What is guanxi and mianzi?

What is guanxi and mianzi?

Key Facts. There are two key cultural and sociological issues of particular importance when evaluating Chinese companies: guanxi (relationships and networks) and mianzi (face).

What is guanxi in Chinese culture?

The Chinese call this guanxi (关系). Guanxi refers to having personal trust and a strong relationship with someone, and can involve moral obligations and exchanging favours. Guanxi is often translated as “connections”, “relationships” or “networks”.

Is guanxi still important in China?

Although guanxi remains important when doing business in China, a number of factors indicate that this importance may begin to decline. These include China’s market liberalisation, outward investment, “guanxi learning” on the part of foreign companies and online intermediaries.

What is mianzi in China?

The concept of face (mianzi) in Chinese culture is a complex one. It can perhaps be most closely defined as “dignity” or “prestige”, but no translation can aptly cover all its fine nuances. It’s easy for a foreigner to unwittingly cause an embarrassing situation.

What do the terms mianzi and guanxi mean in doing business in China?

Mianzi (Reputation and Face) Because of the importance of guanxi, you must always have good face. If you’re conducting meetings in China, be aware that everyone with you can affect whether you gain or lose face. If a member of your team does something disrespectful, you will lose face because of their actions.

Why guanxi is so important in Chinese culture?

Guanxi’s importance in China has developed as a result of the cultural implications of the rule of law and the concept of face. For millennia, China has lacked a strong rule of law. Therefore guanxi has become a means of building trust that law cannot always provide for Chinese people in personal and business matters.

Is guanxi a nepotism?

Nepotism is usually based on transaction-based exchange, whereas genuine guanxi networks refer to long-term relationship. When the cultural ritual of guanxi turns into a rent-seeking guanxi, the network may become a form of instrumental nepotism.

What is guanxi strategy?

Guanxi loosely translates as personal connections, relationships or social networks. It implies trust and mutual obligations between parties, and it operates on personal, familial, social, business and political levels. Having good, bad or no guanxi impacts one’s influence and ability to get things done.

Is guanxi a cultural value?

“Guanxi” (pronounced (jwan-see) is one of the most powerful forces in Chinese culture. Though the direct translation of “guanxi” is “relationships”, the concept as it is used and applied in Chinese culture is much richer and encompassing.

What is Chinese face?

The Chinese concept of “face” (aka 面子 or miànzi) refers to a cultural understanding of respect, honor and social standing. Actions or words that are disrespectful may cause somebody to “lose face” while gifts, awards and other respect-giving actions may “give face”.

What is Renqing China?

In a Chinese cultural context, Renqing (personal relationship), Guanxi (relationship) and Mianzi (face) are important concepts in understanding social relationships and people’s behaviours.

What does mianzi mean?

face
The Chinese word mianzi (面子) means literally ‘face’, and it refers to the recognition of an individual’s social status and prestige by others. Mianzi can be earned, saved, borrowed, and maneuvered (Hu 1944; Hwang 1987; Kinnison 2017).