ABSTRACT
Taken as authentic features of an essential “Chinese culture,” both the Chinese family and guanxi particularism have been thoroughly fetishized as objects of cultural analysis by scholars studying overseas Chinese. In particular, familism, guanxi, ganqing (“sentiment”), and xinyong (“trust” or “credit”) had been emphasized by an earlier generation of functionalist scholars as crucial to Chinese business operation (De Glopper 1972; Silin 1972; Amyot 1973; Young 1974). Later scholars have thoroughly integrated these traits as explanatory elements within the postwar celebratory narratives of Chinese business success associated with the economic rise of the Asia Pacific (Berger and Hsiao 1988; Tai 1989; Hamilton 1991). The needs of the Chinese family are seen as focal to the hard work and business acumen to which overseas Chinese everywhere are prone; guanxi particularist relations between businessmen are viewed as positive attributes crucial to the trust and credit that make the Chinese commercial world go round, provide them with access to inside information and commercial contacts, and so on.
