Angie Shu
China Summer Fellow 2016
Shanghai, China
To succeed in China, a businessman must have guanxi (关系). To describe this concept insufficiently in English terms, guanxi is a network of influence formed by connections and relationships. In just the first two weeks of being in Shanghai, I was able to understand the importance of guanxi, enjoy the benefits it offered, and be cautious to preserve its delicate nature.
During my parents’ stay in Shanghai two decades ago, they had inadvertently prepared a network for me when they made friends with their classmates. They never would have thought that their daughter will grow up to meet and establish professional relationships with those friends. I only met and talked with my father’s classmate (I will call her Aunt F) once in high school when she visited us in California. We had talked late into the night over cups of tea about the business possibilities in Shanghai. Our lengthy conversation had to end because she needed to wake up early to fly back to China.
Years later, my mother created a WeChat group with Aunt F and me. In a broken attempt to speak Chinese politely, I greeted Aunt F to let her know that I was coming to Shanghai to follow up with her suggestions. Excited, she connected me to a position at a center located in her high-rise building. After meeting up with her during my first week in Shanghai, she had already extended my web of connections to tens of business opportunities, each path a viable career choice that could be overlapped with another. Of course, I had to exercise caution to maintain both my familial guanxi with Aunt F and the fragile guanxi with the new people I met. The delicious traditional Chinese dinners I had each day meeting new people introduced by Aunt F were analogous to the overwhelming excitement I had for what I previously thought would be a bland future.