Some jeton on the exchange table: - Gifts (which is the theme of this book) - Marriage (姻亲) that connects two families (which this book also mentions when observing the village)
Materials in the book: - Page 75: From the financial record the Wang family, 5-10% are spent on gifts to maintain social relationship. This cost on gifts also change as the Wang couple enter different age groups, which means that they require different types of support from their social networks. - Page 103: A list of gift values Xu receives when his second son gets married. There are 22 types of friends and fully demonstrates his success in improving his social connections.
Some key indicators of the quality of a person's social connections: a) Size of the exchange network b) Percentage of relatives vs. friends in a) c) Percentage of intimate friends (who are willing to do big favors)
Different connections of people in the same local neighborhood: - Personal core, e.g., parents, siblings, very intimate friends - Reliable zone, e.g., close friends, - Effective zone, e.g., good acquaintances.