Abstract
This study explores how Chinese internal migrants utilise WeChat to sustain their hometown-based networks by rethinking the western concepts around social capital in the digitally driven modern Chinese society characterised by normalised population mobility. We highlight that WeChat is a highly converged digital tool that is embedded in Chinese people’s everyday life and acts effectively as the central hub of individuals’ overall social networks. This infrastructuralisation of WeChat allows migrants to leverage bonding, bridging and linking social capital from their multidimensionally overlapped hometown-based personal ties, both close and weak, along with institutional ties within a single platform. We redefine bridging social capital as migrants are able to access valuable information and perspectives beyond weak ties. We argue that Chinese socio-cultural norms influence individuals’ digital capital, aiding in network maintenance and the exchange for social, economic and cultural capital. This study further identifies the divides in the capital acquisition and exchange processes.
Keywords
Introduction
China’s Hukou (household registration) policy, enforced since 1958, tightly restricted individuals’ travel, limited their employment opportunities and curtailed their access to necessities and social benefits outside their places of origin (Chan, 2010). This policy was relaxed with China’s 1979 economic reforms, which spurred industrialisation and increased demand for low-skilled labour in China’s coastal cities (Chan, 2010). This situation led to a surge in rural-to-urban migration in the 1990s (Chan and Hu, 2003), followed by a significant increase in internal migration, particularly urban-to-urban, since 2000 (Ma et al., 2019). In 2021, China had 375.8 million internal migrants, 1 with one in six citizens working away from their hometowns (Zhang and Yang, 2022).
Over the past two decades, China has also undergone rapid changes in its Internet communication technology landscape. In particular, the smartphone-based mega-platform WeChat has seamlessly integrated various media functions and served as a bridge to external platforms, incorporating into essential Chinese cultural, social and political structures (Chen et al., 2018; Xiong, 2024). Consequently, WeChat has dominated Chinese people’s mobile lives in the context that it has absorbed the largest Chinese netizens (Plantin and de Seta, 2019). The status of WeChat has not only led to studies on its infrastructuralisation, which brings state-level impacts (Plantin and de Seta, 2019), but also attracted scholars’ focus on its effects on relation issues among Chinese individuals (Lisha et al., 2017; Ou and Lin, 2024; Wang, 2016).
Guanxi (Relation), as an important social concept in Chinese society, has received much attention from academic research examining how people manage different types of relations by strategically leveraging traditional rules in face-to-face situations (Lin, 2002; Ruan, 2017). No existing research has characterised systematical practices of Guanxi rules in Chinese digital society. We argue that WeChat facilitates the formation of a new pattern of performing Guanxi rules in today’s China, marked by significant digitalisation and internal population mobility. Therefore, this study first explores the utilisation of WeChat by Chinese migrants in adhering to Chinese Guanxi rules and relevant norms to sustain their hometown-based networks.
Since Guanxi is referred to as a strong element enabling social networks between individuals that exchange resources in China, the concept of Guanxi is often linked to western social capital theory (Chen, 2018; Hwang, 1987; Lin, 2002). Ruan (2017) elaborately depicted how individuals utilise various types of personal relations to serve as social capital by adhering to Guanxi rules, facilitating access to other forms of capital within a traditional closed community in China. Little is known about the transregional capital acquisition and exchange facilitated by digital means in navigating Guanxi rules. Ragnedda (2018) notes that individuals’ digital capital impacts their ability, intention and results in using technology to produce social, cultural, economic and political capital. We argue that Chinese individuals’ digital capital determines their media usage to practise Guanxi rules, influencing their network maintenance and capital exchanges. Thus, this study further rethinks social capital logic through examining how Chinese migrants’ digital capital influences their acquisition of social, cultural and economic capital from their hometown networks through WeChat.
Literature Review
Chinese Guanxi Culture
Guanxi (Relation) refers to personal networks, specifically focusing on interpersonal relations established for instrumental purposes in social exchanges, which plays a crucial role in building valuable networks that offer opportunities in economic, cultural, political and other domains, in China (Barbalet, 2018; Hwang, 1987; Lin, 2002; Ruan, 2017). Hwang (1987) categorised Chinese Guanxi into three types: expressive, instrumental and mixed ties. Expressive ties encompass close personal relationships, such as closest kinships and friendships, fostering feelings of safety and belonging; instrumental ties are formed with non-family members, often driven by specific goals, such as the relationships between business professionals and clients or doctors and patients; mixed ties encompass diverse, particularistic relationships, spanning relatives, friends, neighbours, colleagues, schoolmates and individuals from broader networks (Hwang, 1987).
Guanxi is managed by four rules, namely, need, equity, Renqing (Favour) and Mianzi (Face) rule (Hwang, 1987). The expressive tie is strengthened by the need rule based on closeness, where the favour-giver empathically perceives the favour receiver’s need as their own, with less emphasis on reciprocation; instrumental tie is governed by equity rule, involving symmetric and preconditional reciprocity, where the current or future value of exchanges between parties determines the extent of favour extension (Hwang, 1987; Ruan, 2017). The mixed tie is instrumentally sustained by Renqing and Mianzi rules (Hwang, 1987).
Renqing involves reciprocal commitments and indebtedness in social interactions, fostering a moral obligation towards others, creating a sense of ‘I owe you’, which motivates further gift exchange (Barbalet, 2018; Hwang, 1987). When people receive gifts or assistance from others, it is customary to reciprocate with a gesture of greater value, creating a Renqing Debt (Lin, 2002; Ruan, 2017). Red-Packet is a tangible symbol of exchanging Renqing in China, typically filled with cash and given during special occasions like weddings, birthdays or traditional festivals to express goodwill to important individuals.
Mianzi is categorised into Social Mianzi (Social face) and Moral Mianzi (Moral face) (Chen, 2018). Social Mianzi represents the recognition and prestige one garners by effectively performing socially acknowledged roles, encompassing social, economic and cultural aspects (Hwang, 1987). Social Mianzi must be respected by highlighting individuals’ social status, reputation, connections and resources to encourage the maintenance of positive relationships and the exchange of favours; Moral Mianzi represents individuals’ perceived moral and polite image and its influence on their social acceptance and reputation, playing a significant role in shaping ethical behaviour and awareness during social interactions (Chen, 2018). Moral Mianzi raises the amount of Renqing Debt. Failing to repay a Renqing or returning it with less value breaches the Renqing contract, resulting in a loss of personal reputation within one’s social networks (Barbalet, 2018).
Doing Renqing and Mianzi are effective ways to La Guanxi (Foster relation), a relationship-building practice that involves exchanging favours, seeking cooperation, creating indebtedness and more, however this process typically spans a lifetime or even generations, as the benefits rarely manifest instantly (Lin, 2002; Ruan, 2017; Wilson, 2002). La Guanxi is crucial for forming new relationships and adapting existing ones. Transitioning from an instrumental tie to a mixed tie, or vice versa, is relatively straightforward, however shifting from a mixed tie to an expressive tie, or vice versa, is challenging, highlighting the flexible boundary between instrumental and mixed ties and the steadfastness of expressive ties (Hwang, 1987). Certainly, expressive ties, like aiding close relatives, are not typically considered a part of La Guanxi because Chinese family ethics prioritise collective closeness and reciprocity within major blood ties (Fei, 1962; Ruan, 2017). Overall, Chinese Guanxi is a concept that is similar to western social capital.
Social, Economic, Cultural and Digital Capital Transformation
Social capital encompasses resources derived from various social networks, such as information, care, financial support and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness; these resources can enhance individual productivity and achievements across various domains, including education, the economy and health (Alencar and Tsagkroni, 2019; Bourdieu, 1986; Lin, 1999; Putnam, 2000). It is categorised into bonding, bridging and linking types (Agger and Jensen, 2015; Putnam, 2000).
Bonding social capital denotes the establishment of close ties with intimate family members, close friends and individuals who exhibit comparable socio-demographic characteristics; it offers emotional and material support and fosters deep trust among individuals, serving as a crucial factor in linking people to various social groups (Alencar and Tsagkroni, 2019; Lin, 1999; Mintarsih, 2019). Bridging social capital predominantly emerges from weak ties, involving individuals with diverse backgrounds encompassing factors like ethnicity, education and profession; these distant acquaintances provide valuable information and a range of perspectives (Alencar and Tsagkroni, 2019; Lin, 1999).
The concepts of close tie and weak tie align with the expressive tie and instrumental tie respectively in Chinese Guanxi. The Chinese mixed tie can also be considered a form of weak tie. First, a mixed tie refers to specific connections within various circles, such as family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, schoolmates and individuals from shared or distinct networks (Hwang, 1987), which exhibit characteristics similar to weak ties. Second, switching from an instrumental tie to a mixed tie, or vice versa, is easier than transitioning from a mixed tie to an expressive tie, or vice versa (Hwang, 1987), reflecting the obvious boundary between mixed ties and expressive ties, akin to close ties.
The development of linking social capital hinges on the interplay between individuals and institutions. Essential to this dynamic is the pivotal role played by representatives of local institutions, who foster trust-based entry for external individuals and actively facilitate the coordination of both tangible and intangible resources, as well as the exchange of ideas and information, drawing from networks that extend beyond their immediate social circles (Agger and Jensen, 2015). Linking social capital can assist the local society to foster new local networks and attract external resources to promote local development, which is especially important for newly generated communities in migrants’ host societies and traditionally closed communities that may resist innovation (Agger and Jensen, 2015; Alencar and Tsagkroni, 2019). From this view, linking social capital may help migrants reintegrate themselves into their hometown communities and leverage resources between them and their hometowns, benefiting everyone involved, including individuals, institutions and societies.
Bonding and bridging social capital form the basis for activating linking social capital in the localities, with a pivotal role assigned to bonding social capital; linking social capital, in turn, supplements both bonding and bridging social capital (Agger and Jensen, 2015). A multifaceted connection facilitates the exchange of resources among diverse relationships, fostering the efficient utilisation of bonding, bridging and linking social capital (Agger and Jensen, 2015). Accumulating and leveraging a variety of social capital forms can result in advantages for individuals while also nurturing the growth of whole communities or societies; this process contributes to producing collective social capital, reinforcing dedication to a community or organisation and strengthening the ability to participate in collaborative efforts for shared benefits (Putnam, 2000).
Bourdieu (1986) contends that social, economic and cultural capital stand as foundational forms of capital in human society. Economic capital possesses the ability for swift transformation into monetary form and subsequent institutionalisation through property rights, and cultural capital manifests in three distinct states: the embodied state, characterised by enduring dispositions of the mind and body; the objectified state, encompassing cultural artifacts such as pictures, books, instruments and more; and the institutionalised state, legitimised through educational qualifications (Bourdieu, 1986). Bourdieu (1986) notes that social, economic and cultural capital are mutually convertible and interdependent, and suggests that individuals within society can be seen as interchangeable elements.
In the context that physical society has largely intertwined with online communities, digital capital has been proposed to explain the exchange among social, cultural, economic and other forms of capital from offline to online. Ragnedda (2018) defines digital capital as the accumulation of externalised technological resources and a set of subjectively internalised digital competencies to deal with information, communication, safety and problem-solving. Digital capital that individuals own enables them to transform offline activities into digital actions and then obtain resources through online engagement, resulting in the reproduction of social, economic, cultural and other profits in both online and offline societies, including career opportunities, economic income, a broad personal network and valuable knowledge (Ragnedda, 2018).
Previous studies had a predominant focus on how migrants utilise digital means to leverage multidimensional social capital and thus access profits in their destinations (Alencar and Tsagkroni 2019; Mintarsih, 2019). Some have paid more attention to migrants’ digital practices within close ties in their hometowns for acquiring emotional supports, identifying relevant divides caused by asymmetrical digital resources (Baldassar, 2016; Madianou and Miller, 2012). Little is known on how digital technologies and competencies impact migrants’ maintaining and deriving benefits from their multifaceted hometown-based interpersonal and institutional networks.
Thus, this study aims to understand how Chinese internal migrants’ digital capital assists them to mobilise their various overlapped hometown-based interpersonal close and weak ties and institutional relations, enabling them to acquire bonding, bridging and linking social capital, facilitating the exchange of economic and cultural capital.
WeChat as Infrastructure Dominating Chinese People’s Everyday Life
The Chinese government’s ban on overseas platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has fostered an environment where local technology companies can thrive by creating alternative platforms tailored to the Chinese context, both technologically and socio-culturally, which has given rise to a distinctively isolated digital ecosystem within Mainland China (Ou and Lin, 2024; Xiong, 2024). Among these Chinese platforms, WeChat has garnered over 1.3 billion users as of September 2023, 2 nearly aligning with China’s 1.4 billion population in 2022. 3 WeChat’s user demographic spans from under 18 to over 60 years of age. 4 The preconditions of China’s techno-nationalist media regulations and WeChat’s massive userbase together enable this platform to achieve infrastructuralisation, which is also rooted in its strong media convergence (Plantin and de Seta, 2019). The initial iteration of WeChat emerged in 2011 as an instant messaging app (Chen et al., 2018). WeChat, owned by Tencent company, integrated users’ acquaintance contacts from QQ, the earliest Chinese instant messaging platform developed by Tencent in the 1990s (Chen et al., 2018). WeChat offers a diverse range of functionalities, enabling users to participate in individual or group conversations (Chen et al., 2018). WeChat provides varied social spaces, such as WeChat-Moments, enabling users to share their daily lives, similar to the features of Facebook wall. WeChat users can organise contacts into groups, selectively controlling access to their WeChat-Moments posts (Chen et al., 2018). Posts can receive likes and comments from individuals in the sender’s network, and mutual contacts can join the discussion (Chen et al., 2018).
WeChat has created a range of in-house self-programs, encompassing WeChat Public-Accounts, WeChat-Channels, and WeChat-Miniprograms. These public accounts and channels allow Chinese news agencies, governmental and private organisations, and public figures and celebrities to interact with the public (Zhu, 2019). Additionally, external entities can embed their services into WeChat, such as ride-hailing, food delivery and event ticketing. Significantly, certain integrated programs have evolved into essential elements of China’s healthcare, transportation, municipal systems and cashless payment (Chen et al., 2018). This allows WeChat users to effectively coordinate the internal media and external applications on the platform, dominating their mobile lives (Xiong, 2024).
Moreover, WeChat astutely incorporates facets of traditional Chinese socio-cultural norms into specific features (Plantin and de Seta, 2019). For instance, WeChat Red-Packet was developed to enable users to perform the Renqing tradition, wherein individuals place money in a red envelope and present it to others during special occasions (Negro et al., 2020).
Ragnedda (2018) highlights that social and digital inequalities bring limitations in media resources and usage among individuals, differentiating the social, cultural, economic and other contexts in which they are generated in a digitalised society. Wealthy, educated and youthful individuals tend to gain greater advantages from mediated interactions, reinforcing existing disparities (Baldassar, 2016; Madianou and Miller, 2012). Innate features of the Chinese mobile device market and WeChat help bridge the gap. First, the diverse pricing of smartphones in the Chinese market allows a broad range of individuals, including those with limited means, to engage in convenient online social activities through WeChat (Wang, 2016). Second, the wide array of media options on WeChat lowers the barrier to digitally mediated communication. For instance, WeChat’s voice messaging and calling functions are highly favoured by users with lower literacy, as they eliminate the need for extensive typing and reading on small screens (Wang, 2016).
Having reviewed relevant literature, we propose the following research questions:
How do Chinese internal migrants use WeChat to manage their Guanxi in their hometowns?
How do Chinese internal migrants use WeChat remotely cultivate bonding, bridging and linking social capital within their hometown-based networks?
How do Chinese internal migrants digitally exchange hometown-based social capital for cultural and economic capital?
Methodology
This study employs a qualitative approach, following Agger and Jensen’s (2015) suggestion that qualitative indicators may reveal the intangible contextual factors in a specific social context that play a key role in negotiating networks for social capital. From December 2021 to August 2022, we conducted in-depth interviews with 48 Chinese internal migrants in Guangdong province of China. This area has led China’s socialist market economy reforms since 1979, attracting more internal migrants than other regions in China until the 2020s (Qiu et al., 2020).
Through personal contacts and snowball sampling methods, the 48 participants were recruited, with 27 being female, and 21 being male, aged from 24 to 63. Their educational degrees range from middle school to post-graduate. Their occupations span from low-end to high-end industries. Their migration years cover the period from the 1980s to the 2010s. Their hometowns involve a wide range of rural villages, small towns and cities across 12 different provinces in China. Out of the 48 participants, three are acquaintances from the same village, and three non-acquaintances migrated from the same city.
The 48 one-on-one in-depth interviews followed a semi-structured format. The interviews began with the questions aimed at collecting demographic information from migrant participants, such as age, education, job, family backgrounds, hometown and Hukou. This information enabled us to categorise the data for the purpose of comparing the interplay among their social, cultural, economic and digital capital. Then, more questions were probed to understand the migrants’ hometown-based networks, encompassing their close expressive ties, weak instrumental and mixed ties, as well as their relations with various hometown institutions. Participants were asked to list significant individuals, groups and institutions in their hometowns, followed by sharing details of their WeChat practices in managing these relations for specific purposes. These details included the frequency, purposes, skills, conflicts, benefits and other issues related to the interactions within these relations. Each in-depth interview typically lasted more than an hour.
Although the interviews were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, the conversations mainly focused on the participants’ remote Guanxi practices within their hometown networks spanning a long term, from their first use of WeChat. This prevented the research findings from being affected by the specific WeChat usage patterns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
We used the software Nvivo 12 to deal with the interview transcripts. Following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-step thematic analysis process, which includes familiarising with data, generating initial codes, searching for, reviewing, defining and titling themes, and producing the report, all the textual data were analysed and compared.
While familiarising ourselves with the data, we highlighted descriptions related to migration, Guanxi culture, hometown, WeChat, media functions, social capital, cultural capital, economic capital and other key words relevant to the research. Similarities and contrasts among participants’ data were noted, particularly related to their generational background and gender. This initial analysis helped us to seek vague concepts about the features of migrants’ digitally mediated practices of Chinese socio-cultural relation wisdom for maintaining their hometown networks, their digital ways to exploit different types of capital through their hometown networks. These vague concepts were further developed into initial codes and themes.
By linking the preliminary findings to Chinese Guanxi culture while referencing social capital theories, we then conducted open coding in a flexible manner to discover subthemes. This involved linking specific media practices to different types of social relations as well as to the needs, equity, Renqing (Favour) and Mianzi (Face) rules. This process led to the first main theme titled as ‘digitally doing Chinese Guanxi rules within hometown-based networks’. We also paid attention to subthemes revealing the connections among migrants’ demographic backgrounds, online behaviours, Guanxi types and resource exchanges. Through additionally combining the concepts among social, cultural, economic and digital capital, the second and third main themes emerged simultaneously, namely ‘digitally exploiting bonding, bridging and linking social capital from hometown’ and ‘capital exchange within hometown networks and divides’.
This study received ethical approval from the University of Leicester and we complied with the ethical guidelines of the British Sociological Association to ensure ethical practice throughout the research.
Findings and Discussion
Digitally Doing Chinese Guanxi Rules within Hometown-Based Networks
The participants in this study have mixed generational, professional, educational and geographical backgrounds, while they share the mainstream cultural understanding towards the concepts of hometown and Guanxi in China. WeChat is the primary tool for all participants to maintain their hometown-based relations. They sustained most of these relations by digitally doing Chinese Guanxi rules. Their hometown close expressive ties typically included their closest family members and friends. They approached these relations based on need rule, where the favour-giver perceived the favour receiver’s needs empathically, and reciprocation was deemed unimportant for both parties (Lin, 2002). For instance, Participant 1 (30, Male, Engineer) described:
I frequently confide in one of my cousins through WeChat to relieve the mental strain caused by my hidden homosexuality. This cousin sold skincare products through WeChat. I often purchased items from her, even when unnecessary since I know that she needed the money to care for her child.
The participants’ hometown weak ties can be divided into mixed and instrumental type. They maintain these connections primarily by employing Renqing and Mianzi rules. Participant 2 (34, Male, Interior Designer) contributed to a typical experience of using WeChat to employ Renqing to foster reciprocal commitments and a sense of indebtedness, aiming to create a moral obligation for further resource and favour exchanges (Barbalet, 2018; Hwang, 1987; Lin, 2002; Ruan, 2017). Participant 2 was interviewed on Mother’s Day. Prior to the interview, he sent WeChat Red-Packets to his so-called-aunts, close friends of his mother. To do Renqing, Chinese people put cash in red-packets and give them to others on important occasions. Participant 2 often used WeChat Red-Packets to nurture his relationship with these aunts since his mother might need support from this network one day. He further noted the Mianzi rule intertwined in this situation: ‘Sending Red-Packets and persuading these aunts to accept the Red-Packets are gestures meant to honour their senior status and uphold their social reputation, ensuring their (Social) Mianzi being respected.’ This Social Mianzi pertains to the recognition of these individuals’ social, economic and cultural standing, acquired through the successful fulfilment of widely acknowledged social roles (Chen, 2018; Hwang, 1987).
Some participants stressed that sending WeChat Red-Packets on special occasions symbolises Renqing, with an expectation of reciprocation in the future. In contrast, money sent via WeChat-Transfer is seen as unrelated to Renqing. This reflects that the choice of media in digitally mediated interactions is not solely determined by the technological features of the selected medium. Instead, it is significantly shaped by sociality and morality (Madianou and Miller, 2012).
Doing Renqing and Mianzi can be effective in La Guanxi – the relation practice intends to exchange resources, achieve cooperation, create indebtedness for others (Ruan, 2017; Wilson, 2002). However, some participants viewed these practices as valueless. This is because La Guanxi is a long-term, even multi-generational endeavour with delayed benefits (Ruan, 2017; Wilson, 2002). As migrants, they struggled to maintain stable connections with their hometown mixed ties, making it challenging to ensure the corresponding benefits. Almost all participants complained about the tiredness of doing Renqing and Mianzi with their hometown acquaintances. Nevertheless, they found it difficult to avoid such engagement, even when they were living far from their hometowns.
WeChat had converged almost all the participants’ hometown networks, which were ubiquitously interconnected in physical and virtual hometown society, into a single platform. In this situation, participants’ online behaviours can extend to their offline original communities, compelling them to adhere to traditional Renqing and Mianzi rules to maintain their Moral Mianzi within their hometown networks. Moral Mianzi signifies their asserted moral images, influencing their social acceptance, reputation and ethical conduct within the confines of a traditional society formed by their original networks (Chen, 2018). Participant 3 (33, Female, Marketing Manager) evidenced:
My distant cousin sent me a voting link, but I was busy and didn’t respond. Later, when I posted photos on WeChat-Moments, my cousin commented, ‘Why didn’t you vote for me? Don’t I deserve your vote?’ It got awkward because all our mutual contacts could see the comment. Participant 3 felt awkward since she was afraid of losing her good reputation, representing Moral Mianzi, within the mutual hometown contacts. Participants generally find it more comfortable to maintain their hometown-based instrumental ties, which are guided by the equity rule rooted in symmetric and preconditional reciprocity. The main factor determining the extension of favours is the current or future utility of what parties can offer each other (Lin, 2002). When Participant 4 (34, Female, Trainer) applied for a rural education project funded by the Chinese government, she reached out to a former schoolmate through WeChat, who was currently teaching in her hometown. She asked for support, believing that the project would also be beneficial for her schoolmate, thus she did not feel indebted when making her requests.
To evade their ethical obligations related to Renqing and Mianzi, some participants, particularly the younger generation, turned to official digital channels when they needed to address issues in their hometowns. For instance, the left-behind parents of Participant 5 (32, Female, Housewife) trusted the social connections fostered by Renqing and Mianzi to secure medical appointments as they would only see doctors recommended by friends and relatives. However, Participant 5 opted for a more direct approach, using local hospitals’ WeChat-Miniprograms to book appointments for her parents.
The older-generation participants usually establish connections with their hometown institutions through intermediaries from their hometowns, who often hold roles as government, institution or community administrators. Participant 6 (48, Male, Entrepreneur) noted: ‘The information posted via the public channels and WeChat-Groups established by my hometown institutions are valueless while the useful parts are mastered by the internal core people in the corresponding institutions.’ Thus, he added government officials as his private WeChat contacts and monitored their WeChat-Moments posts to stay informed about the latest economic and political trends in his hometown. Furthermore, he fastened the relations with his hometown institutions by developing interpersonal relations with the core individual representatives through doing Renqing and Mianzi rules.
Digitally Exploiting Bonding, Bridging and Linking Social Capital from Hometown
Most participants experienced improved mental well-being, financial support and strong trust from their close ties in their hometowns, representing typical bonding social capital. However, most participants tended to seek emotional support from their hometown friends rather than their immediate relatives. They felt more comfortable sharing their emotional struggles with hometown friends, as these friends had a deeper understanding of their emotional experiences since childhood. Such experiences were less openly discussed within their families, as traditional Chinese upbringing often discourages the expression of intimacy and emotions (Fei, 1962; Hwang, 1987). Additionally, they retained the traditional value of Baoxi Bubaoyou – sharing joyful news with family instead of causing anxiety.
In terms of financial support, most participants turned to their ethically closest family members for help rather than discussing money matters with their emotionally closest friends from their hometowns. They explained that discussing finances with friends could strain the relationship, whereas with family, there is no need for explicit calculations. After Participant 4 (34, Female, Trainer) purchased an apartment in Guangzhou city, her parents and brother transferred a substantial sum of money to her via Alipay to ease her financial burden. They shared the transaction record on WeChat for her to verify. Participant 4 expressed:
I knew that they selected Alipay to transfer the money for the purpose of avoiding my rejection. Alipay can transfer the money directly into the recipient’s account. By contrast, WeChat-Transfer or WeChat Red-Packet requires the recipient to click ‘accept the money’. The money will be returned to the sender if the receiver does not click accept.
As migrants, many participants found valuable information and perspectives through their hometown-based weak ties, particularly those with similar educational and professional backgrounds, serving as bridging social capital. For instance, Participant 7 (35, Male, Hairdresser) owned a salon in Guangzhou while most of his old school friends also pursued hairdressing careers in their hometowns. He explained:
I am updated with hairdressing trends back home through those friends’ posts on WeChat-Moments and Douyin [the Chinese version of TikTok]. This enables me to recognise the fashion differences between my hometown and Guangzhou. They also gained insights into the cutting-edge hairdressing styles in Guangzhou through my posts. This information exchange has inspired me to consider offering hairdressing workshops in my hometown.
In essence, these migrants continually compare the social landscapes of their hometowns and destination cities to discover new opportunities. This situation is achieved by the ubiquitously various connections to their hometown ties supported by WeChat.
For most participants, their hometowns’ bridging social capital primarily stemmed from their interconnected hometown ties, which included personal close and weak ties and institutional ties. This is because many participants came from closed, traditional communities where these types of ties were closely intertwined. For instance, Participant 8 (47, Female, Manager) had moved away from her hometown over 20 years ago. However, owing to her strong overlapped hometown connections, she received crucial investment information on her hometown in a timely manner. She maintained daily WeChat conversations with her sister, who still lived in their hometown, allowing her to stay updated on local investment opportunities. This is the close tie commonly defined by analogous socio-demographic associations, encompassing familial bonds, close friendships and other connections rooted in geographical proximity within traditional societies. Owing to geographical proximity and socio-demographic similarity, individuals in close ties generally share homogenous values and perspectives, often blocking the flow of information and innovative ideas. In the contemporary migration landscape, digitally facilitated transregional connections can unite individuals with similar socio-demographic backgrounds, even if they are geographically dispersed. This enriches information by providing diverse perspectives stemming from geographical differences.
Additionally, Participant 8 expanded her hometown network through WeChat, connecting with a government official who was a former classmate of her sister from secondary school. This connection originated years ago when her sister introduced them via WeChat’s Contact-Share feature. She periodically discussed investment ideas with the official, gaining valuable insights on her hometown’s development through viewing the official’s WeChat-Moments posts and local government news on WeChat Public Accounts. She recalled: ‘In 2021, the official introduced me to the owner of a local piggery and shared vital information about an agriculture plan mentioned in local news, sparking my interest in investing in the piggery.’
While individuals with weak ties typically possess a general or loose sense of trust in one another (Alencar and Tsagkroni, 2019; Lin, 1999), Participant 8 placed trust in the official due to her sister’s three-decade-long friendship with the official. This illustrates that close ties, as a form of bonding social capital, can effectively help individuals establish new weak connections (Alencar and Tsagkroni, 2019; Mintarsih, 2019). For migrants like Participant 8, close ties from their hometowns carry inherent trustworthiness and play a crucial role in establishing initial trust when forging new connections linked to their hometowns, thereby building more bridging social capital.
Participant 8’s interactions with the official highlight her efforts to leverage linking social capital in her hometown. This form of social capital is built through connections with authoritative representatives in public institutions, enabling individuals to gain entry to reliable networks capable of facilitating access to both tangible and intangible resources, extending beyond their immediate social circles (Agger and Jensen, 2015). Participant 8’s experience is not an isolated case, as it exemplifies how a multidimensional approach enables the transfer of resources from one relationship to support others. This shows the interchange of bonding, bridging and linking social capital for various resources, echoing that bonding, and bridging social capital serve as the foundation for mobilising linking social capital in a closed society (Agger and Jensen, 2015). Remarkably, from these findings, we redefine bridging social capital in a highly modernised society characterised by significant population mobility and digitalisation. Bridging social capital convergently arises from personal close and weak ties, as well as institutional ties, rather than solely from weak ties.
Overall, Chinese migrants can efficiently utilise WeChat to coordinate various media, harnessing multidimensional hometown relations as unique forms of social capital aligned with individual goals. First, they have generally centralised their hometown networks on WeChat, allowing for the overlapping use of different types of relationships. Second, WeChat, as infrastructure, integrates a wide range of both traditional and contemporary media while also connecting with external platforms (Plantin and de Seta, 2019; Xiong, 2024), enhancing resource acquisition and facilitating the flow of resources.
Capital Exchange within Hometown Networks and Divides
Migrants can digitally exchange social capital with their hometowns, resulting in gains in both cultural and economic capital at the individual and societal levels. Participant 9 (34, Female, Teacher) and Participant 5 (32, Female, Housewife) often shared parenting experiences with their hometown peers. They observed the Homework Shows 5 posted in their peers’ WeChat-Moments, which showcased unexpected high-quality examination-oriented education, 6 prompting them to consider sending their children back for primary education.
From hometown acquaintances’ posts in WeChat-Moments, Participant 10 (44, Female, Artist) learnt that an old schoolmate had become the head of a renowned kindergarten in her hometown. She used WeChat to strengthen her relationship with that schoolmate, as she intended to send her son to their kindergarten. These examples indicate how WeChat empowers migrants to access superior educational resources, enhancing their children’s institutionalised cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986).
Some individuals can leverage their hometown social connections to create economic opportunities. Participant 11 (34, Male, Insurance Broker) tapped into his network of hometown acquaintances through WeChat. He advertised his insurance services on his WeChat-Moments, which piqued the interest of some relatives who then purchased insurance from him. He illustrated: ‘I shared contract drafts with my relatives, and the subsequent procedures were efficiently managed through my company’s WeChat Official-Account.’
Participant 12 (52, Male), Participant 13 (56, Female) and Participant 14 (61, Male) migrated from the same village and became letting agents in Guangzhou city. They illustrated how economic capital could be generated from hometown social capital at both the individual and societal levels.
Participant 12 became one of the most successful low-end letting agents in Guangzhou in the 2000s. In recent years, he frequently shared rental advertisements on his WeChat-Moments and discussed his business in WeChat-Groups with his fellow villagers from his hometown. This attracted more villagers to leave traditional agricultural work and join his business, such as Participant 13 and Participant 14. Consequently, the villagers collectively established a business chain in the low-end residential rental market in Guangzhou. They served multiple roles also as cleaners and electricians, which significantly increased their incomes. Owing to WeChat, even villagers who stayed in their hometown were able to contribute to and benefit from this business. Participant 13 said:
We researched apartment investment opportunities in Guangzhou and shared our findings in our village fellows’ WeChat-Groups. Some expressed interest in becoming shareholders, so we created subgroups for new buy-to-let projects. We gathered initial funds from our hometown through WeChat transfers. Future collaboration will occur within the groups, eliminating the need for travel.
This example indicates that, transregionally leveraging hometown-based social capital via WeChat, both individual and collective migrant careers can generate economic resources for migrants and their hometown communities. Importantly, this capital exchange can be sustainably achieved in migrants’ destination cities, while allowing them the flexibility to return to or periodically reside in their hometowns. Participant 12’s wife served as a manager to oversee security for the tenants as well as to collect rent and bills. A few years ago, his wife returned to their hometown to supervise their son. Meanwhile, by effectively using WeChat, she continued her management work for tenants and collaborated with other shareholders in Guangzhou. Participant 12 added: ‘I also regularly reunited with my left-behind family in my hometown and managed my rental business from a distance.’ This phenomenon reflects that Chinese internal migrants can shorten their migration duration and enhance their face-to-face interactions within their original networks, gaining local social, cultural and economic capital.
There are clear disparities in capital exchange influenced more by participants’ accumulation of externalised technological resources and subjectively internalised digital competencies to deal with information, communication and relationship within their hometown networks according to Ragnedda’s (2018) definition on digital capital. Significantly, the Chinese traditional socio-cultural norms play a vital role in shaping individuals’ digital resources and competencies.
The divides in capital exchange among individuals seem to have arisen from their varying digital competencies towards practising the Renqing and Mianzi rules, which are essential for dealing with flexible mixed ties. These ties are effective in La Guanxi, a specific relationship practice used for resource exchange, collaboration, cultivating indebtedness and reaping benefits over the course of a lifetime or even across generations (Hwang, 1987; Lin, 2002).
The older generation, businesspersons and/or individuals migrating from villages and towns are relatively sophisticated in manipulating traditional customs of doing Renqing and Mianzi when they use digital media to connect with people from their hometowns. Thus, they could acquire more social, economic, cultural and other forms of capital transregionally. For instance, Participant 6 (48, Male, Entrepreneur), who had lived in Shenzhen for over 20 years, continued to demonstrate his commitment to these traditional rules. He insisted on sending WeChat Red-Packets to his hometown contacts during significant occasions. The Red-Packets served to exchange Renqing and create a sense of indebtedness, allowing him to sustain his connections with his hometown network and access various unexpected benefits. These online actions helped shape his image as a courteous and successful businessman, earning him Moral and Social Mianzi in his hometown village. He noted the benefits from these digitally mediated Guanxi practices:
I received distant invitations to join new social circles from my hometown connections. These circles have offered numerous valuable opportunities to expand my business. Additionally, I have secured a prominent role within the Shenzhen-based business association established by my fellow villagers.
The younger generation, educated and skilled workers, and/or individuals migrating from cities diverge more from traditional Guanxi norms in virtual interactions, sidestepping reliance on these conventions. They favour equity-based interactions with hometown contacts, prioritising fair and conditional reciprocity for immediate gains over uncertain long-term value. If a relation lacks immediate benefits, they tend to promptly terminate the interaction.
Structural Chinese socio-cultural norms also play a vital role in shaping individuals’ digital competencies as well as resources. For instance, in traditional Chinese ethics, a convention designates fathers or eldest sons as family leaders, entrusting them with greater material responsibilities. Females are typically assigned roles overseeing domestic duties, including caring for the elderly and minors (Fei, 1962).
In this study, female participants, particularly older women, face restricted access to digital spaces on WeChat aimed at transforming hometown social ties into economic prospects. This space is frequently reserved for their male siblings. Participant 15 (50, Female, Factory Owner) was prohibited by her male siblings from joining the WeChat family groups that served to manage dividends from her father’s farm and other real estates in their village. She accepted this exclusion, explaining that, as a daughter, she was not entitled to be involved in the prosperity and key activities of her original family. By contrast, Participant 16 (36, Male, Entrepreneur) is a member of the WeChat-Group that handles economic events and dividends in his local village. In a word, these traditionally structural values allocate participants to engage in different social roles, intentions, activities and online spaces to remotely maintain specific types of their hometown networks, leading to certain divides.
Conclusion
This qualitative study investigates how Chinese internal migrants utilise WeChat, a mega Chinese platform known for its high degree of media convergence and infrastructuralisation, to remotely perform Guanxi rules and traditional norms to access resources within their multidimensionally overlapped hometown social networks, facilitating resource exchanges. It rethinks the western concepts of social capital within the unique socio-cultural landscape of digitally driven Chinese society characterised by substantial population mobility.
This study has advanced the understandings of bonding social capital, mainly involving emotional and trust support from individuals’ close ties (Alencar and Tsagkroni, 2019; Lin, 1999; Putnam, 2000). It clearly defines boundaries between close kinship and friendship ties in China. Chinese close kinship ties, ethically trustworthy, are seen to be the primary financial resources, compared with the importance of loans from a bank for individuals in the West. However, Chinese individuals may not seek direct emotional support from their close familial ties for fear of causing anxiety. Childhood friends, emotionally dependable, remotely provide direct emotional support, yet financial discussions may strain these relationships.
Bridging social capital represents the valuable information and diverse developmental perspectives offered through individuals’ weak ties across various demographic backgrounds (Alencar and Tsagkroni, 2019; Lin, 1999; Putnam, 2000). We redefine bridging social capital as migrants can obtain valuable information and perspectives beyond weak ties. Chinese internal migrants consistently access valuable information and resources through interconnected interpersonal close and weak ties, as well as institutional ties within their hometowns.
This study raises the significance of linking social capital to the connections between migrants and their hometowns in a mobilised modern society, affirming that hometown-based bonding and bridging social capital also form the basis for mobilising hometown-based linking social capital from a distance (Agger and Jensen, 2015). It meanwhile echoes that multidimensional relations optimise the effective utilisation of bonding, bridging and linking social capital for the acquisition of cultural and economic capital (Agger and Jensen, 2015; Mintarsih, 2019).
This study identifies the divides in the capital utilisation and exchanges processes, highlighting that traditionally socio-cultural norms significantly shape individuals’ digital resources and competencies to deal with information, communication and relationship, which refers to digital capital as defined by Ragnedda (2018). The shaped digital capital leads to diverse attitudes and proficiency in practising traditional social norms and relation rules within online hometown networks intertwined with offline lives. The capital acquisition and exchanges based on social capital, along with the associated differences, are often investigated in quantitative studies and are not usually the centre for exploration for qualitative studies. Our contribution may provide insights and evidence to build hypotheses for future quantitative studies.
We argue that, in a highly modernised society characterised by significant population mobility and the erosion of traditional values, a localised digital infrastructure with socio-cultural features can help preserve traditional norms, ensuring their positive impact on stabilising geographically separated original networks and further bringing rich resources for individuals. This indicates that it is worthwhile for technology companies to develop socio-cultural features for local digital platforms. It highlights the mutual benefits of resource exchange between migrants and their hometown communities, fostering social capital at both individual and societal levels. It underscores the role of social capital in cultivating collective commitment to a community or organisation, enhancing the capacity for collaborative efforts and shared benefits (Putnam, 2000). We recommend that policymakers consider investing in digital channels that facilitate connections between migrants and their hometowns, thereby leveraging migrants’ resources to foster hometown development.
This study is limited to the Chinese context, as China is the only country, to our knowledge, that has a single platform dominating citizens’ everyday lives. A relevant equivalent of platform is WhatsApp that is frequently used for daily communication in many western countries. However, WeChat has significantly more functionalities and has achieved a higher level infrastructuralisation than WhatsApp. Hence the findings of our study may not apply to other geographical and cultural contexts. Future studies may conduct comparative analysis of digital media use for cross-cultural migrations to maintain relationships with connections back home and access social capital in host countries. It will also be worth exploring the diversity of digital media platforms that are associated with various forms of social capital.
Footnotes
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
