An Exploration of Guanxi: A Type of Social Capital, among Chinese Min Kao Min, Min Kao Han, and Han Students

This article examines the formation of social capital and the relevance of guanxi (a Chinese concept closely related to that of social capital), among ethnic minority students and Han students in a Chinese university. Using data from 42 semi-structured interviews with university students, our study demonstrates that three distinct student categories (Min Kao Min, Min Kao Han, and Han students) access social capital in similar ways, including via the Chinese class-based cohort model, faculty and staff, engagement in social media and online platforms, and other on and off-campus social connections. However, these three groups of students showed significant differences in the formation and use of social capital. Due to the influence of pre-college education and Internet literacy, MKM and MKH students are relatively restricted in using social media and other online platforms to obtain social capital. The varying awareness of and attitude towards the concept of "guanxi" affect its formation and utilization, with many ethnic minority students viewing it as a cultural symbol of Han society and more likely to form bonding social capital within their own ethnicity. This shows that though the diverse campus environment effectively reduces the physical space between students of different ethnicity, it does little to break through the cultural barriers, making it challenging for minority students to form cross-ethnic bridging social capital.

Keywords: Social Capital; Guanxi; Chinese university; Minority students

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For years, the Chinese higher education system classified students into three groups: Min Kao Min (MKM), Min Kao Han (MKH), and Han. Students fall into these different academic tracks based on their ethnic backgrounds and the primary language used in their college entrance exam, the gaokao (Taynen, [33]; Sun et al., [32]). MKM refers to ethnic minority students who took the college entrance exam in their native language and who may have limited Mandarin ability; MKH refers to students who are ethnic minorities fluent in Chinese Mandarin and who took the college entrance exam in Mandarin; and Han students represent the majority of Chinese students whose primary language and culture constitute the mainstream in China (Clothey, [4]; Sun et al., [32]). This classification system is key to national policies that promote higher education access among ethnic minorities as part of China's "preferential policies" (youhui zhengce). China's preferential policies are comparable to affirmative action policies in the USA in that they use ethnicity as a criterion for university admissions (Yamada, [36]). Such policies are not only geared toward encouraging ethnic minorities' educational opportunities, but also are described as achieving political and economic equality, enhancing social cohesion, and supporting national unification and national security among other things (Hoshino, [17]; Rhoads & Chang, [27]; Yamada, [36]). Although China has such policies in place to help with narrowing the gaps between ethnic minorities and the Han majority, particularly in the realm of higher education, very little research exists about the actual collegiate experiences of ethnic minorities, especially relative to those experiences deemed beneficial to promoting academic and career success.

One area we see as critical to better understanding the experiences of ethnic minority students concerns the formation and utilization of social capital, given that a good deal of research demonstrates its importance to positive educational and career outcomes (Coleman, [7]; Portes, [23]). However, the acquisition of social capital does not necessarily lead to equitable educational and career outcomes (Carter, [2]; Goddard, [12]; Maldonado et al., [22]). The possibility of inequities relative to social capital is why we opted to develop a comparative analysis of differences among MKM and MKH students relative to their Han majority counterparts. We also explore guanxi, interpersonal connections in Chinese society that facilitate favor exchanges, as a form of social capital. Accordingly, the following two research questions guide this study: (1) How do students form and use social ties and connections during college and to what extent are there observable differences when comparing MKM, MKH, and Han students? (2) How does guanxi influence the formation and utilization of social ties and connections (as social capital) among MKM, MKH, and Han college students? We found that these three groups of students showed differences in the formation and utilization of social capital. MKM and MKH students are limited in the use of social media and online platforms to obtain social capital, and their differences in cognition and attitude towards the concept of "guanxi" have prompted them to obtain bonding social capital through establishing inter-group relations within their own ethnic circle, while ignoring the establishment of cross-group relations to build bridging social capital.

China is among the world's most ethnically and linguistically diverse nations. Ethnic minorities tend to experience lower financial, educational, and occupational attainment than the Han majority (Gustaffson et al. [14]). Also, Chinese ethnic minorities can struggle to preserve their unique ethnic cultures in the context of massive urban migration and pressure to assimilate to the Chinese national identity (Hasmath, [16]; Zhang, [38]).

The present study focuses on educational inequality. Ethnic minorities lag behind the Han majority in almost every segment within the educational system, from access to enrollment and to outcomes (Hannum & Wang, [15]; Sun et al., [32]). Data in Chinese higher education has shown ethnic minorities account for merely 6–7 percent of enrollments in colleges and universities, and this percentage drops even further at the nation's more elite universities (Wang, [35]; Zhu, [39]).

In an attempt to close the ethnic gaps in higher education, the Chinese government has enacted a variety of strategies including the preferential policies or youhui zhengce. The scope of preferential policies reaches far beyond higher education, as Sautman ([28], p. 86) explains: "preferential policies for ethnic minorities in China are implemented in family planning, school admissions, hiring and promotion, the financing and taxation of business and regional infrastructure support." However, for the remainder of this study, we discuss preferential policies mainly in their application to higher education.

The general purpose of preferential policies regarding education is to support ethnic minority access to higher education with the goal of strengthening minority participation in the mainstream economy. Specific practices include the use of quotas, bonus gaokao points, financial aid, and preferential admission (Clothey, [4], [5]; Zhu, [39]). Additionally, a key component of preferential policies involves the role of the minzu college and university system whose central objective is to promote educational attainment and economic integration among the nation's ethnic minority population. The minzu college and university system, comprised of 17 colleges and universities scattered throughout the country, was created in the 1950s largely to serve the ethnic minority population, while also enrolling significant numbers of students from the Han majority (Clothey, [4]; Rhoads & Chang, [27]). The leading minzu university is Minzu University of China in Beijing. Although Minzu is considered to be highly successful in achieving a diverse student body, what is less clear is the degree to which ethnic minority students form the kinds of important ties and connections needed to support their academic and career advancement.

Since 2017, the formal classification of students into MKM, MKH, and Han has been largely phased out in Chinese colleges and universities. However, we believe the three categories provide a useful distinction to explore social capital and guanxi regardless of whether they are still being employed institutionally. Although technically students fall into these three distinct academic tracks based on their ethnicity and the language used in their pre-college education and gaokao, this classification has far-reaching impacts on students' educational opportunities and outcomes in China.

Ethnic minorities are disadvantaged compared to Han students, as they are more likely to come from impoverished rural areas (Clothey & Hu, [6], Rhoads & Chang, [27]) and this fact further hinders the educational opportunities and resources available to them. For example, ethnic minority students are challenged with weaker pre-college education compared to their Han counterparts. This is partially due to the uneven distribution of national wealth along the line of rural and urban divide in Chinese society, which ultimately results in "worse infrastructure, substandard schools, and a lack of quality teachers in rural areas" (Clothey, [5], p 2). Other factors that greatly impact students' collegiate experience include major choices; for example, ethnic minorities (mostly MKM students) are more likely to choose or to be set on some of the "cold" majors, which, according to Clothey ([5]), refer to majors that are less likely to bring profitable jobs. Moreover, ethnic minority students tend to experience cultural shocks and face challenges in all aspects of their school life due to their language education, living environment, and life experience prior college (Zhang, [38]). It is reasonable to conclude that the MKM, MKH, and Han academic tracks are not only connected to Mandarin proficiency, but also to the socioeconomic status, cultural practice, educational opportunities and outcomes, and the college experience of the students. Thus, this classification is crucial in helping us to understand the collegiate experience of students at Minzu.

Social capital is an important tool for understanding inequality in educational attainment and the limits of social mobility and schooling (Carter, [2]; Coleman, [7]; Collins, [8]; Goddard, [12]; Lin [19], [20]; Portes, [23]; Stanton-Salazar, [29]; Stanton-Salazar & Dornbusch, [30]). One segment of social capital research focuses on the role of institutional agents, role models, and mentors as sources of resources from which students might benefit. For example, Stanton-Salazar and Dornbusch ([30]) reported a positive relationship between social capital and academic grades with social capital operationalized as instrumental ties with institutional agents. Granovetter's ([13]) contribution to understanding the relevance of "weak ties" as sources of social capital is also relevant to our thinking in that students may benefit from institutional and non-institutional actors with whom they may not have strong social bonds. In Carter's ([2]) study of low income Black and Latino students, she reported the importance of mentors, as Carter explained, "To serve as capital for these students, such role models would have to be accessible and have relationships with them" (p. 140). Carter thus operationalized sources of social capital as the actual "social contacts" the students had with people helpful to them.

Social capital has also been useful in the study of higher education. For example, Maldonado et al. ([22]) highlighted benefits associated with underrepresented students of color intentionally forming informal connections with faculty as part of expanding their social capital. Stuber ([31]) argued that college students accumulate social capital through participation in extracurricular activities and that social capital in turn helps promote extracurricular involvement; hence, she supported a cyclical point of view in terms of the relationship between extracurricular involvement and social capital accumulation.

Some patterns of minority students' mobilization of social capital documented in a few recent studies are also contributing to our conceptualization of minority students' social capital accumulation and mobilization in an ethnic-diverse campus. For example, Zhang ([38]) studied Tibetan students' mobilization of social capital in a Han-dominant school and found that students could differentiate between the "bonding" social capital and the "bridging" social capital (Putnam, [25]). The "bonding" social capital was obtained through a tight, closed social network consisting of pan-Tibetan students and the ethnic community back in the Tibet Autonomous Region, whereas the "bridging" social capital was formed in a loose open network made up of cross-ethnic peers and the Han teachers (Zhang, [38]). It is thus important to understand how minority students utilize the resources from the co-ethnics and the cross-ethnics and how the higher education institutional factors would influence minority students' mobilization of social capital.

Similar to social capital, guanxi refers to social ties and personal connections. Chinese social scientists highlight that it is the sentimental part of guanxi that makes it different from the concept of social capital (Fan, [9]; Huang & Wang, [18]; Qi, [26]; Tsui & Farh, [34]). Scholars hold a consensus that guanxi comprises particularistic ties in which instrumental and expressive-moral elements intertwine (Tsui & Farh, [34]). Shared social identities are important guanxi touchstones that include kinships, surnames, alumni (schoolmates or classmates), birthplace, or workplaces. These shared social identities differ from demographical similarities studied in the West, such as race, gender, and age (Tsui & Farh, [34]).

Moreover, according to Chinese sociologist Fei Xiaotong, Chinese society was rooted in the "chaxu geju" (different modes of associations) which shapes the network of every Chinese individual (Fei, [10]) and determines the functionality of different kinds of guanxi in one's social network. Thus, benefits and resources associated with guanxi tend to be "particular instead of general" and because guanxi operates more "through personal relations rather than formal structures," it has sometimes been associated with "corruption, bribery and malpractice" (Qi, [26], p. 311).

Guanxi has often been regarded as an unfair means to take a shortcut or obtain privileged resources. It is also due to the fact that guanxi became a more instrumentalist "means of circumventing managed scarcity" (Qi, p. 311) for a long time in history when Chinese formal institutional practices (such as laws and regulations) ensuring equal access to resources were absent since the late eighteenth century. The importance of guanxi is likely to compromise meritocracy at times, given the lack of transparency in the institutional practices that determine the allocation of goods such as educational resources (Fan, [9]; Huang & Wang, [18]). Hence, a college student in China from a well-connected family (having lots of guanxi) may not necessarily have to study hard in college to access greater career opportunities upon graduation.

What the nuanced concept of guanxi suggests for our study is the need to examine social capital formation among MKM, MKH, and Han students in light of possible variations in accessibility to guanxi. Given the importance of guanxi as a means of accessing resources, including academic and career opportunities, we were especially attentive to its influence and the possibility of inequities emerging relative to differential access and utilization.

We conducted a qualitative study of social capital and guanxi among MKM, MKH, and Han students to better understand the lived experiences and meaning making of such students within the context of their natural environment—the campus setting of Minzu.

Minzu was selected as our site because of its leading position in the minzu college and university system. Minzu was founded in 1951 to primarily serve the educational needs of China's ethnic minority populations, namely by preparing graduates to work in minority regions of the country. Minzu has 25 colleges with 66 different undergraduate majors. A good portion of the curriculum at Minzu is devoted to promoting the history, language, and culture of ethnic minorities, a reality reflected in academic programs that generally are not available at most Chinese universities.

Minzu has a unique standing among the nation's comprehensive universities, especially when compared to other leading universities in China. First, it stands out because of the ethnic makeup of the student body. Students at Minzu encompass all 56 ethnic groups in China, including the Han majority. More than 50 percent of Minzu's students are of ethnic minority backgrounds and this number drops to 3 or 4 percent at most comprehensive universities in China (Zhu, [39]). Second, the faculty and staff at Minzu also are quite diverse with more than 40 percent estimated to be from ethnic minority backgrounds (Rhoads & Chang, [27]). Third, because of the vast ethnic diversity at Minzu, a variety of languages are commonly spoken, both inside and outside the classrooms. The campus environment at Minzu also provides ample resources and conveniences to support ethnic minority students in leading a pleasant college life (Clothey & Hu, [6]). Ethnic diversity is visible everywhere on campus particularly embodied in the building arrangements at Minzu, including the most symbolic building on campus—the dancing hall where ethnic festivals are celebrated, the Muslim dining halls, the ethnic minority museum, etc. Another unique facet of Minzu worth noting is its governance structure. While most colleges and universities in China report to the Ministry of Education, Minzu reports directly to the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, an agency concerned with the nation's ethnic minority affairs. However, because Minzu receives additional funding from the Ministry of Education, as part of a special national initiative, the university also must report to this ministry, thus making Minzu's management more complex (and politicized) than most Chinese universities (Rhoads & Chang, [27]).

We relied on three basic data collection techniques: semi-structured interviews, informal interviews with key informants, and participant observation. All semi-structured interviews lasted from 1 to 1.5 h, were digitally recorded, and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts ultimately became a key part of the data corpus, combined with field notes from informal interviews and observations. Interview participants were selected in a manner consistent with a purposeful sampling strategy, based on ethnic category, year in college, and gender. In all, we interviewed 14 participants from each ethnic grouping (MKM, MKH, Han) with equal representation of males and females. This resulted in a total of 42 interview respondents with the following class standing represented: 4 s year, 19 third year, 18 fourth year, and 1 fifth year. Informal interviews with key informants were also conducted as a means to gain a deeper understanding of the campus context. Another key data collection strategy involved participant observation. Hanging out as a participant observer while interacting with students was critical because it enabled the researchers to listen and learn through the students' narratives and through what was observed in their daily lives. Moderate participation allows the researchers to balance between "insider" and "outsider" roles, which results in a good combination of involvement and detachment for objectivity.

In making sense of how Minzu students formed social capital we mainly focus on the key individuals and groups with whom students interacted as part of acquiring helpful social ties and relations. Namely, we highlight peer-to-peer and faculty and staff connections as common ways of building social capital for all three groups of students. Peer-to-peer connections included relationships with roommates, classmates, friends, and upper-class students. Minzu students tended to describe these relationships as primarily serving as sources of information and/or resource channels through which they could more easily navigate college life. They saw social connections with peers as quite helpful in pursuing academic success, getting career advice, and seeking part-time jobs or internships. A second key type of social connection stressed by students is the relationship they build with Minzu professors and administrative support staff. Students tended to describe their social connections with professors mostly in terms of obtaining support in academic-related matters.

A large number of students stated that they made social connections through online platforms. Online platforms/websites such as WeChat (a major Chinese social media platform for building and maintaining relationships) or online information portals of the university are nowadays increasingly used in formal and informal settings in students' lives. Minzu students described using online platforms for making social connections and looking for information that helped them identify resources they needed, either for course work or in relation to personal interests and/or needs. MKM student Arban, a Mongolian student in her 2nd year, for example, used WeChat for getting help from her calligraphy professor:Sometimes I will send her a picture of my work and ask for advice and guidance on how to draw the character right. She also replies by sending me a video showing me how to do it

Online platforms are also used for enhancing one's career and employment options. The following comments from Chongye, a 4th year Han student in economics, captures this point:Our class also has a group chat on WeChat so our class counselor often times shares useful job information there...Normally, what he shares to the group chat is very reliable, such as job opportunities offered by his colleagues or his friends

However, the three groups of students differ in their ability and level of use in terms of social media and online connections to access social capital. A full 31 out of 42 students who participated in the semi-structured interviews described their extensive use of social media and online platforms/websites for maintaining and building social connections as well as for seeking important information and opportunities. Of the 11 who did not emphasize such Internet usage, 8 were ethnic minorities, and their ethnic breakdown is as follows: Hui, Kazakh, Miao (2), Mongolian, Tibetan, Tu, and Uyghur. Numerous research have found that ethnic minority students in China tend to suffer from weaker pre-college education based on their ethnic background and their rural origin, which largely results in unequal allocation of educational resources (Postiglione, [24]; Wang, [35]; Zhu, [39]; Clothey & Hu, [6]; Ma et al., [21]). Chunhua, a MKH student from Qinghai, revealed this to us when talking about the challenges she faced in her life at Minzu.I would say the biggest challenge is schoolwork. Because I am from North-East China and I am also an ethnic minority, our pre-college education lags behind other places in China. At one time I accidentally saw the gaokao grade of my classmates. Their grades were much higher than mine. I realized although we are in the same class at the same university, we are not the same in terms of level of academic performance.

This huge gap in pre-college education also leads to disparities among students in Internet/digital literacy, which refers to "the knowledge, skills, attitudes that are required to use ICT and digital media to perform tasks, solve problems, communicate, manage information...learning, socializing, consuming, and empowerment (Ferrari, [11] p. 3)". A sample survey shows that most ethnic minority students in China have limited, if any, access to mobile phones, computers, and other electronic devices and they lack the necessary ICT knowledge and the aptitude for utilizing them to their advantage (Chen, [3]). Adil, a 4th year MKH Uyghur student majoring in political science, made note of this pattern relative to MKM students:I have a MKM friend who is the class monitor (班长). He said his classmates hardly ever; maybe they don't even know how to go to the university's online portal to get information. My friend had to do that for them and then pass the information to his classmates

Compared to MKH students, MKM students' limited Mandarin proficiency coupled with insufficient pre-college education resulted in poorer digital literacy, which further limited MKM's access to social capital. Adil's comments largely help to demonstrate why some MKM students fail to make use of the Internet and online platforms in seeking resources during college. Another reality is that although Minzu University provides a diverse and integrated environment for all students, the language of instruction and institutional online resources throughout the university is mainly based on Mandarin; thus minority students, especially those MKM students with limited Mandarin proficiency, do not have access to official online resources in their own languages.

Guanxi may be understood as a form or sub-type of social capital, although not all forms of social capital are guanxi. Guanxi, unlike some forms of social capital, requires a common understanding, shared by multiple parties, of a sense of mutual obligation and potential benefit. This is not true of all forms of social capital. For example, there may be no expectation on the part of a mentor that a protégé will offer benefits to the mentor. Such a relationship does not necessarily convey the kind of norms and expectations associated with guanxi, and yet mentors certainly offer forms of social capital (Carter, [2]; Salazar, [29]).

Based on our data, it seemed that the students of Minzu including MKM, MKH, and Han students share a consensus on their understanding of guanxi. For them, guanxi can be both instrumental and affective. They acknowledged the benefits guanxi may bring to their lives, either in tangible forms such as resources and information or in intangible forms such as emotional support and spiritual companionship.

However, there are significant differences across groups in their attitudes towards guanxi, which can be due to the fact that different groups of students have different access to guanxi. In our interview sample (as can be seen in Table 1), more ethnic minority students such as MKM and MKH students tend to have a negative attitude towards guanxi, whereas more Han students (79%) have a positive attitude towards guanxi. A fourth-year MKM Kazakh student, Rayana, reinforces the point that no guanxi is available to MKM students.

Table 1 Attitudes towards Guanxi across MKM, MHK and Han groups

Guanxi is a useful tool for those who have guanxi, whereas for people who don't have guanxi to begin with, guanxi in practice is an unfair phenomenon

Chunhua, the MKH Tu student's remark echoes this point as she puts that "I think guanxi is a barrier...you know when other people have guanxi and use guanxi, but I don't have guanxi thus I cannot use it...it is a barrier to me then." Similarly, Lingling, a fourth-year Hui MKH student, spoke about how she and her best friend, both from very poor families, share the perception that guanxi is often used to limit opportunities that they earned on the basis of merit. For example, both achieved very high scores on a civil service job exam, but neither was offered the position: "We just thought everything was pre-arranged.... We are the poor kids who don't have guanxi and we have to play the game with these other people who have lots of it."

However, when looking at Han students' comments about guanxi, it is clear that even though some of them recognize the potential negativity of guanxi, they not only openly acknowledge its benefits but also offer grounds of its existence, argue that guanxi, to some extent, could be meritocratic as it requires hard work to build and maintain. Kai, a third-year Han student precisely captured this point by noting that "guanxi does not just come to a random person, you need to work on getting it and it is not an easy job sometimes. So when some people blame guanxi and say it is bad, it is unfair...they need to work on building guanxi. I think guanxi is a kind of resource and no one should fault me for having resources I work hard to get." Another third-year Han student Feng further supports this point by saying that "I think guanxi is not a negative thing. On the contrary, it to some extent tells people how good, smart and how competent you are." Hence, the clear contrast posed by the above comments on students' attitude towards guanxi largely demonstrates the inequable access to guanxi among them.

Students alluded to a variety of ways through which guanxi may be formed or acquired, including enhancing one's knowledge or talent (as a means of exchanging important information or a special service), building one's social network, and gift giving. Key to our findings is that MKM, MKH, and Han students showed obvious differences in how they form and mobilize guanxi.

Both MKM and MKH students tend to form and mobilize guanxi through intergroup networks. Such guanxi can be seen as a kind of bonding social capital. This pattern is more prominent among MKM students than MKH, as in Minzu, MKM students are required to major in academic programs tied to their language and ethnic identity. For example, Tibetan MKM students can only major in Tibetan language and literature with other Tibetan students. Their residence hall roommates are also from the same ethnic background. Although the requirements to study one's own language and literature is done in some sense to support student development and academic achievement—after all, their language ability in Chinese Mandarin may be limited—it also has the negative consequence of limiting MKM students' social capital formation. The class model is less of a problem for the MKH and Han students, whose more advanced Mandarin ability enables them to take advantage of a host of extracurricular activities exposing them to students from a range of ethnic backgrounds and possessing diverse social capital. Although MKM students take "public courses" with other students, according to many MKM students in the interviews, they may feel intimidated and nervous about using Mandarin to socialize and make friends outside of their own ethnic group. Mina, a 3rd year Korean MKM student, captured this issue:All the people that I have contact with are my classmates...the people in my department, my roommates, all Korean. I don't know many people outside of this circle...When I think of socializing with other people in Mandarin, I tend to refrain from doing so while feeling worried and embarrassed about my poor Mandarin skill

In general, ethnic minority students tended to interact in smaller circles defined mostly by their own ethnic identity as they felt more comfortable. Venera, 3rd year Uyghur MKM student in Uyghur language and literature, spoke to this issue: "I usually participate in some of the events such as the traditional Uyghur dance performance or the tambura concert." In addition, culture is an important factor in making ethnic minorities more inclined to build intergroup guanxi.

Inclination to form guanxi through homogenous groups might prevent ethnic minority students from building cross-group connections which contributed to the formation of bridging social capital, but the bonding social capital they gained from intergroup guanxi might also bring them informative, affective, and valuable resources in the long run, especially when ethnic minority students return to their hometown to work after graduation. Such intergroup then guanxi becomes essential resources for their career. Arban, a second-year Mongolian MKM student, explained that her friendship circle extended beyond the Minzu campus to include Mongolians she had met in Beijing through involvement in planning Mongolian Zulu Festival activities:Because of my involvement in Zulu Festival, I got to know many people, including Mongolian adults who are currently working and living in Beijing and other Mongolian students who are at other universities in Beijing

Given the fact that more ethnic minority students are of rural origins and thus are more likely to have stronger bonds with people of the same ethnicity, this pattern of intergroup guanxi is particularly evident among most MKM and some MKH students. However, it seems that most Han lack such type of guanxi when compared to their ethnic minority counterparts.

Han students, on the other hand, tend to form guanxi in a more active and intentional way, and for them, the boundary between intergroup guanxi (bonding social capital) and cross-group guanxi (bridging social capital) was blurred. A third-year Han student, Ya, reported that:In my first two years at Minzu, I actually paid special attention in terms of where I should go and what I should do so I can meet more people and build more guanxi. I tried to join some student organizations and participate in some extracurricular activities on campus to meet people.

Another third-year Han student, Dagang, further supported this point when he noted that he put a lot effort of into building guanxi, especially in college because he was aware of the significance of building guanxi. Dagang described intentionally meeting and befriending certain people on campus to build guanxi.

The study found that students of all ethnic categories in the Chinese university form social capital through connections with peers, faculty, and staff, and through engagement with online social media. These platforms help students strengthen existing relationships and build new connections with new people, which potentially offer additional sources of social capital. Here, Granovetter's ([13]) work on weak and strong ties is relevant as one might think the latter purpose of social media serves more to expand one's weak ties. The idea is that weak ties represent fewer shared social connections and relationships and thus may offer additional sources of social capital. Hence, a concern in this regard was the fact that 8 of the 11 students who did not stress online platforms were MKM or MKH students. In an era when Internet and media literacy is becoming increasingly crucial in students' in both in and out class activities, a critical problem for these ethnic minority students is that they lack such important skills compared to their Han counterparts. Yang ([37]) specifically pointed out in her study with law school students at Minzu University of China that more than 50% of ethnic minority students lag behind Han students in mastering basic computer knowledge, understanding information technology, and Internet usage. Ma et al. ([21]) also noted that some MKM Yi students from Xichang are limited in their Mandarin fluency and familiarity with the Internet languages. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that prior educational unreadiness and linguistic challenges prevent MKM students from forming such forms of social capital. These research further highlight the urgency of addressing digital gaps and the related inequalities in contemporary educational settings. One possible recommendation for Minzu is to strengthen the ICT education for ethnic minorities, especially MKM students, by providing search engines, websites, and online resources in ethnic languages that are more user-friendly to these students.

Another key aspect of the findings focused on guanxi. Students tended to discuss the formation or acquisition of guanxi in conjunction with three basic processes: a special talent or type of knowledge one might have that could be exchangeable, the expansion of social networks and connections, and gift giving. Of particular importance here was the tendency for more MKM and MKH students to attach some negatives to the development and use of guanxi in terms of how it might undermine merit in favor of social capital held by students from more privileged backgrounds. The concept of guanxi stems from the understanding of the traditional Chinese society which is built upon Confucian cultural values. MKM and some MKH students in this study do not seem to feel attached to such values and experience a lack of guanxi due to their disadvantaged status in Chinese society, which contributes to their negative perceptions of guanxi and their limited capability of acquiring or mobilizing it.

Ethnic minorities understand guanxi in a negative light, but actively build, maintain, and use the relationships they have with people of their own: students who share the same ethnic background and home origin. From this point of view, the term guanxi remains a relatively Han concept to them. Ethnic minority students tend to refer to "guanxi" as a cross-group relationship, i.e., guanxi with others outside of their ethnic circle, especially Han students. Thus, the cultural understanding of the concept of guanxi affects how the students in our study build and use guanxi. To be more specific, ethnic minorities are active in building and utilizing inter-group guanxi (bonding social capital) but are passive or even resistant to the building of cross-group guanxi (bridging social capital). The distinction between Han students and MKM students in terms of cohort setting and dorm arrangement at Minzu hinders MKM students' access to the bridging social capital. Admittedly, this would not pose a problem for those ethnic minority students who plan to return home after graduation, where bonding social capital may be more useful. However, for those MKM students who would benefit from connections outside their ethnic group, Minzu campus does not seem to provide ample opportunities, despite its ethnic diversity. Therefore, a possible recommendation stemming from this study is for Chinese universities such as Minzu to take additional steps to encourage greater exposure to a wider array of students, faculty, and staff.

Comments from students about the negative side to guanxi—in terms of undermining hard work and merit on the part of lower-income students—bring to mind Armstrong and Hamilton's ([1]) Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality. They argued that social class standing may benefit wealthier students in comparison to poor students on the basis that the social capital of the former may enable them to be less concerned about achievement and merit. What results is that low-income students, such as the majority of MKM students and MKH students, may work hard in the hopes of attaining social mobility only to see their dreams limited by their lack of social capital, in this case discussed as guanxi. Instead of the US-based "party pathway," described by Armstrong and Hamilton, the Chinese context reveals a potential guanxi pathway. Perhaps universities such as Minzu might benefit the social mobility of MKM and MKH students by limiting the impact of guanxi through intentional educational structures—modeled after the way campus-based career and job centers operate.

Compared to Han students at the same university, our research highlights the structural, linguistic, and cultural disadvantages that MKM and some MKH students face. Social media is a key source of social capital, but ethnic minority students with limited Internet literacy and computer knowledge struggle to benefit. Instead, they tend to seek the support of their own ethnic group—an understandable choice in the challenging environment of urban college life. Finally, the term guanxi is a relatively foreign concept to many MKM and MKH students. The social capital they build through guanxi can be seen as bonding social capital, rather than bridging social capital. Compared to Han students, MKM and MKH students tend to have stronger ethnic ties that provide an extra source of bonding social capital. However, the close-knit social network within ethnic minority groups can also be a barrier for minority students by making bridging social capital harder to obtain. A subtle point worth noting here is that these barriers are more challenging to MKM students. Compared to their MKH counterparts, they are less sinicized in many ways, for instance, their limited Mandarin proficiency thus the unfamiliarity with the mainstream Chinese culture, their stronger ethnic identity and their more marginalized class and home origin, etc. Hence, MKM tend to show a relatively more negative tendency than MKH in their acceptance of guanxi. In the case of linguistic challenges and potential disadvantages related to guanxi, specific interventions of the student affairs variety may be warranted. Chinese HEIs that have a large number of ethnic minority students should aim to foster a campus climate with more opportunities for MKM and MKH students to access to a wider array of educational and social resources.

This article was supported by Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project in 2023 "Research on University Knowledge Spillover Promotion Mechanism - An Exploration Based on Zhejiang Province" (23NDJC277YB).

The authors declare no competing interests.

Tables of participants' detailed information

MKH students interviewed

Han students interviewed

MKM students interviewed

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