“关系”是什么意思?
What does guanxi mean?
Name: ________________ Date: ________
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 无论 | wúlùn | no matter (what, how); regardless of |
| 联系 | liánxì | to contact; to get in touch with |
| 当 | dāng | when; at the time of |
| 指 | zhǐ | to mean; to refer to |
| 直接 | zhíjiē | direct; immediate; directly; straight |
| 困难 | kùnnan | difficult; hard; difficulty; problem |
| 获得 | huòdé | to obtain; to gain; to win |
| 扔 | rēng | to throw; to toss |
| 出现 | chūxiàn | to appear; to emerge; to arise |
| 排 | pái | to arrange; to line up |
| 法律 | fǎlǜ | law |
| 办事 | bànshì | to handle affairs; to work; to get things done |
English (for the teacher)
Xiao Wang’s child was ill and he wanted a very famous doctor to see her, but the appointments online had long since gone. Just as he was getting anxious, a colleague reassured him: “Don’t worry, my friend’s cousin works at that hospital. I’ll ask for you.” The next day, amazingly, the problem was solved.
This is what Chinese people call guanxi, “connections”. Whether it’s seeing a doctor, getting into a school or finding a job, it’s the first thing many people think of.
You have probably learned the word 关系 already. 没关系 means “it doesn’t matter”; literally it is “no connection”. But when Chinese people say 他有关系, “he has guanxi”, the meaning is different. Here 关系 means the people someone knows, and whether those people are willing to help him.
Guanxi matters so much that English has simply borrowed the word, written “guanxi”. Oxford’s English dictionary has the word too, meaning the network of relationships in China that helps people do business.
So where does guanxi come from? Most often from family, old classmates, people from your hometown and colleagues. If you have helped me, I owe you a favour, a 人情; next time you are in trouble, I will find a way to help you too. There are no written rules for this kind of favour, and no one says when it must be repaid, but everyone remembers. If you only take and never give back, it will soon be hard to get anyone’s help.
A lot of guanxi is built at the dinner table. Eating, drinking tea and chatting together, strangers slowly become acquaintances, and acquaintances become friends. Once guanxi is built, it has to be kept up, so at every festival many people call old friends to say hello or send them small gifts.
The sociologist Fei Xiaotong had a famous image for this. He said Chinese relationships are like throwing a stone into water: rings of ripples spread across the surface with you at the centre, and the closer people are to you, the better the relationship; the farther away, the fainter it becomes.
Of course, guanxi has a bad side too. Some people use connections to get to the front of the queue, get jobs or even break the law for their own gain, and this is called “going through the back door”. People without connections can’t help feeling it is very unfair. Still, many Chinese people admit that at certain times, without guanxi it seems hard to get things done.
So guanxi is like a key. It can open many doors for you, but used in the wrong place it can also cause trouble. Next time a Chinese friend says “I’ll ask around for you”, you’ll know he is opening up his network of guanxi for you.