Over the past few years, much ink has been spilled over the importance of guanxi (variously translated as social relations, personal connections, or particularistic ties) in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Chinese culture in general.' Most of the empirical work on guanxi in the PRC after Mao has concentrated on instrumental exchanges of gifts and favors in urban contexts. We have learned of the importance of such practices in factories and work units (Bian, 1994; Ruan, 1993; Walder, 1986; Yang, 1988), in politics (Cheng, 1994), and in business (Smart, 1993; Wank, 1995). Taken as a whole, the emerging picture of Chinese guanxi in these analyses is increasingly crass. In her recent book on the art of guanxi in urban China, Mayfair Yang contrasts a masculine, urban art of guanxi to a feminine, rural ethic of renqing (human feelings) gift exchange and concludes:
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Andrew B. Kipnis (1996) studied this question.
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