This “what is guanxi?” article contains spoilers for The Brothers Sun on Netflix.
The Brothers Sun landed on Netflix on 3 January and introduced viewers to the Taiwanese criminal underworld. This action black-comedy, starring Michelle Yeoh, Justin Chien and Sam Song Li, is an all-new series that tells the tale of two very different brothers coming together after years apart.
When a Triad boss, Big Sun, is killed in a hit by a rival gang leader, Sleepy Chan, his son and enforcer, Charles, heads to Los Angeles in an effort to keep his estranged mother and brother safe.
While Charles is a hardened criminal who, in the first episode, dispatches multiple men with a rolling pin, his bro Bruce is a socially-awkward student who drives Lyft to pay his college tuition.
When Charles arrives in LA, he is immediately ambushed by a man working for Sleepy Chan. When Bruce returns home, he finds a dead guy in his mother’s kitchen and Charles, whom he no longer recognises, waiting there. This event drags Bruce into the world of organised crime as he embarks with his brother on a mission to track down Sleepy Chan and his men.
Along the way, Charles and Burce travel to meet a contact of their mothers for help in disposing the body of the man who attacked Charles.
Charles expects that the body being feed for his animals will be payment enough for the gruesome work. However, the contact invokes the old Chinese principle of guanxi.
So, what is guanxi in The Brothers Sun on Netflix?
What is guanxi in The Brothers Sun on Netflix?
Guanxi is a Chinese term used to describe mutually beneficial personal and business relationships. This extends into government relations and organised crime activities.
According to Business Insider, “guanxi is about building a network of mutually beneficial relationships which can be used for personal and business purposes.”
Guanxi is similar to effective networking in any country round the world; however, it plays a far more important role in China than it does in the West.
Through guanxi, people can call upon their connections for favours when they need them. This is facilitated by associates spending time getting to know each other, at dinners or other social occasions, to form a tighter bond.
Relationships built on strong guanxi can go beyond business and extend into personal lives and joint ventures in other fields.
In The Brothers Sun, Charles must deliver the monitor lizard in exchange for disposing of his attacker’s body – this makes the relationship mutually beneficial and inline with the principal of guanxi.
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