Preface

It is necessary to distinguish family and guanxi discourses from family and guanxi practices-reflecting the more general contrast made by Bourdieu (1977) between formal structural accounts of exchange and the actual strategies (and their associated tactics) of exchange. Whereas discourse formally describes and prescribes the process of exchange, attention to the unspoken practices central to strategies of exchange points us instead to bodily enactments of meaning, the timing and rhythm of prestations, and the history of prior exchanges. In part 2, this is most clearly set out in the essay by Hsing, who discusses the timing of guanxi exchanges, mutual but unstated valuations of gifts exchanged, and hidden, implicit messages conveyed through guanxi relations between Taiwanese investors and local officials in Fujian (see also Yang 1994). Hsing’s essay makes it clear that the effective deployment of guanxi requires much work, in particular the expenditure of sensitively cued emotional labor linked to the giving of material and immaterial gifts.