Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

Guan Xi Is Like The Matrix

Today was a whirlwind of activity that began at 7am. Shortly after I got to the office, I had to make a mad rush in the rain to a bus crammed with pungent sleeping factory operators that had just knocked off the night shift. The bus then cleverly snaked around the highways that were drenched in rain as the Guangdong province faces its wettest month in 6 years (today was a Yellow Storm Alert).

Then I began a grueling 4 hour meeting to conclude some business that for some reason, the folks assigned to it were simply unable to do. When I asked the manager in question what went wrong, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said that the folks I asked to handle it had no Guan Xi with him - he would only deal with me in the belief that I had the best of his interests and my own at heart. This was very flattering but ultimately unproductive for me.

I think something most expat managers assigned to China seem never to get is the concept of Guan Xi. Lately, I’ve been accumulating a motherload of Guan Xi, in order to smoothen the road for me. I ask for favours, and things get done without questions. In return, I am asked for favours, and I ask no questions either. Some days, I think it’s practically impossible to get anything done unless you have any Guan Xi which may be why so many expat managers give up and go home after 6 months.

Of course, Guan Xi can sometimes be a pain in the arse. Dinners must be attended. Requests must be fulfiled. Face, must be given. Little wonder that China employees chafe and gnash their teeth in frustration when they have to deal with their sister companies in USA and Europe that don’t have any concept of Guan Xi. It’s absolutely impossible to think of a person that asks for something without wanting to give anything in value back in return, as anything else but a barbarian savage.

What is Guan Xi but a daisy chain of linked men who have all got one hand in each other’s pocket. All of us looking out for each other, trusting that we will find strength in numbers.

I didn’t know the importance of Guan Xi and “It’s who you know rather than what you know” over here too.

Sigh.

Its all about give and take…

But you see the biggest Guan Xi is found right here in Singapore. Notice how some company always get the Surveyance of something.The Guan Xi here is the same Guan Xi in China except in China it is practiced more in the macroscopic scale.
Guan Xi is base on supporting the person involved family sound familiar?