China Revealed – The Concept of Face
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The concept of Face refers to 2 separate but related beliefs in Chinese social relations for judging conduct — lian and mianzi.
Lian represents the confidence of society in the integrity of a person’s moral character. Mianzi represents social perceptions of a person’s prestige; a reputation achieved through getting on in life, through success and orientation.
It’s imperative for a person to maintain face, as it translates into power and influence, and affects goodwill. A loss of lian could verily result in a loss of trust within a social group, while a loss of mianzi could verily result in a loss of authority. To gossip about a person stealing would cause a loss of lian but not mianzi. Continually interrupting your boss while they’re speaking could cause them a loss of mianzi but not lian.
This is a true story of one man’s journey in China as he experiences some of the little-known cultures within.
Chengdu Farmhouse
I stopped on the road alongside a farm one day to adjust the carburetors on my motorcycle, while the farming family was watching me with great curiosity. Many locals have never seen a foreigner in real life. They were absolutely stunned that I had stopped in front of their farmhouse. So, I said a friendly “Ni Hao” and a conversation ensued.
Chengdu Farmhouse
Proud farmer mucking a rice patty
As I spoke with the farmers, I noticed that their children were fishing in the lake that bordered their farm. After they invited me to the house for tea — a major local custom — I inquired about the fishing. You see, I love fishing, and I miss fishing from ‘back home’ very much. They offered to allow me to fish on their property. But I had no gear with me and hadn’t brought any from home, so I said I would return one day.
Chengdu farming community winter Scene
I wasn’t about to let a single week pass. It was late April and I knew the fish were active. I tracked down a Chengdu Rod and Reel store, bought some gear and drove back to the humble farmhouse in the mountains about 1 hour’s drive from Chengdu, China. They were very pleased to see me again, and sent the children with me to show me the best fishing spot.
Chengdu fish even have a Chinese look about them
After a glorious morning of probing the waters fishing, I brought my terrific catch of fish back to the family and offered them up. This of course led to more tea and eventually a meal.
Meal with Chengdu farming families
They evidently invited the other nearby farmers to come meet and greet the ‘Loewie’ — ‘Foreigner’ in the Sichuanhua dialect. I think it was mostly to prove that last week’s tale of ‘the Foreigner who visited’ wasn’t a tall tale after all. The husband and wife farmer whom I had initially befriended were beaming ear to ear … I mean they were floating on air!
You see, everything in this culture is based on the concept of ‘Face’ — saving face, giving face, avoiding losing face. For a foreigner to visit a simple farming family in China is major, huge, ‘FACE’. They treated me like a ‘President’ and offered me the best of everything. I almost felt like they were about to offer me their daughter — well not exactly, but you get the gist.
Now I felt as honored as they did. I mean, they were just as poor as poor can be. But they gave me special treatment — the best food on the table and the only beer they had. It would have been bad of me to decline anything they offered. They would have lost face, and I knew this, as I had studied the culture prior to coming. But, I felt I had to repay them.
Had I just whipped out some cash and said “here, this is for fishing and I know you’re poor and could use the money”, it would have been viewed as an insult. I would have stolen their ‘face’. I would have lost ‘face’ too. Instead, I went into a lengthy story on how much I must pay to fish back home.
I told them a single trip would cost $100 U.S. dollars or 800 RMB (Yuan) They gasped! Now of course, this was B.S. I really pay nothing back home, except for the meager yearly license fee ($15). But, I needed to figure out a way to repay their kindness and save ‘face’ at the same time.
Eventually, I deeply apologized to them that I wasn’t wealthy enough to pay them what I normally pay at home, and said that the city (Chengdu) was very expensive where I was living. I asked them to please accept my humble offering of 500 RMB. In their customary way, they refused twice (while I insisted) and then took the money. They hid their pleasure and acted almost remorseful to accept (as is the custom). But, I knew inside they were freaked out. Their hearts were doing somersaults!
Cute Chinese child who needed new shoes
You see, 500 RMB is almost 3 months wages for this family. This money was a proverbial ‘Godsend’. But, in reality, it’s only $60 US to me. This meager offering from me will put shoes on their children’s feet, good food on their table for more than a month, and fulfill a few other necessities.
And, I now have a permanent fishing spot if I wish. It was a win-win situation for all. I was able to do some sorely missed fishing, helped a very poor farm family, gave my countryman a good name, and made friends with the salt of the earth. All in all, it was a good day’s work.
The Concept of Face
When trying to avoid conflict, Chinese in general will avoid causing another person to lose mianzi by not bringing up embarrassing facts in public. Conversely, when challenging authority or a person’s standing within a community, Chinese will often attempt to create a loss of lian or mianzi.
Oddly enough, outright lying doesn’t cause loss of face. Say an airline reservation is cancelled, they could then lie that it was merely delayed. Inability to arrange the trip would cause a loss of face, while lying that it was delayed doesn’t. So-called ‘polite lies’ are perfectly acceptable, and even expected.
The concept of face is explained and differentiated from other closely related principles — authority, standards of behavior, personality, status, dignity, honor, and prestige. The claim to face may rest on the basis of status, whether assigned or achieved, and on personal or non-personal factors. It may also vary according to the group with which a person is interacting.
Basic differences are found between the processes involved in gaining versus losing face. While it’s not a necessity for one to strive to gain face, losing face is a serious matter which will, in varying degrees, affect one’s ability to function effectively in society.
Face is lost when the individual, either through their action or that of people closely related to them fails to meet essential requirements placed upon them by virtue of the social position they have.
In contrast to the ideology of individualism, the question of face frequently arises beyond the realm of individual responsibility and skewed desire.
Reciprocity is natural in face behavior, in which a mutually restrictive, even coercive, power is placed upon each member of the social group. It’s argued that face behavior is universal and that face should be utilized as a form of central importance in the social sciences.
The concept of face also exists in Korean, Malay, Laotian, Japanese, Vietnamese and Thai cultures.
Sources for ‘Face’: Copyright David Yau-fai Ho — The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 81, No. 4 (Jan., 1976), pp. 867-884, and Wikipedia.
All photos are property of a personal contact in China who wishes to remain anonymous. Copyright 2007 Life in the Fast Lane.
Tags:Chengdu China Chinese culture face ideology lian lifestyle lose face mianzi philosophy save face Sichuanhua
What an interesting article. The concept of “face” has always been an interesting Asian nuance of their society.
Hahaa!…We Americans could learn a thing or two from the chinese. How often is it that I get the middle finger waved in my direction for the slightest driving error on the road. I’ll give you a hint; if I got $1 for every one,……I’d be Oprah rich. And I’m a good driver too.
What an amazing story. Individualism in the Western World seems to have been replaced by groups of idiots who don’t care about society as a whole and could learn a lot from this.
BTW, you also need to stop by my blog sometime….there is an award there for you to pick up and you can kill me another time LOL
Thanks Nitropuppy, there’s a lot to be said with your statement. Much of it boils down to unspoken respect which is sorely lacking in our society these days.
Thanks Colin. The How, Why and When our society lost its values for respect and common niceties in general is one that could be highly debatable, but the important thing is, that we need to bring it back to the root of scoiety and instill these values within our children today.
Another award? OMG. Headed your way …
Respect and niceties cost nothing, I have always taught my daughter that good manners are free, and she has taken that on board pretty well over the years. As for instilling it back into the roots of society it would mean scrapping the brigades of ‘do-gooders and politicians that have done so much damage by undermining control over children over the decades.
Here in the UK the laws have been changed so much that children now have more rights than the parents, law enforcement is non-existent and in many schools they have no repect whatsoever. A sad reflection really.
But that’s my opinion, I am sure many will come out and praise the hooligans, although I admit they are in the minority but they cause the most disruption.
I wouldn’t expect anything less for your daughter coming from someone like you Colin
Sadly, things aren’t much different here in Canada either.
But then there are some parents for which the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. A few examples … when I had a store, we caught a kid that attempted arsen by setting our building on fire, and fortunately a neighbor had a hose long enough to control the spread of the fire until the firecrew arrived. The parent felt it was a harmless prank since the building didn’t go down and no one was injured. Had it not been for the neighbor it would have and the building was filled with people at the time during rush hour.
On another occasion at the same store, I detained a kid about 12 years old for stealing, waiting for the police to arrive. I called the parent to inform her and tell her where her child was. She came straight to the store and proceeded to call me the C word and every profanity under the sun and whisked her kid away before the police could get there.
Another kid about 14 years old proceeded to beat me up when I brought him into my office for stealing and picked the phone up to call the cops and took off.
I could go on, but you get the gist.
It’s a sad state of affairs to hear stories like yours Deborah……and so true……and it’s innocent people that suffer…
A very very interesting story……makes you appreciate what we have too….I hadn’t heard of this concept before……but it certainly makes sense…very wise people…the Chinese
Thanks Kim. It was the first that I had heard about ‘face’ myself from my contact, and felt compelled to write about his heart warming story. I find the concept to be a very honorable one.
The photos I received were a large file size, and in viewing them that large, the very humble homes these people live in really leaves an impact.
To think that $60 US could feed an entire family well plus buy some necessities is amazing and revealing in the poverty in certain areas.
Having traveled a lot in the Orient, Far East, and India, I would say this post is very true. Another point: even if you know someone is bs’ing, let them save face!
Thanks Kuanyin. I’d say the same should apply to our own culture when you know that the person should be spared from embarrassment
Everyone knows, but the person is left to walk away with some self-dignity to be able to maintain the relationship.
I have always been interested in China. I can’t stop reading about it, e.g., Terra Cota warriors, the Shaolin monks, and battles with Genghis Khan to name a few.
And oh! I absolutely love Chinese food! And guess what, the owner of the biggest mall in the Philippines comes from China, i.e., Henry Sy.
The observation that you have learnt and was kind enough to put on net for others as well get to know how there are other systems of societies in the world which operates its good checks and balances with no technological advances to even think of are having a self contented life rising familes of three or more children with parents alone or not taking the sole responsibility of dispilining the children(culture of inculcating value of lian) but the society around that takes initiatives on any children that gives them, the children a feeling of abding a consensual approach towards anything.
I am from India and I too have travelled some five countries and I have something I presume, you may all interested, as you were curious about Lian and Mianzi, on a book of social cutoms and values written by a Saint (doesnt belong to any religion) and this book is acclaimed as the most translated book world wide. The saint’s name is Thiruvalluvar and the name of the book he has written is Thirukural.
If you think its a good idea and be open to have a look at yet another culture’s perspective on establishing a balanced society, you can have a read through the link below.
http://www.tamilnation.org/literature/kural/kuralE1.htm
Please just dont go by a single verse have a read through all the verse in a section and try get a big picture, cuz at times, some single verse alone if read as a single entity my have conflict with western values and if you take account of all of them together, you will understand that western societies were even following the same, but only by a minority who considers themselves as elites of the society and may as well be paranoid to speak their values to the current generation as they fear thay might be laughed at an may as well loose their respect and dignity among them.
Have nice read.
Cheers!
Tesh
Was browsing for some info on the Egyptian carving that was stollen by the German who got the curse of the Pharaohs and died recently and whilst I was reading that article, got stuck with this one as well as the heading was a luring one.. “Face” Of course who wouldnt want to save their face.
Great to hear it Anitokid, glad you’re finding some things that interest you here
Interesting bit about your mall, considering you’re in the Philippines.
Thanks for the information Sivathanupillai, I’ll check into it. You have my curiosity peaked
Wow, you are so wonderful for having done that. Did that make you feel like a king? You seem very satisfied with yourself, loser.
Its so dumb!!!