Guanxi (关系)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been accumulating Guanxi during my time here in China.  For those of you who do not know what Guanxi is (and I'm assuming that's just about all of you, this post is going to be all about Guanxi: what it is, its use, and probably a list of phrases that use Guanxi.

Guanxi.  (For those of you who are lazy and want to stop reading this post right now, you can click on this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanxi)

While there is no direct translation of Guanxi from Chinese to English, the best way to describe Guanxi is that it is a form of Networking.  In the US, when you are looking for a job, you network.  You reach out to friends and acquaintances and see if they can help you find a job opportunity.  In China, Guanxi is much like that.  Guanxi is networking on Steroids, Crack, and Adderal all at the same time.  If you 'Have Guanxi' that means that you know someone who can owe you a favor and can provide you support in a time of need.  

The primary difference between Guanxi and Networking is that Guanxi can be far more tangible.  If you are unemployed, but you 'Have a lot of Guanxi' you will not be unemployed for long because your connections will feel obligated to get you a job.

Example.  I was at a bar about a month ago and a group of us were all talking and we met this guy named Benson.  I have no idea what his real name is, and I think Benson sounds kind of lame, so for the sake of this story, let's call him Mr. Guanxi.  As I was talking to Mr. Guanxi he asked me if I had ever been to this one club called Propaganda.  I said that I had and in fact, I even had a VIP card to get in.  He was impressed and said that me and my friends should meet up with him at Propaganda sometime.  He then offered to drive me and my roommate home (he had not been drinking) and I said OK.  As we walk out of the bar me and Dennis see this guys car.  It was a REALLY nice car.  I forget the model, but he told us that he bought it for the equivalent of 40,000 USD.  He then went on to explain that he is going to buy another car in the next few weeks.  He starts telling is that he works for Cisco and that he does sales (or so he said) for them.  The next part of the story is where Mr. Guanxi truly shows his Guanxi power.  He tells me and Dennis that if we ever need a job, to give him a call and he can get us a job at Cisco.  Ka-Blam. Guanxi.

(Caveat to that story is that a week later I gave Mr. Guanxi my VIP card to that club and I haven't heard from him since)

The ability to have Guanxi is especially important in a country like China where there are so many rules.  People who have Guanxi can use said Guanxi to gain them exemptions to these rules.  These exemptions can range from getting a table at a restaurant to getting permission to build an apartment complex where it is against zoning code.

Having a good vocabulary pertaining to the word Guanxi is very important (if you are a foreigner and generally think the entire concept of Guanxi is moderately ridiculous... like I do.)

As such, here is a taste of some of the phrases that my friends and I have taken to using when talking about Guanxi:

"Dude, I rocked some mad Guanxi earlier"

"I'm dripping in Guanxi"

"Can I get a napkin, I think I spilled some Guanxi"

"I'm rollin' in Guanxi"

"I bet that person showers in Guanxi"

... and so on and so forth, you get the idea.

Moral of the story:  If you don't think you have enough of this awesome Guanxi, you probably don't.  Tough.