Abstract:

The Zhangze people in the Songjiang district of Shanghai have a customary present-making practice, which reveals their human relations, ethics and mutually beneficial principle. The present-making has a dual funciton of fulfilling moral obligations and expressing emotions. The local folks are used to making and preserving their "auspicious accounts". This custom, still popular today, accurately records those major events in the villagers' social contacts and depicts their social networks. Also, there is a conventional custom of "arranging an adopted relative's marriage", which moulds a mutually beneficial mechanism among villagers.

Key words: village people's social contact, present- making, human ethical relation, mutually beneficial principle