This book is about 关系 guanxi, social connections prevalent in China and Chinese cultural areas. Guanxi is not simply a connection between two individuals, however. The connection in question is highly personalized so that those who participate in guanxi will experience both attractions between the persons involved and also emotional feelings about the relationship. As well as being a personalized connection guanxi is an instrumental relationship. Its instrumentality is not primarily utilitarian, though, because what guanxi provides access to is in the first instance important social goods, including a heightening of social esteem or status, summarily understood as face, in Chinese, 面子 mianzi, as a result of achieving a successful guanxi, and additionally access to the associates of a guanxi partner.