seconding the Kaiser's notion "that guanxi (关系) ... operates the same way everywhere else as it does in China."

anyone who disagrees with this statement in regards to the west clearly has/had no idea how to get anything done in the west, which is why s/he no longer lives in the west.

There's a great discussion of guanxi in this anthropological book: The Flow of Gifts: Reciprocity and Social Networks in a Chinese Village.
IIRC the author's take is that there was a period when "guanxi" was of particular and overwhelming importance, but this was at the height of the collective era in the famines post Great Leap etc., and the concept was barely discussed. By the time it became the stock-in-trade for ever instant China expert, that importance had long gone away and it was more just the same kind of networking that goes on anywhere else.

I second slowboat, I spent several years in Australia, though its of lesser importance but still plays a major role in day to day activity.

Awesome speakers. Frankly, I am interested in 'settling down in China with a local husband' more :)

^_^

Any chance that you can repost the webfeed because the link seems to be done now? -Am really annoyed I missed this seeing this because I'm really interested in more 'creative' driven entrepreneurship in China!

We'll be posting a video of the session soon.

his insistence that guanxi (关系) or using one's connections, operates the same way everywhere else as it does in China,

Yeah, exactly, I always need to bring 9 packs of cigarettes to the DMV in the US. Otherwise I wouldn't get my driver's license renewed. Or when I need to get a visa in the US, I definitely have to call 15 friends to find out if they know anyone at the local police station so I can actually get my visa renewed. It works like that everywhere!

As usual, some people seem to confuse "guanxi operates everywhere at _some_ level" with "guanxi operates at the _same_ level everywhere."

Next up, the West has pollution, too! And corruption! Broken f*cking record.

It's always amusing when people extrapolate from their own lives and simply assume that if it's true for them it's true for everyone.

It's why people who easily stray are so incredibly jealous: they can very easily imagine the act of cheating.

So it is with Kaiser's "point" that "guanxi works the same everywhere".

Now, it is true that guanxi works the same in the advertising/pr/marketing/consulting industry in China as it does everywhere, but not all of us work in that incestuous, connection-based family of industries. Guess who does? Kaiser! What a surprise!

Out of my twelve closest friends at university in the developed Western nation that is my country of birth, exactly one of them got her job through "guanxi".

Out of my Chinese other half's dozen closest friends at university only one of them got a job without using "guanxi".

Things are exactly the same everywhere. Sure.

Blimey, another Jim. This will get confusing.
What you're describing is bribery and does and has happened in other places where an entrenched bureaucracy controls resources and services.
You don't even know what we're talking about, do you?

What you're describing is bribery and does and has happened in other places

Thanks for the perfect illustration of my point: of course things like bribery and using connections to get things done "does and has happened in other places." What a revelation. The mistake is thinking that they are as widespread "everywhere" as they are in China.

And if you haven't figured out that "bribery" (sorry, "favors") is the heart and soul of guanxi, then I guess you are the one who needs a clue.

Nope; your mistake is thinking they're as rare as they may be in the one or two liberal democracies where most of the Anglophone ex-pats come from.
It's schizo argue with yourself time!

Let's get a third Jim hat in the ring. I'm wondering why there weren't any women in this session. Seemed a little too "fuckin'" testo-leaning. Would have been good to hear a female POV in the mix.

Yeah, well, this is fascinating and all, but I'd like to know what Jim thinks about all this.