Ethnocultural origins of social trust in contemporary China

The article examines the socio-cultural prerequisites for trust and their impact on various spheres of life in modern Chinese society. Trust is considered the most important mechanism for regulating social relations, coordinating interests and values, and promoting internal harmonization of society based on respect for individual rights, pluralism, non-violence, and equality of opportunity. Noting the difficulties and contradictions of modern studies of trust, the article analyzes the value-symbolic dimension of trust from the standpoint of the socio-cultural approach, considers the internal mechanisms of trust generalization at the micro and macro levels of social space. The relationship between various dimensions of social trust (institutional and generalized) is considered, various systems of trust and the features of their functioning are discussed. Based on the data of the World Values Survey (WVS), the article examines the structure of social trust in the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese culture of trust is based on the fundamental values of Confucian ethics and continues to retain its decisive importance for social institutions. The formation of the Chinese culture of trust was influenced by the special organization of the space of social interaction, consisting of clan, family, and corporate relations. The area of trust closest to the individual is formed by social relations (renlun), prescribed by the traditional Confucian ethos. The second sphere of the area of trust is friendly and emotionally charged relations (renqing), the last area of trust is universal human relations (renyuan). The study reveals a relatively strong connection between traditional forms of social integration and modern institutions.