Renqing as Guanxi and in Guanxi

2021 ◽  
pp. 92-120
Author(s):  
Jack Barbalet
Keyword(s):  
Rural China ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
The 1950S

This chapter considers guanxi-like practices in a number of historical and social contexts, from the 1880s to the 1980s, when the term guanxi is first used. By doing so, many aspects of instrumental particularism typically ignored become evident. In late imperial literati circles, and in rural China up to the present time, gift-giving occurs without expectation of reciprocation but in order to acquire ‘protection’, to be let alone. The use of money in renqing, thought by many theorists today as problematic for guanxi, was routine in these circumstances. Reciprocal gift exchange in rural China begins with Communist collectivization in the 1950s. It is shown that the vast increase in the numbers of officials from this time, and the relative empowerment of peasants, extended the incidence of guanxi-like practices. Concurrently, a number of distinctive terms were used to describe these practices, until guanxi gained widespread usage in the 1980s.

scholarly journals Association of Child Mental Health with Child and Family Characteristics in Rural China: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 5107
Author(s):  
Huan Wang ◽  
Cody Abbey ◽  
Xinshu She ◽  
Scott Rozelle ◽  
Xiaochen Ma
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Child Mental Health ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Family Characteristics ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Cross Sectional

Assessing the mental health problems encountered by school children and understanding the contributing factors are crucial to inform strategies aimed at improving mental health in low-resource contexts. However, few studies have investigated the mental health problems among disadvantaged children in poorer countries. This study examines the prevalence of mental health problems in rural China and their association with child and family characteristics. The study uses survey data from 9696 children in 120 rural primary schools and measures child mental health using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Overall, 17.9% of the sample children were found to be in the abnormal range of the SDQ total difficulties scores. The mean score was 12.93 (SD = 4.94). Abnormal scores were associated with child and family characteristics, including older child age (Odds Ratio, OR = 0.704, 95% CI: 0.611, 0.810; p < 0.001), gender (OR = 1.235, 95% CI: 1.112, 1.371; p < 0.001), and academic performance (OR = 0.421, 95% CI: 0.369, 0.480; p < 0.001). Reading time was found to be protective for mental health. Risk factors include excessive screen time (OR = 1.685, 95% CI: 1.409, 2.016; p < 0.001) and being bullied (OR = 3.695, 95% CI: 3.301, 4.136; p < 0.001). Our study suggests that future mental health illness prevention programs in rural China should consider targeting different aspects of children’s social contexts.

scholarly journals Social Integration and Depression of Older Adults in Rural China: Do Family or Friendship Ties Make a Difference?

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 580-580
Author(s):  
Dan Zhang ◽  
Zhiyong Lin ◽  
Shuzhuo Li
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Important Determinant ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Limited Data ◽  
Family Ties ◽  
Relevant Evidence

Abstract Despite increasing acknowledgement that social integration/isolation is an important determinant of health in later life, relevant evidence for older adults in less developed social contexts is still limited. Data derived from 2015 and 2018 waves of a longitudinal study of 976 older adults, aged 60 and older, living in rural areas of Anhui Province, China. We analyzed how the level of social integration/isolation (measured as family and friendship ties) impacted depressive symptoms of older adults. Our results showed that more than half of older adults in our sample were either isolated from family or friends. Further analysis demonstrated that older people who were isolated from friends were more depressed in comparison with those who were closely integrated into friendship ties, while no such association was found in relation to family ties. Assessments of social integration among older adults should account for both family and friendship ties.

Rembrandt, Vermeer, and the Gift in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Zell
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Dutch Art ◽  
Dutch Golden Age ◽  
Symbolic Economy ◽  
The Gift ◽  
New Perspective

This book offers a new perspective on the art of the Dutch Golden Age by exploring the interaction between the gift's symbolic economy of reciprocity and obligation and the artistic culture of early modern Holland. Gifts of art were pervasive in seventeenth-century Europe and many Dutch artists, like their counterparts elsewhere, embraced gift giving to cultivate relations with patrons, art lovers, and other members of their social networks. Rembrandt also created distinctive works to function within a context of gift exchange, and both Rembrandt and Vermeer engaged the ethics of the gift to identify their creative labor as motivated by what contemporaries called a love of art

scholarly journals Gift-Giving in Society, Marriage and Its Nature in Law Enforcement in China

2018 ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Xingan Li
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Special Regard ◽  
Marriage And Divorce ◽  
Legal Context ◽  
Spatial Dimensions

Gift-giving is a prevalent human activity existing in different temporal and different spatial dimensions. Main issues discussed in this article are about gift exchange in socio-legal context, particularly in pertinent to marriage and divorce, as well as law enforcement against offence of bribery in China. The research identifies different modes of gift giving, including gift exchange and unilateral gift-giving. The research further explores into giftgiving by parents before marriage and during family life of their children, with special regard to real estate as a gift. The research also discusses gift as distinguished from and as identified as offence of bribery under Chinese law.La donación es una actividad humana predominante que existe en diferentes dimensiones espaciales temporales y diferentes. Los principales temas discutidos en este artículo son los siguientes: el intercambio de obsequios en el contexto socio-legal, particularmente en lo referente al matrimonio y el divorcio, así como la aplicación de la ley contra el delito de soborno en China. La investigación identifica diferentes modos de donación, incluyendo el intercambio de regalos y donaciones unilaterales. La investigación explora más a fondo la donación de los padres antes del matrimonio y durante la vida familiar de sus hijos, con especial atención a los bienes raíces como un regalo. La investigación también discute el regalo como distinto de y como identificado con el delito de soborno bajo la ley china.

scholarly journals The Politics of Gift Exchange in Early Qajar Iran, 1785–1834

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 550-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Assef Ashraf
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Political History ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
The Political ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Center Periphery

AbstractThis article uses gift-giving practices in early nineteenth-century Iran as a window onto statecraft, governance, and center-periphery relations in the early Qajar state (1785–1925). It first demonstrates that gifts have a long history in the administrative and political history of Iran, the Persianate world, and broader Eurasia, before highlighting specific features found in Iran. The article argues that the pīshkish, a tributary gift-giving ceremony, constituted a central role in the political culture and economy of Qajar Iran, and was part of the process of presenting Qajar rule as a continuation of previous Iranian royal dynasties. Nevertheless, pīshkish ceremonies also illustrated the challenges Qajar rulers faced in exerting power in the provinces and winning the loyalty of provincial elites. Qajar statesmen viewed gifts and bribes, at least at a discursive level, in different terms, with the former clearly understood as an acceptable practice. Gifts and honors, like the khil‘at, presented to society were part of Qajar rulers' strategy of presenting themselves as just and legitimate. Finally, the article considers the use of gifts to influence diplomacy and ease relations between Iranians and foreign envoys, as well as the ways in which an inadequate gift could cause offense.

Paleoindian Aggregation and Social Context at Bull Brook

2009 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian S. Robinson ◽  
Jennifer C. Ort ◽  
William A. Eldridge ◽  
Adrian L. Burke ◽  
Bertrand G. Pelletier
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
North America ◽  
Spatial Structure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Complete Analysis ◽  
Large Circle ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
New Research

Large social aggregations are among the most highly organized events associated with mobile hunter-gatherers. The Bull Brook Paleoindian site in Ipswich, Massachusetts provides the strongest case for large-scale Paleoindian aggregation in North America, with 36 discrete concentrations of artifacts arranged in a large circle. Avocational archaeologists who salvaged the site in the 1950s interpreted it as a single occupation. Professionals first rejected and then revived this hypothesis, but the site remained insufficiently analyzed to evaluate. New research supports the single occupation hypothesis with a fully reconstructed site plan and the first complete analysis of artifact distributions. Clear spatial structure of activities within the ring-shaped site plan provides a window on social contexts that are also visible in smaller Paleoindian settlements.

Refugees welcome: Arrival gifts, reciprocity, and the integration of forced migrants

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker M Heins ◽  
Christine Unrau
Keyword(s):  
Gift Exchange ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Political Theories ◽  
Culturally Different ◽  
Integration Of Immigrants ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Key Questions

Against competing political theories of the integration of immigrants, we propose to reframe the relationship between the populations of host countries and arriving refugees in terms of a neo-Maussian theory of gift exchange. Using the example of the European refugee crisis of 2015 and the welcoming attitude of significant parts of German civil society, we argue that this particular situation should be understood as epitomizing the trend toward internal transnationalism. Increasingly, the “international” is becoming part and parcel of the “domestic” sphere. Since Marcel Mauss was concerned with the question of how separate, culturally different communities can establish ties of solidarity and cooperation between each other, we use his work to answer key questions about the relations between international refugees and native citizens in their home countries: What are the expectations underlying gift-giving in the context of welcoming refugees? Should refugees feel obliged to repay the arrival gifts? How should we deal with the normative ambivalence of gift-giving and its potentially humiliating effects on those who receive gifts but are unable to reciprocate? Most importantly, how does gift theory help us to clarify the very concept of integration which is at the heart of recent debates on the ethics of immigration?

Gift-giving as a Source of International Authority

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorg Kustermans
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Causal Relation ◽  
External Source ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
International Authority ◽  
To Come ◽  
Dominant Actor

Abstract This article discusses the diplomatic practice of gift-giving in the Ancient Near East and Early Modern East Asia. In both cases, gift-exchange served to consolidate the dominant polity’s international authority. The causal relation between gift-giving and authority is typically rendered in terms of generosity inspiring gratitude, but a different mechanism connects diplomatic gift-giving and the consolidation of international authority. Diplomatic gift-giving is a ceremonial form of gift-exchange and it as a ritual practice helps maintain international authority. By means of ritualization, diplomatic gift-exchange renders international authority palatable. Ritualization enables both dominant and subordinate actors to come to terms with the ambiguity of the experience of authority. Subordinate actors are at once entranced and frightened by the authority of the dominant actor. The dominant actor feels both pride and insecurity. By defining an identity as participants in a shared ritual, by orchestrating their demeanor during ritual, and by identifying an external source of the dominant actor’s authority, diplomatic gift-giving contributes to the maintenance of international authority. The ambiguity of the experience of authority is probably irreducible. It is therefore to be expected that any case of ‘international authority’ will feature the performance of similar ritualizing practices.

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