Guanxi in China

October 18, 2010

I first learned about Guanxi from the China Law Blog, which quoted the Silicon Hutong Blog.

After reading the post at the China Law Blog, I did more research and also watched a few videos on the subject.

I learned that Guanxi is one of those complexities of Chinese culture that does not translate easily.

There are several elements and layers to Guanxi. First, Guanxi are based on a Confucian hierarchy of familial relationships, long-term friendships, classmates, and schoolmates and to those no stranger – Chinese or foreign – will ever have access. Source: Silicon Hutong

Guanxi developed over the millennia because China did not have a stable and effective legal system. 

In fact, the legal system in China today is relatively new and made its appearance after the 1982 Chinese Constitution was written as the law of the land.

Since 1982, there have been several amendments to the Constitution as China adapts its evolving legal system.

In time, this legal system may replace Guanxi since business law modeled on Western law with Chinese characteristic has developed faster than civil law.

There are a several opinions about Guanxi.  I learned that Guanxi is similar to a gate that opens to a network of human beings but it isn’t that simple.

Merchants in China needed a way to avoid disputes and problems in the absence of a well-developed legal system. To survive, this complex system called Guanxi developed with many components such as partnerships, trust, credibility, etc.

Maintaining Guanxi is different than how relationships are maintained in other cultures. The embedded video with this post offers a more detailed explanation.

The China Law Blog copied the post from the Silicon Hutong Blog.  The post on the China Law Blog had more than twenty comments and it was a lively discussion worth reading if you are interested in discovering more on this topic.

To learn more about Chinese culture, see Honor

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

3 Comments | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Striking Differences

October 18, 2010

In Psychology Today, I read a post by Christopher Peterson.

I wrote a comment to his post, but addressed it to the wrong person. Since I couldn’t edit the comment, I have no way to fix the mistake.

Peterson writes about how much he enjoyed his recent August trip to China. He said, “I loved the Chinese people I met! We did not talk politics with anyone…”

In fact, I’ve been to China about ten times since 1999 and have never talked politics to anyone there.

There is no reason for that. After all, in China, the government runs the country and doesn’t ask the people for advice.

I sometimes wonder who is running America since there are so many opinions and so much anger.

Peterson also said, “China is not only a highly collectivist culture but also one that takes a very long time perspective on things. We often heard mention of the ‘seven generation’ view, which means that the Chinese take into account the consequences of policies for at least seven future generations.”

Peterson also mentioned, “the Chinese want their people and especially their children to be happy… There are of course cultural differences in what constitutes legitimate happiness.”

Then I read a post in the Democratic Underground, which was striking in its darkness and inferred unhappiness and anger.

The Democratic Underground said, “in the past week or so, at least 29 candidates (running for political office in the U.S. November midterms) have unveiled advertisements suggesting that their opponents have been too sympathetic to China and, as a result, Americans have suffered.”

Evan B. Tracey, president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political advertising, said that “China has sort of become a straw-man villain in this election” in a way that elicits comparisons to the sentiments toward Japan in the 1980s over car manufacturing and Mexico in the 1990s over the North American Free Trade Agreement. Source: Democratic Underground

It’s common in America for politicians to turn the people’s anger and unhappiness on a scapegoat. It helps win elections.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, cultural differences, family values, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Everyone Cannot Be Rich – Even in China

October 18, 2010

I read an interesting piece from the Inter Press Service. Antonaneta Becker writes of growing resentment in China of the widening gap between the rich and poor.

She mentions talk of a revolution to redistribute the wealth.

What Becker fails to mention is that in India the poverty and corruption is worse. The Economist for October 2 says, “that China has done a better job than India of curbing corruption…”

China isn’t alone when it comes to bribes and corruption.

Earlier this year in Thailand, unrest over corruption turned deadly resulting in cancelled flights from 40 countries.


In fact, a report in the Asian Journal of Public Administration says, “Corruption is a serious problem in many countries. Indeed, in many parts of the world, corruption has become a way life…”

Becker may not be aware that in 1949 when the Communists came to power, about a million wealthy landowners were executed and land was distributed among the poor. 

With the landowners gone, agriculture broke down resulting in famines that led to the deaths of about 30 million poor Chinese.

Becker is right about China’s central government fearing an uprising among the poor. 

However, rebellions of this nature have happened in China before and most have failed.  During the 19th century, those failures cost more than 30 million lives when the Qing Dynasty showed the world that they still had the mandate to rule.

The best solution is to see that the poor have a house and earn enough to buy food since the price of challenging the mandate to rule is often chaos, anarchy and death.  No one wins.

See Global Censorship and Corruption

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | China, crime, legal system | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Quyi – Chinese Singing and Storytelling

October 17, 2010

As one of the older performing arts in China, Quyi is rooted in China’s history and culture, which developed during the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty.

 Chinese Quyi focuses on how the “Body Talks”. 

 During a performance, the actors pay attention to the use of the hands, eyes, body and step.  The focus of this performing art consists of narrative storytelling using staged monologues and dialogues.

It is mostly a spoken performance from one to four people. Do not confuse it with Chinese opera.

Hand gestures are used to present the story’s plot while the eyes are the most important part of a Quyi performance. The eyes show anger, sorrow and joy. Using the eyes in this way is an art in itself.

Since there are different schools of Quyi, the hand, eyes, body and steps are used differently from school to school.

There are fifty-six minorities in China and minority produced Quyi varies and is different from the Han majority.

In fact, since Quyi is a vital part of China’s minority culture, soon after the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, the Chinese Quyi Association was organized. Today, more than 3,500 members belong and the association publishes a Quyi magazine.

Sources: Cultural Traditions of China, China Fact Tours, and the Ministry of Culture of the PRC

Also see Jingyun Dagu, Beijing’s Story Telling Opera

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese arts and music, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Chinese minorities | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Unbalanced Reporting from a Dream

October 17, 2010

In Unbalanced China from The Wall Street Journal’s The Source, Alen Mattich lists dire predictions of how an imbalanced Chinese society may crash economically.

Anything is possible.  However, if China crashes, the first sound we hear may be the U.S. hitting the ground.

Alen Mattich lists the possibility of a trade war between the U.S. and China which could “threaten to bankrupt whole swathes of industry” if China doesn’t devalue its currency, the yuan.

Mattich is betting this prediction on other countries joining the U.S. in a trade war with China. Some may join but the odds are many will not.

Recently, the BRIC, Turkey, France, Japan and several oil-rich Middle East countries have sided with China against the shaky dollar, and countries like Brazil that depend on trade with China won’t side with the U.S.

Then Mattich mentioned the possibility of China’s properly bubble bursting. The urban property bubble in China represents about 15% of China’s economy and 40% of that property belongs to China’s newly minted millionaires.

In rural China, most of the land belongs to peasant collectives and the government.

In America, when the property bubble burst in 2008, that represented more than 70% of the U.S. economy.

Then the Chinese save an average of about 40% of earnings so the Chinese are not cash poor as the average American, who carries a lot of credit card debt.

Mattich also mentioned China’s aging population. Since 700 million Chinese work in jobs that are not linked to the export-import sector of the economy, I doubt if that will play much of a factor.

When Mattich mentions the one-child policy, he doesn’t say this only applies to the urban population of about 500 million.

The other 700 million rural Chinese are not bound by the one-child policy, and the 56 minorities in China that number 100 million have no restrictions on the number of children families may have.

The problems with many Western predictions about China’s economic future is that they are based on Western lifestyles and spending habits. China’s formula is different.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

2 Comments | America, business, China, economy | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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