Die Gabe und die Korruption: Form- und Funktionswandel des Tausches in China

Abstract

In the last few years, the social pressure to give more and more expensive presents has increased tremendously in all spheres of social life in the People’s Republic of China. The phenomenon of exchanging extravagant gifts, to the extent of qualifying as corruption, is the subject of this article, in which the practice of gift-giving is analyzed, based on Marcel Mauss, as a "total social fact". Legal and illegal, legitimate and illegitimate gifts are shown as comprising a reciprocal exchange of gifts which serves specific functions within the economic and political system in the People’s Republic of China. Following an excursus on the origin of gift-giving as tokens of alliance or tributes (with particular reference to Marcel Granet), modifications in the forms and functions of the gift exchange are then discussed, especially how they have been influenced, first by a planned economy and then by a market economy. The conclusion is drawn that as long as a planned economy continues to be the dominant form, the exchange of gifts will maintain its function of compensating for dysfunctions of the economic system.