| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
|
|
employed by party and government organizations, were regarded, not just by security organs but also by the top and middle management of educational and cultural institutions. Another aspect was the relative unimportance (compared with most other countries) of straightforwardly commercial transactions as against reliance on personal connections in obtaining scarce goods and services. These factors affected the transactions between Chinese employers and writers on the one hand and their foreign employees and translators on the other, in ways that neither party would have fully realized at the time. Prominent among the misunderstandings was the nature and meaning of reciprocity.
Reciprocity and Gift Exchange
Reciprocity is a relationship term that appears in a wide range of disciplines in many languages, although the precise meaning or use may differ in each language or discipline. According to one anthropologist’s English-language definition, it refers to
Although this definition allows for reciprocity to be an exchange of evils, it conveys the widespread belief that reciprocity is normally a force for good. Moreover, this reciprocity must be balanced: what is repaid must be equivalent to what was first given. “Unequal status generates unbalanced reciprocity, and balanced reciprocity suggests social equality. Balanced reciprocity thus becomes the hallmark of equality.”30 The question of what is balanced, and whether balance is automatically desirable, needs further definition and qualification.