Ganqing

Ganqing (感情 in pinyin: gan3 qing2) is an important concept in Chinese social relations which is loosely translated as "feeling" and is related to the concept of guanxi. Ganqing reflects the tenor of a social relationship between two people or two organizations. One can speak of having good ganqing meaning that two people have a good rapport or deep ganqing meaning that there is considerable feeling within a social relationship.

The term ganqing is often seen in Chinese government comments, and is often mistranslated when used in this context. Often one will see a statement that an action "hurts the feelings of the Chinese people." This statement is better translated as an action "disturbs the relationship with the Chinese people." When used in this context the statement is actually mildly threatening implying that should the action continue, that cooperation would not be forthcoming in the future.