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