Although some scholars have discussed the concept of the “interaction ritual”, the question of how interaction rituals operate within differential closeness levels of guanxi in China has not yet been thoroughly explored. This study aims to fill this gap. It draws its data from two ethnographic studies of school place allocation in two Chinese cities during 2012 and 2013, and additional post-fieldwork in 2014. The research finds that the use of interaction rituals in la guanxi could be a profitable social investment, and that the interaction ritual chain is usually more powerful than a single instance of ritual. Instrumental li is the shared value behind this type of ritual practice, which has the function of exaggerating the actors’ moral obligation and emotional attachment, and masking rational calculation, in order to justify the practice. Expressive ritual is less valued, and occurs less frequently, with distance. Instrumental ritual is more workable and occurs more frequently in moderate guanxi (a relationship neither close nor distant) than in close and distant guanxi, thus following a “weak-strong-weak” pattern. These findings suggest that instrumental ritual plays a more important role than expressive ritual in building strong social capital, due to “the strength of weak ties”.
The phenomenon of using guanxi is pervasive, embedded in every aspect of Chinese social life, and reported on by domestic and international media. Guanxi refers to personal relationships, connections or networks based on Chinese culture, which can be utilised to acquire resources in informal and interpersonal forms (Jacobs, 1979 Jacobs, J. B. (1979). A preliminary model of particularistic ties in Chinese political alliances: KanCh’ing and kuanhsi in a rural Taiwanese township. China Quarterly, 78, 237–273.
King, 1991 King, A. Y.-C. (1991). Kuan-hsi and network building: A sociological interpretation. Daedalus, 120(2), 63–84.; Kipnis, 1997 Kipnis, A. (1997). Producing guanxi: Sentiment, self, and subculture in a north China village. Durham, NC: Duke University Press; Yang, 1994 Yang, M. M. (1994). Gifts, favors, and banquets: The art of social relationships in China. New York: Cornell University Press). Guanxi practice is the use, development and maintenance of guanxi relationships, defined by Kipnis as the “practice of guanxi production” (Kipnis, 1996 Kipnis, A. (1996). The language of gifts: Managing guanxi in a north China village. Modern China, 22(3), 285–31, pp. 6–7). La guanxi, or instrumental guanxi practice, refers to those guanxi practices that have a clear instrumental purpose, such as making exchanges, manufacturing indebtedness or accomplishing tasks (Guthrie, 1998 Guthrie, D. (1998). The declining significance of guanxi in China’s economic transition. The China Quarterly, 154, 254–282., p. 266). Some other guanxi practices, such as visiting siblings with gifts at weekends without any instrumental purpose, are not regarded as la guanxi but as expressive guanxi practice, although it has been noted that such guanxi relationships can also be used instrumentally.
Some argue that guanxi is a “special form”, or “variant form”, of social capital (Gold et al., 2002 Gold, T., Guthrie, D., & Wank, D. (Eds.). (2002). Social connections in China: Institutions, culture, and the changing nature of guanxi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., p. 7; Fan, 2002 Fan, Y. (2002). Questioning guanxi: Definition, classification and implications. International Business Review, 11, 543–561.
, p. 549; Qi, 2013 Qi, X. (2013). Guanxi, social capital theory and beyond: Toward a globalized social science. British Journal of Sociology, 64(2), 308–324., p. 308; Wu, 2013 Wu, X. (2013). The power of social capital in school choice in a Chinese city. Australian Journal of Education, 57(1), 48–59., p. 49). Social capital pertains to the ability of actors to secure benefits by virtue of membership in social networks or other social structures (Portes, 1998 Portes, A. (1998). Social capital: Its origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 1–24., p. 6), and has three components – social networks, norms (such as obligation and reciprocity) and sanctions (Halpern, 2005 Halpern, D. (2005). Social capital. Cambridge: Polity. pp. 9–11). Guanxi, as a network, therefore seems to be one of the components of social capital rather than social capital itself. If we were to describe social capital based on a guanxi network, we would need to adopt a new term – “guanxi capital”. Bian (2001 Bian, Y. J. (2001). Guanxi capital and social eating in Chinese cities. In N. Lin, K. S. Cook, & R. S. Burt (Eds.), Social capital: Theory and research (pp. 275–295). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
, p. 227) defines “guanxi capital” as the capacity to mobilise social resources from guanxi networks: for example, “having face means having guanxi capital” (Bian, 2001 Bian, Y. J. (2001). Guanxi capital and social eating in Chinese cities. In N. Lin, K. S. Cook, & R. S. Burt (Eds.), Social capital: Theory and research (pp. 275–295). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, p. 227).
In recent years, the Chinese media has frequently reported on the phenomenon of parents using guanxi to acquire school places for their children. In order to determine how and why people use guanxi in this context, two case studies of two small cities were carried out during 2012 and 2013, and additional post-fieldwork was conducted in 2014. Ethnographic case studies based on participant observation, interviews and documentation provided most of the data.
In the two researched cities (“A” and “B”), the local government had established key schools, which offered a relatively better quality of education than the average school. Parents need to use guanxi, violating many rules, to obtain a place in key schools, if their children fail the entrance exam or lottery allocation and are not qualified for admission to these schools. Those who cannot use guanxi have to accept a lower-quality education. Forty-nine people (27 in City A and 22 in City B) were interviewed, and some relevant organisations (schools, training centres, and “cigarette and wine shops” that buy back expensive gifts) and activities (entrance exams, lottery activities and school places, gift giving, banqueting) were observed. The sampling criteria for participants cover people who are involved in guanxi practice for school places and relevant observers. Consequently, I utilised different categories of people, and divided the interview guides into seven categories in both cities: parents, teachers, students, head teachers, officials, shopkeepers, and other insiders. Those with different roles in la guanxi, including gift givers, gift recipients and middle-men, were observed and interviewed. Some of these were involved in the same case, allowing the researcher to capture both sides of the story. The documents collected included educational policies, student recruitment information, and local news items. I have coded all names, cities, places and schools in order to protect the anonymity of informants, and pseudonyms are used throughout this paper.
Unlike Guthrie’s claim (1998 Guthrie, D. (1998). The declining significance of guanxi in China’s economic transition. The China Quarterly, 154, 254–282.) that the use of guanxi is declining, utilisation of guanxi to gain school places was found to be prevalent and on the increase in the two cities in this case study from 1998–2012. Due to Xi’s anti-corruption drive, which began in 2012, the use of guanxi to obtain places in key schools is restricted, but it still commonly occurs, with the emphasis shifting from key schools to key classes in regular schools where the rules are less strict. The use of guanxi in school selection has generally declined since 2012, but the use of guanxi to secure official positions, better treatment in hospital and other advantages is still prevalent.
A substantial body of research has shown that many people use ritual to influence others when engaging in la guanxi, such as gift giving, banqueting, embodying concern, face giving and ritual struggle (Jacobs, 1979 Jacobs, J. B. (1979). A preliminary model of particularistic ties in Chinese political alliances: KanCh’ing and kuanhsi in a rural Taiwanese township. China Quarterly, 78, 237–273.; King, 1991 King, A. Y.-C. (1991). Kuan-hsi and network building: A sociological interpretation. Daedalus, 120(2), 63–84.; Kipnis, 1997 Kipnis, A. (1997). Producing guanxi: Sentiment, self, and subculture in a north China village. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.; Yang, 1994 Yang, M. M. (1994). Gifts, favors, and banquets: The art of social relationships in China. New York: Cornell University Press.). The investment in ritual can have a profitable return, such as a place in an elite school, a job, a professional rank, or better services in hospital. The use of ritual improves one’s ability to acquire resources in one’s guanxi network, raising one’s level of guanxi capital.
In common parlance, a ritual is a formal ceremony, going through a set of stereotyped actions. Interaction rituals are both local and ubiquitous, operating in every daily interaction (Goffman, 1967 Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior. Garden City, NY: Anchor.), and form the processes by which participants develop a mutual focus of attention and become engrained in each other’s bodily micro-rhythms and emotions (Collins, 2004 Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press., p. 67). Ritual produces a momentarily shared reality that generates solidarity and symbols of group membership (Collins, 2004 Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press., p. 27). Traditionally, the interaction rituals of philosophers have attempted to produce truth, which function as Durkheim’s ([1912] 1965 Durkheim, E. (1965 [1912]). The elementary forms of religious life. New York: Free Press.) sacred objects: that is, as collective symbols that appear to transcend individuals, constrain behaviour and demand respect. The particular truth represents the solidarity of the group and energises those who participate in its production. Following the work of Durkheim ([1912] 1965 Durkheim, E. (1965 [1912]). The elementary forms of religious life. New York: Free Press.) and Goffman (1967 Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior. Garden City, NY: Anchor.
), Collins argues that rituals are constructed from a combination of ingredients that grow to differing levels of intensity, and result in the ritual outcomes of solidarity, symbolism and individual emotional energy (Collins, 2004 Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press., p. 67). According to Collins, what is significant about these interaction rituals is not the manifest subject, but the fact that the rituals serve as a focus for attention and emotional involvement. Through the practice of ritual, people can improve their “mutually focused emotion and attention” and “emotional energy” – also expressed by the Chinese concepts of ganqing and/or renqing (Collins, 2004 Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press., p. 67).
Ganqing is translated as “affection” or “emotional feeling”, and represents emotional commitment in longstanding and intimate bonds, which always comes with material obligation (Yang, 1994 Yang, M. M. (1994). Gifts, favors, and banquets: The art of social relationships in China. New York: Cornell University Press.; Kipnis, 1997 Kipnis, A. (1997). Producing guanxi: Sentiment, self, and subculture in a north China village. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.). Renqing is simply reciprocal obligation and indebtedness, making guanxi more than just the social embeddedness and social connections identified in Western societies (Qi, 2013 Qi, X. (2013). Guanxi, social capital theory and beyond: Toward a globalized social science. British Journal of Sociology, 64(2), 308–324.; Yan, 1996 Yan, Y. (1996). The flow of gifts: Reciprocity and social networks in a Chinese village. Stanford: Stanford University Press.; Yang, 1994 Yang, M. M. (1994). Gifts, favors, and banquets: The art of social relationships in China. New York: Cornell University Press.). In fact, the concept of renqing has at least four implications: 1) human feelings; 2) a resource as a gift or favour; 3) reciprocal obligation and indebtedness (known as renqing debt, or social debt); and 4) social norms in Chinese society, or the so-called renqing ethic (Gabrenya Jr. & Hwang, 1996 Gabrenya Jr., W. K., & Hwang, K. K. (1996). Chinese social interaction: Harmony and hierarchy on the good earth. In M. H. Bond (Ed.), The handbook of Chinese psychology (pp. 309–321). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
; Hwang, 1987 Hwang, K. K. (1987). Face and favor: The Chinese power game. American Journal of Sociology, 92(4), 944–974.; King, 1991 King, A. Y.-C. (1991). Kuan-hsi and network building: A sociological interpretation. Daedalus, 120(2), 63–84.; Li, 2001; Yan, 1996 Yan, Y. (1996). The flow of gifts: Reciprocity and social networks in a Chinese village. Stanford: Stanford University Press.; Yang, 1994 Yang, M. M. (1994). Gifts, favors, and banquets: The art of social relationships in China. New York: Cornell University Press.). Yan (1996 Yan, Y. (1996). The flow of gifts: Reciprocity and social networks in a Chinese village. Stanford: Stanford University Press) mostly takes renqing to mean social norms – the fourth implication listed above. Yan calls this the “renqing ethic”, and draws out three dimensions – rational calculation, moral obligation, and emotional attachment – as the principles of guanxi networks (Yan, 1996 Yan, Y. (1996). The flow of gifts: Reciprocity and social networks in a Chinese village. Stanford: Stanford University Press., p. 46).
Interaction rituals such as gift giving, banqueting and face giving are common in guanxi, and are in fact expressions and forms of renqing and face (Ruan, 2017a Ruan, J. (2017a). Guanxi, social capital and school choice in China: The rise of ritual capital. London: Palgrave Macmillan., pp. 121–134; Ruan, 2017b Ruan, J. (2017b). Ritual capital: A proposed concept from case studies of school selection in China. Asian Journal of Social Science, 45(3), 316–339., pp. 329–337). In the research discussed in this paper, all guanxi cases observed involve interaction rituals, and gift giving and banqueting are the two most popular methods of ritual practice. Gift exchanges in City A and City B form part of people’s daily practice, and people always bring gifts when they visit their friends or relatives. Some gift giving has a clearly rational intention. For instance, many people bring gifts to head teachers or officials when they ask for a place at a school. In my frequent visits to Xie and Lee, head teachers in City A, I noted that their apartments were full of guests and gifts during the summer – the time of year when parents seek to gain school places for their children.
It is noteworthy that the ritual of home visits with gifts to head teachers or officials is a ritual that tends to support traditional forms of social hierarchy and authority (Bell, 1997 Bell, C. (1997). Ritual: Perspectives and dimensions. New York: Oxford University Press.). Traditionally, rural society in China is characterised by “rule by ritual”, or “rule by li” (lizi), as opposed to societies that are ruled mainly by law (Fei, 2012 Fei, X. (2012). From the soil: The foundation of Chinese society. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press [in both Chinese and English, first published in Chinese in 1947. Trans. G. G. Hamilton & W. Zheng, 1992].
[1947]). Lee, a head teacher in City A, told me a story that supports this claim. A friend told him that during a meeting an official had said: “Lee is arrogant. In his eyes, there are no others”. The friend asked Lee if he had offended the official, which Lee denied. The friend then asked if Lee had ever visited the official’s home with gifts. Lee demurred, because the official was not directly in charge of his school; in response, the friend told Lee that although the official was not directly in charge of Lee’s school, he still had some influence over it. The official was therefore upset because Lee had not shown him respect. Lee’s friend advised him to visit the official’s home to show his respect. Lee subsequently visited the official, taking some gifts, and since then, the official has not criticised Lee – indeed, he has praised his character.
What the official was seeking from Lee was not only the material value of the gifts but also respect and personal loyalty. Rituals honour what is socially valued: so-called sacred objects. In modern societies, the foremost of these is the individual self, treated as if it were a little god in the minor presentational and avoidance rituals of everyday life (Goffman, 1967 Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior. Garden City, NY: Anchor.
, p. 232). Many head teachers who participated in this research claimed that they needed to visit relevant officials with gifts regularly to maintain good guanxi, and similarly, many teachers visited their head teachers with gifts. The ritual of visiting with gifts is widely practised by those who work with officials, in order to show the official’s power on one hand and the personal loyalty of the subordinate on the other.
Banqueting is another popular form of la guanxi. Traditionally, banqueting has been a ritual for showing respect and appreciation for one’s guests, or to celebrate certain events. Nowadays, banqueting is one of the most important forms of la guanxi. It becomes very instrumental and can provide the means to ask for a favour, creating renqing (indebtedness). Parents in the two cities studied here often wine and dine head teachers or officials in order to acquire a school place, and after obtaining the place, they may entertain their benefactors again in order to thank them.
Banqueting is full of ritual – etiquette, politeness, propriety, and so on. Proper rituals are important during each stage of the process: for example, during the dinner, people lower down the hierarchy should serve others with food, soup and tea. If one practises ritual improperly at a banquet, one will get a bad reputation.
Along with gift giving and banqueting, people give face to others when they la guanxi. Face (mianzi or lian) is a combination of a sense of moral imperatives, social honour and self-respect (Yang, 1994 Yang, M. M. (1994). Gifts, favors, and banquets: The art of social relationships in China. New York: Cornell University Press., p. 141). Doing face work includes showing off one’s power, networks and resources to attract others, and giving face in order to maintain good relationships and receive favours (Yang, 1994 Yang, M. M. (1994). Gifts, favors, and banquets: The art of social relationships in China. New York: Cornell University Press. p. 141). As Hwang (1987 Hwang, K. K. (1987). Face and favor: The Chinese power game. American Journal of Sociology, 92(4), 944–974., p. 962) writes, “Face work is also a method of manipulating the allocator’s choices of allocating resources to one’s benefit. Thus, doing face work is a power game frequently played by the Chinese people”. To practise ritual properly is important, since people may consider it as a way to gain face; and a failure to perform a ritual successfully may lead to a loss of face. It is vital to practise ritual properly in la guanxi, since “face work is about guanxi capital accumulation” (Bian, 2001 Bian, Y. J. (2001). Guanxi capital and social eating in Chinese cities. In N. Lin, K. S. Cook, & R. S. Burt (Eds.), Social capital: Theory and research (pp. 275–295). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
, p. 227).
People give face to others in many ways. They accept others’ requests for favours, agree with each other in meetings, give others support at work, avoid making others embarrassed, give “flattery gifts”, and so on. In some situations, even to entertain someone, to accept a dinner or party invitation, or to visit someone’s home can be a form of giving face. Mai, a teacher in City A, had to accept his colleague’s invitation to his father’s birthday party, even though Mai was extremely busy at the time. He considered that his attendance at the party gave face to his colleague, who would then support him at work and vote for him in Excellent Teacher selections. This ritual practice with face giving produces “mutually focused emotion and attention”, and results in the ritual outcomes of solidarity, symbolism and individual emotional energy (Collins, 2004 Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
, p. 67).
If one engages in improper ritual in la guanxi, one may fail to gain social resources, and acquire a bad relationship or reputation. For example, gift giving requires much ritual and etiquette, in terms of the content, packaging, and the number or value of gifts, which should be carefully prepared and carried out – otherwise the gift recipient might be offended. Liu, a head teacher in City A, told me that a teacher at his school visited his home with a flattery gift of six apples in order to show respect and maintain good guanxi. Liu was very unsatisfied with the gifts, saying, “Eight is a lucky number; why didn’t she just buy two more apples? Ridiculous!” We can see here the possible consequences of unsuccessful gift giving: Liu was unhappy and might not be willing to do the teacher a favour next time. Although the value of gifts also matters in la guanxi, the ritual aspects of the gift, such as the quality and quantity, the colour and the packaging, are vital.
The proper use of ritual largely improves the quality of guanxi and can be a productive social investment. The use of ritual to gain social resources seems to be one of the unique properties of la guanxi. Interestingly, when people use ritual to gain desired resources, they stress to their benefactors that their ritual practice is underpinned by Confucian ethical ideals, such as ren, yi and li; and they make every effort to show this moral and emotional intention when doing la guanxi.
Ren refers to the ethical ideal, and li to certain traditional norms that govern human conduct (Liang, 2010 Liang, J. R. (2010). Ren verses Li: Reinterpretation and re-evaluation of Confucianism. [Chinese text.] Beijing: Peking University Press., pp. 29–46; Shun, 2002 Shun, K.-L. (2002). Ren and li in the Analects. In B. W. Van Norden (Ed.), Confucius and the Analects: New essay (pp. 53–72). Oxford: Oxford University Press., pp. 53–59). The concept of “li” is the rule of proper conduct, including etiquette and religious and moral rules (Shun, 2002 Shun, K.-L. (2002). Ren and li in the Analects. In B. W. Van Norden (Ed.), Confucius and the Analects: New essay (pp. 53–72). Oxford: Oxford University Press., pp. 53–59). Ren refers to inner spiritual development, which is the innate character of li. Li is the outer expression of ren, the instrument in the cultivation of ren, and can even be the measurement of ren (Liang, 2010 Liang, J. R. (2010). Ren verses Li: Reinterpretation and re-evaluation of Confucianism. [Chinese text.] Beijing: Peking University Press., pp. 29–46; Shun, 2002 Shun, K.-L. (2002). Ren and li in the Analects. In B. W. Van Norden (Ed.), Confucius and the Analects: New essay (pp. 53–72). Oxford: Oxford University Press., pp. 53–59; Tu, 1985 Tu, W.-M. (1985). Confucian thought. Albany: State University of New York Press., pp. 67–78). In simple terms, if one acts with propriety and proper rituals in order to achieve ren, one’s behaviour can be li – for example, giving gifts to parents in order to achieve xiao (filial piety), entertaining a friend from far away to achieve yi (righteousness), or bowing to supervisors to show zhong (loyalty).
King (1991 King, A. Y.-C. (1991). Kuan-hsi and network building: A sociological interpretation. Daedalus, 120(2), 63–84., p. 74) explains that “renqing, in part, can be equated with the content of the Confucian li”. If a Chinese person is accused of “knowing no renqing”, this means that he/she is lacking li and is incapable of managing interpersonal relationships (King, 1991 King, A. Y.-C. (1991). Kuan-hsi and network building: A sociological interpretation. Daedalus, 120(2), 63–84., p. 74). La guanxi, as well as its norm – renqing ethic – is not true Confucian li because true li should come with the goal of achieving ren. With la guanxi, the so-called “Confucian li” is self-serving and not true li, since li should incorporate ren (Ruan, 2017b Ruan, J. (2017b). Ritual capital: A proposed concept from case studies of school selection in China. Asian Journal of Social Science, 45(3), 316–339., p. 318).
Although the practice of li is usually observed in daily interaction rituals, some of these rituals, such as gift giving or banqueting to influence others to gain resources, may be driven by self-interest; thus, these social rituals should not be regarded as true li but as “fake li “ or “instrumental li”. That is to say, when doing la guanxi, people simply copy the forms of li in their ritual practice without the motivation of achieving ren but with self-interest in mind: they claim to be acting with li to justify their practice (Ruan, 2017b Ruan, J. (2017b). Ritual capital: A proposed concept from case studies of school selection in China. Asian Journal of Social Science, 45(3), 316–339., p. 318).
Yan (1996 Yan, Y. (1996). The flow of gifts: Reciprocity and social networks in a Chinese village. Stanford: Stanford University Press.) has argued that renqing is the ethic or norm of guanxi, which combines moral obligation, emotional attachment and rational calculation. Instrumental li seems to exaggerate the actors’ moral obligation and emotional attachment, and to mask their rational calculation. For example, in the context of la guanxi for school places in the two cities observed for this paper, gift donors and recipients both claim that their gift giving is a ritual that follows Confucian li, and that they practise lishang wanglai (courtesy demands reciprocity). Using the excuse of Confucian li, parents give gifts to head teachers or officials to obtain school places, which is actually instrumental li, or fake li, designed to cover their rational calculation.
Ritual practice with instrumental li also frequently occurs when people give a payment to a friend or relative. Mai, a teacher, often gives extra tuition to his guanxis’ children, and his guanxis usually hide an envelope containing money in a bag of tea and give him tea as a gift. So, why do the guanxis not give money directly to Mai as payment for tuition? Fei (2012 Fei, X. (2012). From the soil: The foundation of Chinese society. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press [in both Chinese and English, first published in Chinese in 1947. Trans. G. G. Hamilton & W. Zheng, 1992].
[1947], p. 148) explains: Commerce cannot exist in an intimate consanguineous society. Although exchanges do take place in such a society, people exchange with renqing, by giving gifts to each other [showing the moral and emotional part of renqing].
If one does not practise these rituals properly, one may not only fail to achieve the desired outcome, but may also cause offence.
From the perspective of interaction ritual theory, ritual produces shared emotion and awareness, solidarity, symbolism, individual emotional energy and social trust (Collins, 2004 Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.; Durkheim, 1965 [1912] Durkheim, E. (1965 [1912]). The elementary forms of religious life. New York: Free Press.; Goffman, 1967 Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior. Garden City, NY: Anchor.). It follows from this that the investment of ritual can produce social capital. That is why people invest in ritual for school places in the two cities studied for this paper.
Ritual is employed not only to get something done or acquire social resources, but also to improve ganqing, renqing and trust among actors, accumulating guanxi capital for further use. True guanxi cannot be established merely through one-off ritual practice or the one-time payment of a coarse bribe; the individuals must interact, exchange favours, and work over time to establish and maintain the relationship (Dunfee & Warren, 2001 Dunfee, T. W., & Warren, D. E. (2001). Is guanxi ethical? A normative analysis of doing business in China. Journal of Business Ethics, 32(3), 191–204., p. 192). In other words, a good guanxi relationship is built, not by independent rituals, but by “interaction ritual chains”, which represent the personal histories generated as individuals go through various ritual encounters within networks (Collins, 2004 Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.). Interaction rituals may reaffirm previous truths or create new ones – they always create a chain connecting previous interaction rituals to future ones (Collins, 1998 Collins, R. (1998). The sociology of philosophies: A global theory of intellectual change. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.). New collective truths require a knowledge of previous collective symbols and the relationships through which they were created and distributed. These interaction ritual chains represent the personal histories generated as individuals go through various ritual encounters within networks. Without the personal histories of encounters, a stranger will not be able to obtain a school place from a head teacher just by visiting their home with gifts or even money. People need to go through their rituals and rites of passage, and they acquire a repertoire of symbols that are loaded with emotional energy and membership significance (Collins, 2004 Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press., p. 67).
Network ties, including guanxi networks, are a particular kind of interaction ritual chain, in which similar symbols and emotions are recycled and sometimes augmented. Positions in networks are created and sustained on the micro-level by the degree of success of interaction rituals (Collins, 2004 Collins, R. (2004). Interaction ritual chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press., pp. 185–188). In guanxi networks, renqing, ganqing and the quality of guanxi are not built by a single instance of ritual or by independent rituals, but by many instances of ritual, continuously connected. The case described below illustrates how an interaction ritual chain builds renqing, ganqing and trust between a teacher and an intermediary.
Mai, a teacher at a senior high school in City A, told me that he used guanxi to gain a place in a key primary school for his nephew in 2010. Mai’s wife told him that an official, Jin, was her former classmate, and a good friend of the head teacher of the key school. Mai’s wife had not seen Jin for 20 years; however, they had many friends in common. So Mai and his wife invited Jin to dinner with a few other former classmates, and Mai sat close to Jin and got to know him. They are both smokers and like French brandy, and these common rituals of drinking and smoking brought them closer. Mai and Jin next met at Jin’s office, and then at Jin’s home, with Mai and his wife bringing some gifts. The fourth time they met was at Jin’s home, with Mai again bringing gifts – this time, Mai asked Jin to use his influence with the head teacher of the key school, and implied that he would give the head teacher an envelope containing money. By this time, Jin knew that Mai was a person who “knows renqing”, so he phoned the head teacher. Later, Mai and Jin visited the head teacher’s home taking gifts; a few weeks later, at Jin’s advice, Mai took an envelope containing some money to Jin’s office to meet the head teacher. When the head teacher came in, Jin excused himself to go to the toilet, allowing Mai to give the envelope to the head teacher without anyone else in the room. In the end, Mai secured a school place for his nephew. Jin, like Mai, was interviewed for this research. Jin told me he had helped Mai with a school place, and seemed proud of his ability to do so. He revealed that he had observed Mai’s ritual practice to see if he followed the expected renqing ethic. By deciding to help Mai, Jin could gain renqing for future use, which enhances his social capital. If Mai had not followed the renqing ethic, Jin would not have gained social capital by doing Mai a favour: in that case, Mai might have upset both Jin and the head teacher, and worse, run the risk of bribery accusations against the head teacher. In this case, however, every time Mai met Jin, he improved his guanxi capital because the collective symbols they both value facilitated subsequent interaction rituals. The interaction ritual chain consists of the process of la guanxi and social capital development. Before asking for a favour, Mai had been interacting with Jin for a month; afterwards, he maintained a long-term relationship with Jin and the head teacher by visiting them regularly with gifts. Their guanxi relationship can be more effectively used in the future due to their history of interaction ritual chains.
Zhang, a teacher in City B, provided a further example:
One of my colleagues was thinking of asking me to pay more attention to one of the students in my class who is her friend’s child, so she tried to talk to me more frequently, then gave me some compliments, gave me some small gifts, did me some small favours and tried to get closer to me. After taking these steps, finally, she told me that her friend’s child was in my class and asked me to pay more attention to him.
Although Zhang clearly knows that the kindness demonstrated by her colleague is not pure, she feels indebted and is willing to do her colleague this favour: Zhang considers this a renqing exchange, and she may need her colleague to return the favour in the future. The rituals here make this exchange work, since they follow instrumental li and the renqing ethic, which both actors recognise and share. An interaction ritual used to ask for a favour will be more effective if previous rituals have been observed properly. In the cases reported above, both Mai and Zhang’s colleague clearly recognised that they did not have long-term guanxi with their expected benefactors before asking for the favour, so endeavoured to build interaction chains, thus preventing their practice from becoming a one-off transaction. Although a relationship may be cultivated with instrumental goals foremost in mind, the forms of renqing (mostly interaction ritual) must be followed if the goals are to be achieved, and the moral and emotional element of the relationship must be presented as primary with the exchanges treated as secondary. If it becomes apparent that the relationship involves only material interest, it may be characterised as bribery (Yang, 1989 Yang, M. M.-H. (1989). The gift economy and state power in China. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 31(1), 25–54., p. 48).
“The More Distant the Less Significant” – The Pattern of Expressive Ritual It is necessary to distinguish between expressive and instrumental ritual. Expressive ritual is usually observed to express one’s real emotion and concern without much rational calculation, while instrumental ritual is usually performed for instrumental purposes (la guanxi) (Ruan, 2017a Ruan, J. (2017a). Guanxi, social capital and school choice in China: The rise of ritual capital. London: Palgrave Macmillan., p. 130). Many informants in the two cities give gifts to their friends and relatives, or invite them to dinner, as part of everyday life and without instrumental intention. Moreover, attending a friend’s birthday party, wedding or even funeral is usually expressive ritual. This type of guanxi practice is different from parents practising guanxi to gain school places, where they give gifts and/or invite their benefactor to dinner with a very clear instrumental purpose.
This expressive ritual can also improve one’s ability to acquire resources. Sometimes an instrumental ritual used to ask a favour will become more effective if previous expressive rituals have been observed. Less instrumentally, people’s happiest and most rewarding hours are spent talking with neighbours, sharing meals with friends, participating in religious gatherings, attending celebration dinners for friends’ or relatives’ birthdays, weddings, or the birth of a new baby, or giving gifts and “good luck money” to friends and relatives on special occasions. In these activities, the practice of expressive ritual rather than instrumental ritual gradually improves the quality of guanxi.
Yan (1996 Yan, Y. (1996). The flow of gifts: Reciprocity and social networks in a Chinese village. Stanford: Stanford University Press.) examined both the dynamic process of cultivation of guanxi networks and their functions in everyday rural life. He states that “the closer to the centre in a given guanxi network, the more gift-giving relations are involved” (Yan, 1996 Yan, Y. (1996). The flow of gifts: Reciprocity and social networks in a Chinese village. Stanford: Stanford University Press., p. 101). Moreover, he argues that “all instrumental gift-giving relations go beyond the village boundary”, which means that the gift giving of “the closer the more involved” is mainly expressive gift giving (Yan, 1996 Yan, Y. (1996). The flow of gifts: Reciprocity and social networks in a Chinese village. Stanford: Stanford University Press., p. 102).
Many expressive rituals observed in this ethnographic study are consistent with Yan’s findings, and follow the pattern of “the more distant the less significant”. With the increase in social distance, people are less likely to be involved in, value and invest money and time on expressive ritual with their guanxi members. These expressive rituals include expressive gift giving, red packet giving, expressive banqueting, visiting a patient, and attending occasions such as weddings, childbirth celebrations and funerals. When Liu, a head teacher, was ill, all of his relatives visited him in hospital with red packets. He found that the closer the guanxi were, the more likely they were to visit him; and the closer the guanxi were, the more money they gave him. One parent, John, recalled his wedding and noted that closer guanxi gave more gifts and larger red packets. At the dinner celebrating the birth of John’s son, the closer guanxi were more likely to attend with red packets.
“The more distant the less significant” pattern of expressive ritual practice seems to be a principle of renqing ethic familiar to everyone in the two researched cities. This pattern corresponds to Fei’s (2012 Fei, X. (2012). From the soil: The foundation of Chinese society. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press [in both Chinese and English, first published in Chinese in 1947. Trans. G. G. Hamilton & W. Zheng, 1992]. [1947]) identification of chauxgeju – the differential mode of association. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between expressive and instrumental ritual, just as it is difficult to distinguish between expressive guanxi practice and la guanxi (Ruan, 2017a Ruan, J. (2017a). Guanxi, social capital and school choice in China: The rise of ritual capital. London: Palgrave Macmillan., p. 131). The motivation of people attending their supervisors’ weddings, birthday parties, or funerals for the supervisors’ parents could be expressive, or instrumental, or a combination of the two. Smart practitioners of guanxi are generally good at using expressive ritual activities, such as weddings and birthday parties, to develop ganqing (informants call this “ganqing investment”), so that they can ask for a favour in the future: this seems to be a more effective way of la guanxi. These rituals look like expressive rituals but are, in fact, instrumental ones. Nevertheless, whether expressive or instrumental, ritual practice can enhance one’s social capital if performed in the proper way.
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