Relationalism: the essence and evolving process of Chinese interactive relationships

Chinese social lives focus on relationships, whereas Western social lives focus on individuals. Networks of relationships are important to Chinese in their lives and their behaviors. Several scholars have used relationalism to describe the behavioral patterns of Chinese interaction, claiming that the interacting patterns of Chinese people depend on the closeness of the relationship, and that different degrees of closeness correspond to different rules of interaction. Based on the Confucian ideas of ren, yi, li, and yu, I have reexamined the perspectives on relationalism provided by recent scholars exploring Chinese interpersonal interaction. I clarified the difference, confusion, and insufficiency of past scholars’ viewpoints on relationalism, and proposed a new framework, including three essential components (obligatory, authentic, and selfish affective components) for, and the possible evolving process of, Chinese interpersonal interaction. This new framework elucidates how relationalism operates in modern Chinese interpersonal interactions. The evolving core of a given interacting relationship depends on various combinations of obligatory, authentic, and selfish affective components that have distinctive features and corresponding rules for interaction. They are the essence for judging and adjusting subsequent interaction in the relationship.