Relationship,Persuasion And Conflict:ROSCA Research In The Perspective Of Communication Study

"Biao Hui" is a form of mutual-helping credit organization, with memebers’ participation based on the principal of free-will and trust. Also named as "Yao Hui", "Tai Hui" as per the method of its formation, it exists widely over the area of Fujian, Canton, & Zhejiang. The internationally accepted terminology for it is "ROSCA". ROSCA exists in Germany, Austria, USA, Japan as a non-financial institutional organization. Studies of ROSCA has been focused in its economical, legal,and social affects; discussion about it centers around its rationale and legality, or the social aftermath after its collapse, but seldom has any research been targeted on ROSCA itself. This paper studies ROSCA in the framework of communication science by adopting a certain Fujian village as background.With the method of participant observation of the whole process and relevant materials accumulated through deep interviews, this paper tries to put ROSCA in a mini-scope, and contemplate on the role of communication in the whole procedures of the ROSCA, and individual characteristics of ROSCA members.Beside the above, the author also discovered that "Social Relationship", "favors owe and due" and "face" still remain as elements that play a crucial role of human interaction of a rural society, especially in the relationship and interactions among the members of a ROSCA.Urbanization has impacted the traditional rural social structure to a certain degree, but "Guan Xi" (relationship) sticks as a necessary pre-condition for joining a ROSCA which exists in a underground status. Thus, this paper functions not only as a study upon ROSCA from a new perspective, but also serves as an observation of a particular walk of Chinese rural society.