.
"信仰不能当饭吃，所以不重要。民主不能当饭吃，所以不重要。自由不能当饭吃，所以不重要。原则不能当饭吃，所以不重要。对于中国人来讲，不能当饭吃的都不重要。我们信奉了猪的生活原则，于是乎我们也得到了猪的命运——迟早给别人当饭吃了." (王朔)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Wang Shuo 王朔

China has only one university, namely the University of the Ministry of Education.
                                                                                                                                                          An anonymous scholar

hina’s expanding outreach and diversifying roles have provided a novel context for the ongoing reconsiderations of world politics. As a result, inquiries into how China thinks and in what way its history and traditions inform the idiosyncrasies of China’s international outlook have grown into a cottage industry both in International Relations (IR) and across the full spectrum of the humanities and social sciences. In this setting, Beijing’s external relations draw attention both because of their agency and due to the specificities of China’s individual engagements. What has remained overlooked, however, is that such preoccupation with China has been paralleled by the emergence of a relational turn in IR. One could argue that this is not a mere coincidence. Relationality in IR has become prominent not least because of its simultaneous appropriation by both the so-called Western and non-Western (especially, Chinese) perspectives on world affairs. In this respect, the claim is that the relational turn has become a defining feature of the so-called post-Western IR theorizing – namely, things in global life are not merely interconnected, but they gain meaning and significance within complex webs of entanglements and encounters with others. The relationality lens helps outline the contested terrain of post-Western IR as a space for dialogical learning, which promises a world that is less hegemonic, more democratic, international and equitable.

Chinese modernization leads to drastic changes in society and to modification of pattern of social integration during the last decades. Chinese social networks (Guanxi) play a significant role for structural change of Chinese society. Strict control and forced integration melt down through period of economic reforms and international opening. This changed the framework of social integration. Western modernization, for example, social-liberal revolution led to an institutionalization of solidarity. However observation in this book shows, that Chinese society does not follow Western path of modernization. Chinese social networks are one model of social integration. As a functional equivalent they compensate needs of a modern society. This examination discovers how Guanxi is closely linked with the unique path of Chinese modernization. And so Guanxi is one of the elements, which shed light on different social development in China.

In this article, I offer an economic analysis of the characteristics that are associated with corruption when it is facilitated through social exchange or “guanxi” as it is called in China. To that end, I challenge the framework applied in classic social exchange theories and contend that social exchange shall be distinguished from market exchange based on whether the intention to exchange is concealed and not on the exchanging parties’ subjective reflections on the nature and outlook of their exchange relationship. I also identify that corruption participants rely on a self-executable operating mechanism to facilitate negotiation and enforcement of exchange terms instead of the informal reputational system that is used in ordinary social exchange. In addition, I explain how the involvement of professional brokers democratizes guanxi-based corruption and extends the otherwise privileged exchange opportunities to those beyond the guanxi networks with lowered cost.

Research on international students' English language ability, specifically those from Chinese-speaking countries, is commonplace. Research initially focused on linguistic abilities, but since the 1990s the focus has expanded to include cultural differences and related challenges that international students encounter in communication. A prominent theory that has risen is that of face and facework. This study will explore the communicative experiences of three Taiwanese exchange students at American universities through: learner logs, journals, and interviews carried out over the duration of their exchange experiences. There are two primary focuses for analysis. The first focus is on how face concerns, guanxi, renqing, and in/out-group concerns relate to these experiences. The second is understanding how sending and receiving universities/agencies can help these students manage the cultural shift. The results of the study indicate that the above foci of play a significant role in hindering communication both inside the classroom and outside. Moreover, guanxi and renqing concerns inhibited the development of relationships with those outside a participant’s in-group. Thus is suggested that sending and receiving agencies should take further steps such as intercultural training programs and cultural buddy systems to help students mitigate from concerns for face, guanxi, and renqing.

In our modern age, we are often too occupied with busy schedules of business appointments and customers, also family and friends. There are too many distractions that could fully occupy us and leave us without any time left to even to think about Buddhist path or practice. So many distractions form the biggest obstacle to practising Buddhism. From the Buddhist scriptures this article outlines examples of methods which can be easily practised in a busy lifestyle to resolve the modern distractions. Buddha had 84,000 teachings in order to satisfy the different needs of human beings. One can choose any methods that will lead closer to the wisdom of realizing the true nature of our existence. Finding a path through a genuine master is of paramount significance. In the end, there are multiple methods offered to the readers which are conducive to the twenty-first century path seekers.

Business socializing may be a critical hindrance to career advancement for many women. Chinese societies place particular emphasis on the development of personal relationships (guanxi), and the workplace is no exception. Work relationships are often built through after-hours socializing (ying chou). For a woman to succeed in business socializing, she must cross out of the office and into a context in which workplace expectations for professional conduct may not apply. She must also cross traditional gender role boundaries that conflict with the requirements of business socializing. Like her male counterparts, she achieves the long-term benefits of socializing by crossing interpersonal boundaries to turn professional contacts into personal ones. This exploratory study investigated women's business socializing through in-depth interviews with 36 professional women in a Chinese society. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed the challenges of socializing and the tactics women used to overcome them, highlighting how women leverage gender stereotypes and social norms to build relationships for work. I make cross-cultural comparisons of the challenges encountered by Chinese and Western women engaged in work-related relationship development and discuss cross-cultural differences that may be important in conceptualizing future investigations of gender and workplace relationships. The findings have implications for managers and corporate policies in and outside Taiwan and for foreign business people conducting business in Chinese societies.

This paper incorporates the concept of guanxi—a Chinese version of personal connections, networks or social capital—into the discussion of police corruption and the rise of extra-legal protectors. Using published materials and fieldwork data collected from two Chinese cities (Chongqing and Qufu), it demonstrates how guanxi distorts China’s legal system by facilitating the buying and selling of public offices and promoting the formation of corrupt networks between locally based criminals and government officials. China’s weak legal framework encourages individuals and entrepreneurs to employ guanxi networks to obtain private protection from alternative suppliers (e.g. corrupt government officials and street gangsters) in order to protect property rights, facilitate transactions and fend off government extortion.

ABSTRACT: In our modern age, we are often too occupied with busy schedules of business appointments and customers, also family and friends. There are too many distractions that could fully occupy us and leave us without any time left to even to think about Buddhist path or practice. So many distractions form the biggest obstacle to practising Buddhism. From the Buddhist scriptures this article outlines examples of methods which can be easily practised in a busy lifestyle to resolve the modern distractions. Buddha had 84,000 teachings in order to satisfy the different needs of human beings. One can choose any methods that will lead closer to the wisdom of realizing the true nature of our existence. Finding a path through a genuine master is of paramount significance. In the end, there are multiple methods offered to the readers which are conducive to the twenty-first century path seekers. KEYWORDS: Buddhism, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Buddhist Teachings, Buddhist Path, Buddha, Samsara, Nir...

By critically incorporating the concept of erotic capital, this research, which is based on an ethnographic study of female white-collar employees, discloses the gendered and sexualized dynamics of guanxi in urban China. The research first examines the male-centred standardized routine of guanxi through a detailed analysis of yingchou, a practice consisting of banquets and post-banquet activities, which can involve the use of women as subordinate ‘erotic gifts’. Then, a four-type characterization of white-collar women is developed which demonstrates ways in which women can achieve more agentic, and potentially equal, guanxi status. The types identified in the study are: ‘pseudo-brothers’, ‘rational legal professionals’, ‘the unreachable desired’, and ‘the unspoken rules followers’. Each type has a specific way of navigating the patriarchal structure of guanxi, though boundaries between types are blurred and women may change their strategy, and therefore their type, over time.

The rise of China troubles the taken-for-granted epistemological and ontological constitution of International Relations (IR) theory. The Greek term ‘theoria’ implied travelling to foreign locales with the aim of gaining illumination that can then simultaneously inform and transform the ‘home’ of the traveler. Yet, instead of travelling, IR theory engages in silencing. This paper undertakes an interpretative journey of China’s IR concepts. In particular, it looks at the notion of guanxi – one of the two terms that goes into the Chinese phrase for International Relations (guoji guanxi). The contention is that ‘relationality’ renders a more accurate translation of guanxi in English. In the process, the paper uncovers the practices of ‘international relationality’ as an opportunity to redefine the ‘international’ as a co-dependent space where two or more actors (despite their divergences) can interface into a dialogical community.

With a growing interest in doing business in a Confucian society, scholars and managers have given much attention toGuanxias a governance mechanism. Yet, little has been known the unique aspects and the effectiveness ofGuanxi-based governance. To address such gap, we specify three distinct aspects ofGuanxiin a
business setting. First,Guanxi is a fine balance among three key elements: qing (emotion or feeling),li (reciprocity) andliyi (utilitarian benefits). Second,Guanxipertains to dynamic, interactive relationships at both individual and organizational levels. Third,Guanxiis unalterably linked to the concept of Guanxinetworking (or more precisely,quanzi). Based on these unique aspects, we argue that industrial marketing scholars can borrow theories from veracious disciplines and call for more effort in the empirical examination of the interactions among the three aspects of Guanxi-based governance, the efficacy of Guanxi-based governance, the developmental process of Guanxi networks, and the interactions of interpersonal Guanxito
organizational Guanxi.

Based on a three-year digital ethnography as an educational consultant on the Chinese digital platform X, I use guanxi, enduring interpersonal relationships, to explain how people voluntarily work to the extent of burning out. Drawing on literature about emotion and work in precarious labour, and especially the discussion on emotional capitalism, I demonstrate that it is not because of the lack of social connections that people engage in auto-exploitation and burning out, as Han Byung-chul argues, but precisely because of shared values and the emotions people develop for each other that people commit more to work. Complementing research on digital economic tribes, I argue that guanxi could serve as an analytical framework to decipher the buyer-seller relationship on platforms. In particular, I use two guanxi-related concepts ganqing (emotional attachments) and renqing (norms of interpersonal relationship) to explain why I worked voluntarily and obligatorily for the students I met via X.

La Zona Franca de Iquique (ZOFRI, Chile) es uno de los principales puntos de ingreso de mercancías chinas a América Latina. En su salida de Chile, su primer mercado es Bolivia y luego Paraguay, el reconocido gran depósito hacia Brasil. Este tránsito global desde China requiere acomodos locales, "étnicos" si se quiere, que leen de diferente forma la utilidad mercantil y los medios cómo obtenerla. Este artículo indaga en las prácticas de las redes chinas en la zona, legitimadas culturalmente en una lógica de establecer "relaciones" llamada "guanxi" (关 系), que opera según "acuerdos particularistas" que ensamblan o tensionan la sociedad de llegada y su "universalidad" del imperio de la ley. Intentaremos mostrar esta convivencia, y también sus fracturas.
Abstract:
The Free Trade Zone of Iquique (ZOFRI, Chile) is one of the main points of entry of Chinese goods to Latin America. In Iquique a flow begins firstly to Bolivia and secondly to Paraguay, the great deposit of the Brazilian market. This article investigates the practices of Chinese networks in the area, culturally legitimized in a logic of "relations" called "guanxi" (关 系), which operates according to "particularist agreements" that coexist, assemble or stress the society of arrival and his "universality" of the rule of law.

Hosting a cultural history of 8.000 years in China, jade has seen a revival in China’s current era. Jadeite is the most expensive type of jade, and the vast majority of jadeite is mined in Myanmar’s Kachin State and sold in China.
Spectral Jade is a study of trade, carving, and use of jadeite. The dissertation is based on ethnographic research in different nodes of the jadeite commodity chain, including 12 months of fieldwork in Ruili, a hub for jadeite trade on China’s border with Myanmar. Using jadeite as a lens for examining China’s economy, society, and cosmology, and its impact in Myanmar, the dissertation explores eight themes in eight chapters: Domain, Configuration, Opacity, Visibility, Congruity, Fissure, Order, and Potential. The chapters explore how interplays between materiality and conceptuality create value in the jadeite industry.
The dissertation first discusses how jadeite markets are structured by ethnic armed conflict, policies, economic growth, infrastructure, networks, relationships, capital, technologies, and by the materiality of jadeite itself. Jadeite prices boomed from 2008, but markets for high-, and mid-grade jadeite saw a recession from 2014 due to an anti- corruption campaign and declining economic growth in China. This shifted demand towards cheaper jadeite types and amber, which now see booming markets facilitated by online trade. The dissertation employs an institutional analysis to account for these short-term fluctuations in the jadeite market. But Chinese consumer demand for jade is also underpinnned by a cosmology that changes at a slower pace than policies and economic growth.
Secondly, the dissertation discusses Chinese cosmological assumptions that posit jade as an animated agent, which interacts with humans across a range of registers. Some argue that China has become to too full and material at the expense of an emptiness and spirituality valued in Taoist and Buddhist thought, and describe jade as a spiritual anchor in a rapidly changing society and economy. Exploring relations between jade and humans in different contexts, the dissertation points to a holistic Chinese cosmology that orders the world through analogies and iterations (similarities) and posits oppositions (differences) as mutually constitutive, rather than mutually exclusive.
Theoretically, the dissertation adds a post-anthropocentric perspective to Lévi-Strauss’ argument that nonhumans are ‘good to think’. In line with new materialist and ontological approaches, the dissertation makes a case for a closer scrutiny of how particular properties of nonhumans - in this case jadeite - afford perspectives for people engaging with them, including ethnographers.

Literature about ingratiation has mainly focused on non-Chinese societies with a Western viewpoint, which regards ingratiation as an attraction-seeking behavior. However, the viewpoint may not reflect accurately the meanings of ingratiation in Chinese societies, because ingratiation is a culture-specific behavior. Therefore, there is a limited understanding about the natures, motives, consequences and patterns of Chinese ingratiation. Since Chinese ingratiation is an everyday and everywhere occurrence affecting every social actor in Chinese societies, it is necessary to pay much attention to Chinese ingratiation. Therefore, this article attempts to theoretically analyze Chinese ingratiation from the guanxi perspective and then propose a theoretical framework of Chinese ingratiation for further studies. According to the guanxi perspective, Chinese ingratiation is regarded as a guanxi management strategy and defined as a set of social behaviors designed to establish, maintain and promote guanxi through the exercises of renqing, mianzi and attraction. Moreover, this article proposes Chinese ingratiation has three dimensions: renqing orientation, mianzi orientation and attraction orientation. Finally, the pattern of Chinese ingratiation is identified as the follows: (1) The ingratiatory intention decreases progressively along the direction from familiar persons to family and then to strangers in normal situations and (2) renqing and mianzi orientations would be more likely to occur than attraction orientation within familiar persons; attraction and mianzi orientations would be more likely to occur than renqing orientation within family; attraction orientation would be more likely to occur than renqing and mianzi orientations within strangers.

In recent years, the "relational turn" in International Relations (IR) theory has attracted extensive attention. However, the limitations of the substantialist ontology of mainstream (Western) IR theory means that it encounters difficulties and dilemmas in interpreting the evolving international system. Against the background of the rapid development of globalization and regional integration, the reality of world politics is constantly changing, and increasingly shows obvious characteristics of interconnection and high interdependence. In this context, there is insufficient research comparing the Western and non-Western versions of the "relational turn". Relational ontology may be able to provide a bridge between Chinese Confucian philosophy, Western philosophy, Western sociology, and mainstream western IR theories capable of generating productive synergies. However, there are major theoretical and cultural obstacles to be overcome if a reconciliation of the Western and Chinese versions of relationalism is to be achieved.

Cet article présente une synthèse exhaustive de l’état de la recherche sur les think tanks dans la Chine contemporaine et offre une perspective historique sur leur émergence depuis 1978 jusqu’à nos jours. Une étude de cas sur le rôle des think tanks dans le déploiement de la diplomatie chinoise permet de mesurer le degré d’intégration de ces acteurs à l’appareil d’État. Mobilisant un large pan de la littérature, y compris chinoise, l’originalité et la principale contribution de cet article tiennent en une proposition méthodologique, axée sur le concept chinois du guānxì (关系), qui offre un éclairage pertinent sur l’influence des intellectuels et des experts dans la prise de décision politique au
sein du Parti communiste.

ABSTRACT: Patients mobilising guanxi (interpersonal relations) to gain access to hospital care is prevalent in post-Mao China. Yet few studies
have centred on how medical professionals deal with guanxi patients. Based on ethnographic research and applying an analytical frame of Chinese guanxi developed by Fei Xiaotong (1992 [1948]) and Cheris Shun-ching Chan (2009), this article examines the dilemmas that Chinese physicians face in weighing professional standards versus guanxi. We divide the patients into three general categories: patients without any
guanxi, patients with weak to moderate ties with physicians, and patients with strong ties with physicians. We find that physicians face few dilemmas when they interact with patients without guanxi. They largely adhere to their professional code of practice and generally display dominance over the patients. When interacting with patients with weak to moderate ties, however, physicians are caught in a dilemma between
fulfilling renqing (interpersonal obligation) and adhering to a professional code of practice. They manage this dilemma through dramaturgical
strategies such as information-sharing, emotional work, and face-giving. When interacting with patients with whom they have strong ties, however, affection and the sense of asymmetric obligation may take precedence over professional codes. Physicians deal with this dilemma
through a different set of strategies, such as information-control, emotional avoidance, and altruistic care. Our analysis reveals the impacts of guanxi on medical professionals and the moral dilemmas they face in a guanxi-dominant societal context. It offers direction for possible policy reforms to mitigate the problem.

Initiated from discussions of key curators and exhibitions at the end of the Cultural Revolution, this thesis explores cultural translation through networked curatorial practices in the Chinese context since 1980. In response to increasing local (Chinese) to global (international) exchange, termed as ‘glocal’, I examine different curatorial practices and strategies used to translate exhibitions of avant-garde and contemporary Chinese art towards the development and definition of the role of the transcultural curator. A framework for translation is developed from Homi K. Bhabha’s three-tiered, postcolonial methodology of ‘Third Space’ in parallel with Ray Oldenburg’s theory of third place, whilst rooted in the development of social and cultural networks within Fei Xiaotong’s concept of Chineseness. From these perspectives, it is argued that guanxi self-reflexively provides a basis through which networked curatorial practices can be understood. As a non-Chinese curator and researcher,...

The aim of this study is to explore how relational gatekeepers facilitate the development of relationships between out-group members and in-group members in an intercultural business environment, and to bring to the surface the inter-cultural and inter-networked nuances of guanxi. Based on interviews with managers from China and New Zealand, the workings of Chinese–Western business relationships and the roles of relational gatekeepers are explored. Empirical findings reveal three key gatekeeping roles, namely reciprocal, adaptive and symbolic, used for enabling the development of intercultural business relationships. We offer a structural hole explanation of intercultural gatekeeping in a seemingly contradictory and irreconcilable inter-networked environment. Our study also provides strategic implications of intercultural gatekeeping for foreign outsiders and recommends practical approaches for reaching the decision makers and resource integrators in jealously protected local business networks.

This research paper has been drawn out of the author’s Marketing Management thesis and reflects primary field research that was conducted in Shillong (Meghalaya) across a span of 3 years. The research follows an exploratory design with qualitative methodology adopted to collect the primary data. The sampling of the 12 real estate agents was done using purposive sampling bearing the qualitative nature of the study. The researcher hopes this piece of original research work will contribute to the dearth of real estate literature in India and also so specifically, on the North East of India. For this paper, the researcher has chosen to highlight certain unique social findings while studying the marketing measures employed by the real estate agents on the ground in Shillong. While the traditional tilt and the lack of rules and regulations in business operations was expected, however an intricate complex Guanxi like network seems to be aiding in the smooth running of the real estate the roots of which are grounded firmly in tribal beliefs. It was also inferred that the real estate agents of Shillong act as rein-forcers of ethnic filtering in housing services provided to Shillong clientele. However they do not create any novel market segmentation through their marketing activities which already isn’t present due to historical and political reasons.

The majority of the work necessary to advance the Rule of Law in China is yet to be done.  This is particularly the case as it relates to deterring accidents and compensating injuries.  The Rule of Law is concerned with much more than the substantive terms of legal provisions.  As such, China must develop the institutional practices that will bring to fruition the promise of the new Tort Law.  In part, this will entail the proper selection, retention, and protection of judges.  It will also depend on whether persons have access to the justice system, either through competent counsel or self-representation.

If cases are to be decided in a manner that earns the respect of the Chinese citizenry and other nations, the next step in China’s pursuit of a legal system based on the Rule of Law must be the even-handed enforcement of rights recognized by the new Tort Law.  The system must accord those who come before the courts equal treatment, provide remedies that manifest essential respect for human dignity, and hold persons who injure others accountable for their conduct. The manner in which the new Tort Law is enforced will determine whether, in the field of personal injury and property damage, China measures up to the Rule of Law.

This article examines nalehmu, a set of informal relational practices for negotiating power across scales which have facilitated access and enforced accountability through mutually recognized norms and social sanctions in Myanmar. Like Asef Bayat's "quiet encroachment" in the Middle East, nalehmu is Myanmar's discreet and prolonged practice of agency that has enabled ordinary people to survive and better their lives despite the multiple ruptures in Myanmar's history, as seen most recently in the February 2021 coup d'état. The paper analyzes how nalehmu serves as a hidden-in-plain-sight social infrastructure across three different scales: relations of mutuality, obligation, and reciprocity between individuals; implicit connections for accessing goods, services, and recognition; and a means of interacting with the state via the nalehmu economy. This analysis seeks to do more than add a different case to studies of urban Southeast Asia, but also to help produce further theorization that takes seriously the actually existing contexts and practices in the global South.