“…Personal choices and relations in China, a socialist country at early stages of industrialization and economic development, seem to be remarkably similar to those in the United States, a capitalist country at advanced stages, quite possibly because particularism governs personal relations regardless of cultural, political, or economic differences. (Blau, Ruan, & Ardelt 1991: 1037 Since Blau et al (1991) called attention to the universal nature of particularism in contrasting the US and China, research on labor market processes in both countries has found empirical evidence of their claims (Bian & Huang, 2016;Bian, In Press;DiTomaso, 2013). Particularism by use of social networks in the job search process has become a major theme in the research on inequality in both the US and China (Lin, 1999b;Lin, Fu, & Chen, 2013).…”