This paper argues that auctions are socially constructed rather than simple commercial events. The main concern of this paper is exploration of the backstage of auctions to reveal social networks between sellers and buyers and to show that auction markets are embedded in society and culture. An auction is a high end art market, which is a commercial performance stage and has high social visibility and symbolic meaning. There are lots of economic studies on auction theory regarding calculating the price, art research on artists and works of art, marketing research on art fashion and trends. All the previous research regards auctions as numbers and records, but cannot show the actors and social relationships in an auction market. From a social embeddedness perspective, this paper studies art auction markets of China to illustrate that behind the open stage of auctions there are several interrelated communities exchanging information and money. Newly formed Chinese art auctions convey old social functions.