Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2012, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (6): 158-181.

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Looking for Familiar Faces in a Sea of Strangers: A Social Psychological Analysis of Hometown Associations on College Campus

  

  1. YANG Yiyin, Institute of Sociology ,Chinese Academy of Social Sciences；ZHANG Shuguang, Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
  • Online:2012-11-20 Published:2012-11-20
  • Contact: YANG Yiyin, Institute of Sociology ,Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. E-mail: yiyiny2003@yahoo.com.cn. E-mail:yiyiny2003@yahoo.com.cn

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Abstract:

As crystallization of “groupself relation” and “intergroup relation,” the concept of “we” can be formed in the Chinese cultural context in two different channels: through “guanxilization” or “categorization.” The former contributes to the salience of “the larger self” and the formation of “the pattern of difference sequence,” and the latter contributes to the salience of “collectiveself” and the formation of “the pattern of group.” As for which channel to come into play, it depends on context priming and the guidance of value orientation. Besides, the social psychological mechanisms underlying these two channels may interact with each other. Socially interacting with one’s hometown people (tongxiang) is a longstanding common phenomenon that can be found everywhere in China. Sampling from college students, this study used semistructured interview to gain an understanding of the social intercourse among college students who came from the same hometown (tongxiang) so as to explore the interaction between the social psychological mechanisms of the dual channels aforementioned, and to find out whether a “hometown association” was more like a club or like a guanxi network. This study has found that the dual mechanisms intertwine, compete, and negotiate with each other in the process of interaction among college tongxiang, which in turn has contributed to the alternating appearance of the guanxilized “self” and the categorized “self” in new forms. To be more specific, such a phenomenon is related to the particularity of the identity of “tongxiang”: Being a component in “the pattern of difference sequence” existing in one’s hometown, it is likely to serve as the basis of guanxi, and also of a social identity due to the sharing of some features. When college students move out of hometown to a new place for education, tongxiang relation is probably the closest relation only second to kinship in the system of guanxi. Propelled by the need of selfpositioning in a new social setting and the cognitive set derived from “the pattern of difference sequence,” the interaction among three factors of “relative accessibility,” “normative fit,” and “comparative fit” make “tongxiang” a salient category in the selfcategorization process, just as the selfcategorization theory has described, namely, “the categorization of guanxi.” With dyadic social intercourse that follows, individual and categorical relations evolve into interpersonal relationships, which begin to push the guanxilized self and the somewhat retired categorized self into competition. This usually will result in the salience of the guanxilized self that can be alternatively called “concept guanxilization.” Two requisites are needed, though: “relative accessibility of tongxiang” and “mutual attraction of expressiveness and instrumentality.” Overall, “guanxilization” overrides “categorization” in the social intercourses among tongxiang, and hometown associations (at least on college campus) are more like guanxi networks than clubs. The current study concludes that the Chinese are still relying upon guanxilization as a critical path in social intercourse.

Key words:  hometown association, the stranger society, acquaintances network, the categorization of guanxi, concept guanxilization, the pattern of difference sequence