ABSTRACT
Peer pressure, social criticism, and various forms of group self-enforcement are commonly used in the United States as well as in China. In smaller US communities gossiping may be a way of circulating information and developing a group consensus on a question. In both the United States and China, much of a person's dealings with others consists not of a series of single isolated transactions but of clusters of continuing relationships. The kinds of civil cases that reach the courts in the United States reflect the sociological phenomenon of trying to preserve continuing relationships. There are major differences in the manner and extent to which the concept of continuing relations is translated into actual practice in the United States and China. Some of the fundamental differences in American and Chinese law reflect differences in philosophical and ideological value judgments. In the United States, law affords protection for the individual against unfair actions by more powerful persons or by officials.
