Remarks about Guanxi

My weekly book review this week brought me back to a fantastic publication from 1994 entitled, "Gifts, Favors, and Banquets: The Art of Social Relationships in China" by Mayfair Mei-hui Yang. This is an incredible piece that goes through the history of Guanxi and also some proven techniques that shed light on how to effectively work through getting things done in China. There is so much to be said on this topic, but I want to include a quotation from the very beginning of the book which provides a historical root for the practice in China. Before reading it, here is the lesson: giving and receiving is a fact of life, rite, etiquette, and ancient precedent (the source, The Book of Rites, is from the first centure BC) in China, and it needs to be studied cautiously as part of any due diligence or planning period in investment ventures in China.


太上贵德
其次务拖报
礼尚往来
往而不来
非礼也
来而不往
亦非礼也

Translation:
In the highest antiquity they prized (simply conferring) good;
in the time next to this, giving and repaying was the thing attended to.
And what the rules of propriety value is that reciprocity.
If I give a give and nothing comes in return,
that is contrary to propriety;
if the thing comes to me, and I give nothing in return,
that is also contrary to propriety

-Li Ji (Book of Rites) "Qu Li,"
1987:7; Legge 1885:65 [1]



[1] Yang, Mayfair Mei-hui, 1994, New York, Cornell University Press.