Search

This article provides an analysis of the cultural meaning of guanxi (關係) in Chinese societies, specifically in the context of a workplace situation in Taiwan. Guanxi is a concept based on Confucian ethics, which was originally a positive concept connoting human closeness, has transformed into a manipulative and instrumentally used variant called " guanxi-practice "(關係學). The article argues that an effective way to understand the cultural meaning of guanxi is to examine the Chinese kinship system, which shares similarities with interpersonal relationships in Chinese culture. The guiding principle of Chinese familial ethics, tong (同), refers to members sharing the same breath who are expected to offer emotional and financial support in times of need. The study analyses the exchange of guanxi -work among men in Taiwanese society to clarify the logic of guanxi operation. The study aims to contribute to the broader discussion on the cultural meaning of guanxi in Chinese societies, explaining why guanxi can empower and entitle participants to seek favors and benefit from one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the Japanese self-regulatory systems that evolved in the aftermath of the Second World War to regulate the sexual content within Japanese films metamorphosed into a powerful state apparatus to create fear and uncertainty for those involved in making adult videos. We depict the history of Japan's obscenity laws, from their origin as a response to Western imperialism to the self-regulatory bodies created in the post-war period of the American Occupation to maintain the obscenity laws while conceding to American demands for freedom of creative expression. Thus, these self-regulatory bodies originated to mediate between two antithetical Western imperial requirements in a state initially wanting to modernize and then democratize. We then examine how the notorious prosecution of the Nihon Ethics of Video Association (Bideo Rinri Kyōkai aka Biderin), the self-regulatory of the adult video industry, brought to a head the contradictions inherent in the state's deployment of these bodies while revealing a more sinister dynamic of state control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]