https://doi.org/10.1177/14407833211044568 Journal of Sociology 1–16 © The Author(s) 2021 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/14407833211044568 journals.sagepub.com/home/jos Burning out in emotional capitalism: Appropriation of ganqing and renqing in the Chinese platform economy Ling Tang Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Abstract Based on a three-year digital ethnography as an educational consultant on the Chinese digital platform X, I use guanxi, enduring interpersonal relationships, to explain how people voluntarily work to the extent of burning out. Drawing on literature about emotion and work in precarious labour, and especially the discussion on emotional capitalism, I demonstrate that it is not because of the lack of social connections that people engage in auto-exploitation and burning out, as Han Byung-chul argues, but precisely because of shared values and the emotions people develop for each other that people commit more to work. Complementing research on digital economic tribes, I argue that guanxi could serve as an analytical framework to decipher the buyer–seller relationship on platforms. In particular, I use two guanxi-related concepts ganqing (emotional attachments) and renqing (norms of interpersonal relationship) to explain why I worked voluntarily and obligatorily for the students I met via X. Keywords burnout, China, digital labour, economic tribe, emotional capitalism, ganqing, guanxi, Han Byung- chul, platform economy, renqing According to the State Information Centre (2020), more than 800 million people partici- pated in the platform economy in 2019 in China – that is, more than one-tenth of the world’s population, generating transactions of 32.828 trillion yuan (US $5.03 trillion). In terms of size and volume, China has become a definite global leader in the platform economy. An online platform is defined as ‘a programmable digital architecture designed to organize interactions between users’ (van Dijck et al., 2018: 4). This definition includes Corresponding author: Ling Tang, Academy of Film, School of Communication and Film, Hong Kong Baptist University, 9/F, The Jockey Club Tower, Hong Kong. Email: lingtang@hkbu.edu.hk 1044568JOS 0 0 10.1177/14407833211044568Journal of SociologyTang research-article 2021 Article