Chinese social relations are social relations typified by a reciprocal social network. Often social obligations within the network are characterized in familial terms. The individual link within the social network is known by guanxi (关系) and the feeling within the link is known by the term ganqing (感情). Social relations are often expressed by the exchange of gifts. An important concept within Chinese social relations is the concept of face and many other Oriental cultures. A Buddhist-related concept is yuanfen (缘分). Social relation can refer to a multitude of social interactions, regulated by social norms, between two or more people, with each having a social position and performing a social role. ... In mathematics, the reciprocal, or multiplicative inverse, of a number x is the number which, when multiplied by x, yields 1. ... Jump to: navigation, search A social network is a social structure between actors, mostly individuals or organizations. ... Jump to: navigation, search A family of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997 A family is a domestic group of people, or a number of domestic groups, typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by comparable legal relationships including domestic partnership, adoption, surname and in some cases ownership (as was the... Guanxi (Traditional Chinese: 關係; Simplified Chinese: 关系; Cantonese IPA: gwɑŋ1 hɐɪ3; Jyutping: gwaang1 hai3; pinyin: gūan xi), describes the basic force that holds the personalised networks of influence. ... Ganqing (Chinese: 感情; Cantonese IPA: gɐm2tsɪŋ4; Jyutping: gam2tsing4; pinyin: găn qíng) is an important concept in Chinese social relations which is loosely translated as feeling and is related to the concept of guanxi. ... Jump to: navigation, search A gift economy is an economic system in which the prevalent mode of exchange is for goods and services to be given without explicit agreement upon a quid pro quo. ... Face refers to two separate but related concepts in Chinese social relations. ... Statues of Buddha such as this, the Tian Tan Buddha statue in Hong Kong, remind followers to practice right living. ... Yuan (缘) or Yuanfen (缘份; pinyin: yuan2 fen4) is a Buddhist-related Chinese concept that means the predetermined principle that dictates a persons relationships and encounters, usually positive, such as the affinity among friends or lovers. ...

Unlike other societies, the Chinese 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".

See also

• Chinese tea culture
• culture of China
• face (social custom)
• ganqing
• guanxi
• kowtow
• red packet