ABSTRACT
Knowledge about guanxi matters so much that every individual, no matter if he or she is a foreigner living in China or a young Chinese, needs to go through the unique social experience of guanxi and adapt themselves to the culture before they can handle everything skilfully in the country. Ubiquitous guanxi in Chinese society shows its magic everywhere. This chapter analyses gemeinschaft theories on three levels: interpersonal relation, intergroup relation and group–individual relation. It discusses the penetration and colouring of Chinese social relationships by guanxi and explains the difference between "relation" as known in Western society and "guanxi" as known in the society of China. The categorisation self is most typical of European Americans, which can be seen as a culture self in Western societies. The quite different culture self can be seen from the Chinese traditional cultural society, being the guanxinisation process of group–individual connections. The so-called self-construal is the self-definition through the individual's interdependency with others.
