Chinese social relations are typified by a reciprocal

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

. Often social obligations within the network are characterized in familial terms. The individual link within the social network is known by '' guanxi'' (关系/關係) and the feeling within the link is known by the term '' ganqing'' (感情). An important concept within Chinese

social relations A social relation is the fundamental unit of analysis within the social sciences, and describes any voluntary or involuntary interpersonal relationship between two or more conspecifics within and/or between groups. The group can be a language or k ...

is the concept of face, as in many other

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

n cultures. A

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

-related concept is '' yuanfen'' (缘分/緣分). As articulated in the sociological works of leading Chinese academic Fei Xiaotong, the Chinese—in contrast to other societies—tend to see social relations in terms of networks rather than boxes. Hence, people are perceived as being "near" or "far" rather than "in" or "out".

References

Chinese culture Culture of Hong Kong Culture of Taiwan Society of China Reputation management Information society Social influence Social information processing Social networks Social status {{Socio-stub

See also

References