The most interesting forms of currency do not come in paper bills.

 

In every society, we use our relationships as a form of currency. We often hear “you owe me a favor” or “you owe this much to me” amongst friends or people we know. For example, in the Chinese culture, the word “favor” is called “ren qing”. Directly translated, it’s put together by two words that means “human feelings”. It’s almost like a mental account book in your head of how much other people owe you or you owe other people.

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Because of our relation with others, we often find ourselves filling other people’s agendas with favors we owe them. More than often, we find ourselves pressured into tasks we don’t want to do just because of our relation to others. We will often times be reminded of what others has done for us in the past, even if we never verbally agreed to a deal like this.

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My exploration is on “favors” as a form of currency. I want to give more insight to how it’s put to work and the negative effects favors has on individuals as members of the society. The idea is to convey the lack of balance in favor based relationships and society, in hopes that my viewers will take away awareness of situations that they are put in.