  Guanxi, roughly translated as "social connection", is a term commonly used in
the Chinese language. In this research, we employed a linguistic approach to
explore popular discourses on Guanxi. Although sharing the same Confucian
roots, Chinese communities inside and outside Mainland China have undergone
different historical trajectories. Hence, we took a comparative approach to
examine guanxi in Mainland China and in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau (TW-HK-M).
Comparing guanxi discourses in two Chinese societies aims at revealing the
divergence of guanxi culture. The data for this research were collected on
Twitter over a three-week period by searching tweets containing guanxi written
in Simplified Chinese characters and in Traditional Chinese characters. After
building, visualising, and conducting community detection on both semantic
networks, two guanxi discourses were then compared in terms of their major
concept sub-communities. This research aims at addressing two questions: Has
the meaning of guanxi transformed in contemporary Chinese societies? And how do
different socio-economic configurations affect the practice of guanxi? Results
suggest that guanxi in interpersonal relationships has adapted to a new family
structure in both Chinese societies. In addition, the practice of guanxi in
business varies in Mainland China and in TW-HK-M. Furthermore, an extended
domain was identified where guanxi is used in a macro-level discussion of state
relations. Network representations of the guanxi discourses enabled reification
of the concept and shed lights on the understanding of social connections and
social orders in contemporary China.
