Gift Giving 3 Gift Giving and the fictional Shaanxi village depicted by Jia (1992: 321), increases in the standard of living during the 197os and 198os allowed villagers to invent new gift-giving opportunities, expand gift-giving capacities, and extend gift-giving networks. Yet, though change was continuous, it was only against the background of what was held to be usual in 1988-9o that individual gift-giving acts took their significance, and that actors motives and strategic artistry become apparent Perhaps an example can further illustrate my approach. If, at a series of weddings, a certain category of gift givers all give the groom the same type of gift, one may conclude that at that time, under those historical Perhaps more directly than any other method, gift giving constituted circumstances, that type of gift was usual and that all of these gift givers, guanxi; by giving gifts, villagers managed(created and re-created)re following their own aims and strategies, decided to give the usual rather than an exceptional gift. One may not conclude that there was a"rule change and human feelings, the material exchange of gifts directly gen erated ganging and guanxi. The Chinese term zuo ge renqing illustrate for a certain category of gift givers to give that type of gift at weddings ndeed, in 1988-go Fengjia, as in the fictionalized village portrayed by this implication. Literally it means"to make human feeling ," but in common use it refers to giving a gift or doing a favor or, more specif Jia(1992: 471), the size of gifts and relationships of givers was public knowledge and a matter for much discussion. Thus, the"usual gift "was cally, giving a gift or favor for the purpose of establishing or improving well-known and was treated in practice as a background for specific guanxi. In gift giving, the relation between ganging and guanxi worked as a linking force between past, present, and future Ganqing, the feeling of the present, elicited memories of relationships past and begat guanxi, the material obligation for future exchange. Gifts and to contextualize the case studies and analysis that follow, I begin In 1988-go Fengjia, most gifts fell into five categories: cloth, clothes. with an account of the types of gifts villagers gave and the occasions or food products, " congratulatory gifts"(hexili), and"gift-money"(ren- which they gave them. In no sense, however, should this background n-event-money). Foodstuffs (shipin) were the be taken as a set ofrules. As both Pierre Bourdieu(1977, 199o)and nost common gifts. During the late 19]os and 198os Fengjia residents began giving more expensive foods like bottled fruits, sweets, and Annette Weiner(1976: 220-222)argue, resorting to"rules"as an expla okies instead of grain or steamed bread, though in a few contexts it time lapse between gift and countergift defines gift giving as a social was still most appropriate to give steamed bread. On some occasion It is the possibility that a gift might not be reciprocated pecific food gifts were fairly standard. For example, when celebratin gives the gift its moral weight. Social custom, the relationship between the birth of a child, eggs were given to the new mother to help her re d receiver n the lives of the parties involved could end cuprate. In general, giving foodstuffs showed concern for someone's or change abruptly during the time lapse between gift and countergift health; when visiting the elderly or the ill and mothers who had recently Consequently, gift giving produces a contingent social field rather than given birth, food products were appropriate gifts. Likewise, food given reproduces a static social structure and is an art rather than a science. in ancestral offerings embodied concern for the well- being of ancestors Moreover, as many scholars have noted, traditional"gift-giving Cloth was almost always given by women to women. Money, equiva practices have been anything but static under CCP rule in both rural lent to the value of the cloth that would have been given was sometime and urban China(Walder 1986: Miao and Lu 1987: 16: Mayfair Yang substituted; however, on those occasions it was said that the meaning of 1988). In Fengjia, as in the Heilongjiang village described by Yan(1993) this money was"cloth " differentiating it from the money that was given as"gift-money. "Parents gave clothes to children or children-in-l
6o Practices of Guanxi Production Gift g 61 ing the price of gifts. More than once I heard young men brag of the congratulatory present that they had bought for their newly married friend, saying something like"That glass-framed decoration cost 6o uan and only one other friend chipped in on it with me. "Likewise, arents preparing a dowry proudly pointed out which items had been wly bought and told me the price. When a dowry was delivered. eople crowded around to check out the quality and quantity of furni- ure. Moreover, dowries were not the only sort of gift whose value was publicly assessed. Gifts were never wrapped and were given in front of everyone who happened to be there at the time. Congratulatory gifts had the giver's name written on them in big letters, and were displayed for everyone to see. In brief, assessing, bragging about, and displaying Figure 13 Jingzi (glass-framed artwork)on display at a store in the county seat d guanxi involved both sentiment and material obligation, iving monetary gifts and assessing the monetary value of non- Congratulatory gifts were given by friends to the groom and/or his family on the occasion of his wedding. They included practical items like thermoses and decorative wall hangings-either paintings, cloth Gift-giving Occasion with congratulatory messages attached, or a type of glass-framed art Food products could be given any time one visited friends or relatives, work (jingzi; see figure 13). Like Chinese paintings given to a Patron, the but were almost always given when visiting during spring festival, visit ascriptions on congratulatory gifts usually included the giver's name ing old relatives when they were sick, or visiting the families of friends the occasion, and the date, Glass-framed decorations were often dis. or relatives who had recently passed away. Over spring festival, older played in villagers' homes years after the event for which they we friends and relatives gave money (about a to 8 yuan) to preteen chil- given. Similarly, urban work units and village committees throughout dren, Zouping County displayed glass-framed decorations that they had Fengjia residents held birthday parties for old people and one-year- old babies. To an old person's birthday party friends usually brought 4 Gift-money was given to the head of a household on the c food, To a child's first birthday party, relatives usually brought eggs dings, engagement parties(xiang qin), dowry parties"(song hezi) wenty to ffty in number or Y4 to Vo worth)and some twisted sticks and twelfth-day parties. The prominent use of cash as a gift contradicts f fried dough called mianhua, Female relatives also brought cloth Fel- Western sensibilities which, except between parents and children, deer low villagers and friends could bring cloth, fried dough, or both money an inappropriate gift. As Bloch (1989) points out, the need for At twelfth-day parties people from outside the village usually gave Western anthropologists to explain the signifcance of cash gifts in for gifts on the day of the feast, while fellow villagers gave any time in the eign locales says more about the symbolism of money in the West than month after the baby was born. ' Gifts were of two sorts. Close friends elsewhere. We place gifts in the realm of kinship, sentimentality, and and relatives, who were allowed into the mother's room to see the baby. morality, and cash in the realm of commodity exchange. we deem it gave money to the mother for the baby. Other people gave presents of tactless to inquire of a gift's monetary value and idealize gifts as inalien eggs and fried dough sticks to the head of the household (usually the able (cf. Weiner 1994). As the essence of alienability and countability. mother's father-in-law)for the new mother. The mother's female, natal cash is the least appropriate gift. relatives attended these events in large numbers and gave generously of In contrast, Fengjia residents had no compunctions about discuss- both money and food products. It the family was given more eggs than
62 Practices of Guanxi Production they could use(as was usually the case), the surplus was sold at local niture. Which household bought what furniture and exactly how much the brideswealth should be were topics subject to much negotiation Engagements and weddings included numerous Thus these figures are only approximations. They are, however, compa sions. The first or second time that the prospective bride and groom ble to those reported elsewhere in rural China during the 198os( Fei met, the man usually gave a"meeting gift"(jianmian li)which in 198 1986:5: Thireau 1988: 308; Yan 1993: 196). That everyone I spoke to amounted to W3oo to w400, the value of a rather expensive watch. By ac- ported figures in the same range perhaps indicates the lack of class dif cepting this gift, the bride-to-be accepted the match. The families then ferentiation during the 198os in Fengjia. In general, friends and relatives scheduled an engagement Party. On such occasions the woman, her of the bride's family delivered the dowry the day before the wedding matchmaker, and several of her elder female relatives(including sisters, The groom's family feted the deliverers and gave them each gifts of ys sisters-in-law, or aunts, but not her mother), went to the man's house to￥1o. nd inspected his family's house, land, and property. After a banquet The day before the wedding the bride's household sponsored a dowry the matchmaker introduced the bride-to-be to all of the man's elder party. At that time many of the bride's family's fellow villagers, friends, female relatives, each of whom er a gift of cloth. That evening o and relatives gave the head of the bride's household gift-money. In addi the following day, the fiance, either in person or through the match tion, the bride's aunts and her maternal grandmother's family usually aker, gave the woman's household part of the brideswealth, usually about V1, ooo. This occasion was also a public declaration of the engage. The wedding ceremony itself was sponsored by the grooms house ment(biao tai). The fiance's household notified their friends and fellow villagers, and many came over in the days preceding the event and gave As on the day of the engagement, all of the groom's elder female rela the head of his household some gift-money. tives gave gifts of cloth to the new bride in addition to the gift-mor The next day the fiance and his matchmaker usually went to the womans house for a ren qin (recognition of relatives). On such occa- the groom, from both inside and outside the village gave heeds of that they gave to the head of the household. The personal fri sions the man met his fiancee's parents, ate a meal, and was given his congratulatory gifts. These could be quite expensive(as much as Y6o) wn"meeting gift"of *3oo to V400. At this point the couple was con though often several friends would join to buy one present In 1988-9o sidered engaged and waited until they reached legal age(twenty-two for the village committee likewise gave one of these presents to each groom men and t wenty for women) to marry. During the engagement perio in the village. In the wedding of the son of an official who worked in the township seat but lived in the village, friends of the grooms father uch visits the man first went to the woman's house also gave congratulatory presents. The groom's family invited all who perhaps bringing some food gifts to give to her parents. The woman's pitched in on congratulatory presents to"hexijiu"(drink the wine of Parents might give him V3o or a set of clothes. Upon returning to the happiness)-the final event of the wedding day. At most of the we dings I went to, three separate records were kept: one for the con lar gifts. She then ate a meal at their house before he took her home. After the couple became old enough to legally register for marriage (local officials allowed people to add to their age after each Janu women who had previou arried out of (and into)the same village aryi, so most people registered in early January and held their weddings as the bride. One such woman told me this gift embodied sympathy for efore spring festival ), they went to the township marriage bureau and the new bride's awkward situation. The bride's family gave no gifts to registered. If their registration was approved, the groom gave the bride the groom's family on the day of the wedding e rest of the brideswealth(usually about #2, ooo more)and the families nt about arranging the wedding. The bride and her household gener- ally used the brideswealth to buy furniture for the dowry, often adding to it themselves. The groom's household also might buy additional fur-
64 Practices of Guanxi Production Talking about Gifts and Guanxi polite and really knows how to make friends. Again, the skillful use of gifts to establish friendly feelings was praised as artistry. The language used to talk about gifts and guanxi likewise points to the congruence between feelings of friendship and economic exchange in guanxi, and the elements of virtuosity and timing in the art of gift Case Studies giving. The term laiwang(coming and going) when referring to guan This section discusses cases emblematic of the full range of gift-giving could mean the exchange of gifts, the exchange of visits, or the exchang practices I saw in Fengjia. At most ritual events, the hosts set up an of ganqing(human feeling) between friends. when talking about how accounting table and kept lists of who gave what gifts, My knowledge to deal with guanxi and gift giving, people often used the phrase"zenme f these cases comes from reviewing such lists. At first I was surprise ai zenme wang"meaning to treat people as they treat you. Sometimes that people would share these lists with me, but I later surmised that I would be confused by this phrase and ask if it referred to reciprocal many villagers enjoyed discussing their gift networks; they viewed them visiting, the exchange of gifts, or feelings and attitudes toward the other as accomplishments. Moreover, as Yan (1993: 45)comments, gift lists person. Almost always the reply was"It's all the same"(yige yisi),De were sometimes used like photo albums; they commemorated famil ptions of guanxi as being close (jin)and, therefore, having a high reunions and were meant to be reviewed level of ganging and being reliable(being able to count on it for material The first case is the wedding of a young man whose education er support and favors)also overlapped ini several situations. For example, after junior high school and whose family did no work outside of farm in response to the question"Who will you get to deliver the dowry ing. As a result the groom and his family had no connection with a he two most common replies were someone who had a close gua and someone who was reliable (kekaode) After a while I began to real- large network of classmates or coworkers. Thus, most of the people who me to the wedding were relatives and fellow villagers. However, the ize that people were using these terms interchangeably. As with laiwang, groom's father had four brothers and the groom himself was popular when I asked what was the difference between these two terms, I got the in the village. Sixty people gave the head of the household a total of reply " It's all the same"(yige yisi ). The language here is certainly not f350 in gift-money. Most people gave Ys, but the groom's four pat nal uncles each gave Yio, while one of the grooms maternal aunts gave and ganqing in a rural Taiwanese township during the early 197os, Bruce Y20. When I asked why she gave more than everyone else, the groom Jacobs(1979)reports the use of practically identical phrases. said because she was especially close to his mother. All of the grooms Finally, consider the following descriptions of people who gave elder female relatives also gave the bride V7 to 8 worth of cloth.In received unusually many or unusually few presents. Of a teacher who all, seventy-five people gave or In received about 11, 200 in gift-money on the occasion of his youngest largest single giver was the grooms best friend (a fellow villager and daughter's marriage, several men commented, "He handles his guanxi classmate in junior high school) who very well. " Of a young man who received relatively few congratulatory tion by himself. presents on his wedding, one said, "He does not handle guanxi very A second case involves the dowry party for the youngest daughter of well. In these statements not only is giving gifts directly related to han a retired teacher. The daughter had graduated from college and had just dling guanxi, but the dimension of skill is also clearly indicated. A few been assigned a teaching job in the prefectural seat. Her father said she days after the 1989 spring festival I went to see a local official, accom was the first woman in the village to marry a man of her own choosing panied by a couple who were going to town on another errand. The (though she and her husband still relied on matchmakers to handle the official's wife gave the woman some foodstuffs as a present. The woman wedding arrangements). The young had three older brothers resisted accepting them, but the local official told his wife to "just put who had already married and were living in separate households in them in the car, "thus forcing the gift. On the way back everyone seemed the village. The bride's classmates and coworkers were going to throw quite pleased and the womans husband said of the official. "[He] is very a separate party for her when she returned to the prefectural seat, and
66 Practices of Guanxi Production Gift Giving 67 thus they were not present at this event. However, in addition to rela At first Ming was just going to chip in with two other friends to buy a tives, many of the father's former coworkers and students came. I did groom from the same team. However, ore careful consideration Ming decided to chip in on a present ree other friends for one of the grooms not on his team, and for her dowry. Monetary gifts ranged from ws to wao for fellow villagers to buy an expensive painted glass decoration with just one other friend and from Vao to 3o for close relatives. Three exceptional gifts of 2oo for the groom who was on his own team. Ming explained his decision: each were made by the brides three older brothers. They said that they now people were buying more and more presents. Though he didn't feel were beginning to carry out the duty of supporting their father in his obligated to buy one for the groom from the other team, some of his old age(shanyang). On two other occasions I also saw sons who ha friends were buying him one, thus making this groom the friend already moved out of their parents' homes giving their elderly parents friend from the same village By chipping in on this present, Ming coul arge amounts of gift-money confirm this guanxi and have one more friend. So"giving was better When asked why so many gave more than the usual Vs, people gave an not giving. "In the case of the groom from the same team, Ming rwo sorts of answers. One was because this retired teacher handled his said that he had just discovered that his fiancee was friends with this guanxi with others especially well (ta guanxi gao de man hao). The sec- grooms bride. Since in the future his own wife and his teammate's wife ond was that people were just repaying him in the same amounts that would bring their families closer together, he decided to buy an expen he had given them on various earlier occasions(zemme lai zenme wang) sive present. when I asked for help in resolving the differences between these state- ments, Teacher Feng pointed out that there really was not any difference. To have good guanxi with people and to exchange a large quantity of Diseussion money on various festival occasions were parts of the same process Perhaps the first point that could be made is that the closer the guanxi A third case is a twelfth-day party that celebrated the birth of a baby the bigger the gift. Close relatives tended to give more than friends, boy to the wife of a young teacher who still lived with his parents in one and those who wished to claim a close friendship gave more than those household. In general, gift giving at these events was on a smaller scale who didnt. Whenever I asked why one person gave more than another. than at weddings or dowry parties. Guests gave eggs and fried dough the answer almost invariably was"because so and so's guanxi is closer. sticks to the teacher's father(as a present to the young mother) and/or However, this point is potentially misleading. On the one hand, the gave money to the young mother( for the baby)when they went in to correspondence between closeness of guanxi and size of gift should be see the newborn. In all, about fifty people gave gifts. Most gave twenty seen as constitutive and not simply representational; a large gift did ggs, but the relatives from the young mother's natal home(niangia ot merely"stand for"the unchanging reality of a close guanxi, it con ren)gave thirty eggs each. Most people gave Y3 to ws when they saw stituted or reconstituted the guanxi. To not give the gift would have he baby, but one man gave Yio. This man was the father of the fiance altered the guanxi. Gifts, in their embodiment of the desired closeness of the teacher's younger sister. The teacher said that he gave more than f a guanxi, helped construct that guanxi, On the other hand, there was others in order to help establish (jianli)the guanxi between his family more to the constitution of guanxi than gift size: a person could nd that of his son's fiancee create a guanxi ipso facto with anyone at any time just by giving a large The final rds the decisions of a young man al bout whom to gift. The circumstances and timing had to be right. when Ming gave give to and how much to spend on congratulatory gifts. i give him the the husband of his fiancee's friend a large congratulatory gift. he seized three men were to be married an opportunity to strengthen a guanxi that, because of other circum- One was from the same team as Ming,moreover, this groom's bride stances, had the potential to be deepened. Thus large gifts constituted was from the same town as Mings own fiancee. The other two grooms close relations, but not in and of themselves. were from different teams and had no particular guanxi with Ming. All In any case, this capacity of gifts to realize guanxi allowed several were slightly older than he, so none of them had been Ming s classmate. types of action to be taken through the giving of gifts. On the one hand