Social Class, Social networks, Reciprocity: Motivations of Chinese Urban Family Gift-Money Transfer

• In Event: 3555 - Section on the Political Economy of the World-System Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 3. Global Dynamics and Local Struggles

Abstract

As a common practice and ritual, monetary gift-money transfer has special features and meanings in China but received little academic explanation in current sociological research. Certain gift-giving motivations such as acquiring higher social class or maintaining social relationships were discussed, but research on motivations of family-based gift-money income is still inadequate. By using national micro-household data, this paper investigates that monetary gift-giving behaviors among urban families in China is influenced by three factors: differences of social class between givers and recipients, social networks owned by the household, as well as the moral and reciprocal factors that drive the gift-giving.

Authors

• Wei Zhang, Post-Doc

• Shaojie Zhou, Associate Professor

• Yingdan Lu, Stanford University