Meaning of Face in Chinese Culture Essay

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The concept of face in Chinese cultural background complicates intercultural communication. Face is described as the personal pride or honor that an individual attaches to himself or herself. The Chinese value self- respect, and the concept of face is highly emphasized in their cultural background, where a good reputation, not only for oneself, but also for ones’ family gives someone an advantage in society. It is a positive social value, which is a person’s defense which he or she can claim from others.

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It gives a person a social front or standing. Authors have described it as a ‘face’ that can be ‘lost’, ‘granted’, ‘gained’ or even ‘presented as a gift’. Even though the concept of face is of Chinese origin it is also incorporated in many languages and societies thereof. This is evidenced by the frequent use of the words honor, reputation and family prestige in different cultural backgrounds in the world.

There is the quantifiable or rather measurable concept (mianzi), which is social reputation achieved through ostentation and success in life, and the unquantifiable (lian) , which is the confidence of the society in a person in regard to his or her moral standing. For the Chinese making public mistakes is, by far, the worst humiliation they can ever suffer.

This is evidenced by their reluctance to admit failure or wrong doing in public even though it might be minute. The concept of face in western cultural backgrounds is used as a narcissistic defense strategy to protect personal accountability, while for the collectivist Asian cultural backgrounds emphasis is placed on saving collective identity, e.g. family image or reputation of the community.

An example is given where a person from a poor background may not be willing to accept financial assistance which he may desperately need. This may be perceived as a confirmation of his or her family’s poverty, hence lack of ways and means of bringing poverty in the family. Chinese communities are designed towards preserving and strengthening social relationships in what is referred to as face giving.

The concept of face in Chinese culture takes various perspectives in regard to different study such as semantics, social linguistics and other aspects. These are both science and art criteria in which face in Chinese culture has been illustrated. What is face then to the Chinese, face according to Coggin and Coggin, (2001) is the sum total of an individual emotion, self-respect and confidence.

Face is seen as a somewhat key towards the Chinese spirit in addition face is seen in a psychological perspective metaphorically to mean that it can only be granted and to this affect it can be lost and if it ever arise a need, it should be fought for. This aspect translates in the fact the Chinese culture inculcates almost every aspect of human life. There are mainly four situations of face according to the Chinese:

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  • Where a person’s actions have been exposed to people (diu-mian-zi)
  • Where a person gives face to others by respecting them (gei-mian-zi)
  • Where a person earns others’ respect by avoiding making mistakes and also by showing wisdom in his or her decision making (liu-mian-zi)
  • Where face is promoted by other people through complements and recommendations to others (jiang-mian-zi)

The Chinese hold face dear to them e.g. it is some times not considered a ‘lie’ if the deceit is done to save face. For instance saying yes where saying no could be considered disrespectful or someone denying a fault that is clearly his or hers since taking responsibility for the mistake may be perceived as a weakness and may lead to the loss of credibility.

According to Ting-Toomey, (1988) the face negotiation theory is based on the management of identity conflict on individual and cultural levels. The theory elaborates the inter-cultural interactions between individuals on international levels. The communication skills that a person must have to acquire and manage face are referred to as face work, or rather the individual’s identity in society and how that identity is improved and maintained during interactions with other people. According to Ting-Toomey, (1988), face has five tenets:

  • Face orientation which determines the focus of a person’s face, divides people into two i.e. individualist cultural backgrounds, where saving face is to a personal advantage while emphasis is placed on non-inclusion, and collectivist cultural backgrounds where saving face is to the advantage of family or society as a whole and persons have collective identity.
  • Face movements or patterns which differ among communicating parties due to cultural differences may lead to one of the parties feeling threatened or offended. The extent of the conflict can be determined by the facial expression of an individual. In a collectivist cultural background such as that of the Chinese conflict is less severe or avoided. On the other hand, in an individualistic western culture conflict is high as a person is only trying to further his individual endeavors.
  • Face interaction has different strategies for the individualistic western cultural backgrounds where interaction is direct, verbal, with low context face work. In collectivist eastern cultural backgrounds interaction is preferred to be indirect, nonverbal and with high context face work. High face work portrays a credible image and focuses on maintaining a relationship after winning over a conflict while low face work preserves harmony between the interacting persons by indirectly solving the conflict.
  • Conflict communication style consists of behaviors acquired due to ones cultural background which dictate a person’s morals, values and general behavior towards others. This is the direct impact of the community on a person as a result of him or her belonging to that particular community. This is spilt into two dimensions: the degree of individualism or the extent of self satisfaction that a person seeks; and the degree of collectivism or the extent of the individuals concerns for others.
  • Face content domains is said to be how often an individual participates in work through facial expression. While individualists may propagate autonomy to save face, collectivists are proponents of inclusion due to their need for society’s approval and belonging. However, there are shared characteristics by the two where ‘competence face’ is used by individuals to appear accomplished, intelligent or capable in the particular interaction context.

Intercultural communication has a number of parameters which are perceived differently by individuals of different cultural backgrounds. These perceptions are:

  • The time perception is for example where in Asian countries e.g. Japan and china. Time is considered precious and punctuality is encouraged while lateness is considered immoral or rude. This might not be the case in Africa or the Middle East where punctuality is not as important as in some Asian countries.
  • The space perception is where in some countries personal space is considered private and any attempt to be close to a person is considered intrusion, while in other parts of the world being too far from a person while communicating is considered disrespectful and rude. This is also seen where office meetings are preferred to be done behind the desk while in other cases face to face without any barrier between the members.
  • The perception of verbal and non-verbal communication varies between cultures as context varies between them. High context cultures such as the Chinese are proponents of non-verbal communication and prefer ambiguous, indirect and polite communication. Low context cultures on the other hand prefer direct and less ambiguous communication that is more verbal. For example Chinese couples rarely say the words ‘I love you’, but this doesn’t mean that there is no love between them. On the other hand western couples are fond of saying these words even when they do not mean them. Chinese cultures concentrate more on the actions that demonstrate love between the couples.

In relation to our discussion it is imperative to look at face from its metonym aspect which refers to the outward appearance as it’s the most distinctive part of our body in the side of our interactive side. The faced has an attribute to show emotion characteristics due to its own distinctive features like the nose, brows and mouth.

This feature give ones character through facial expressions.This relation of human emotions and character in form of face have quite and significant impact in the field of psychology (Russell and FernĂĄndez-Dols, 1997). In more recent studies, the study of face and character has been inculcated in linguistics (Wierzbicka, 1999), as the study takes into account as being intuitive which makes it perceived as an artistic work.

For instance the Beijing opera focuses on depicting its characters based on how they portray their faces. In Chinese culture there is a huge percentage of compounds and idioms that express emotions and ones state of mind in regard to what happens to their faces.

As suggested earlier the face is the most distinctive part and thus forms our interactive side, this translates to it being the focus of relationships in the sense of social and physical aspect.

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The importance of face as a means towards promoting human interaction in regard to relationship is reflected in the Chinese lexicon mou-mian which translates to seek-face ‘meet; meet each other; get acquainted with each other, this is according to Wierzbicka ,(1993), “Reading human faces: Emotion and components universal semantics” this lexicon in a nut shell stipulates that people are able to convey their feelings in regards to other people meaning it is a sigh illustrating interpersonal relationships

Face in Chinese culture has been known to complicate intercultural communication and the basis for this is the fact intercultural communication takes two major outlines ”mianzi” which means face and ”guanxi” which means social relations, in Chinese one falls as either a friend, colleague, parent or employee.

The other aspect of Chinese culture that complicates inter cultural communication is the issue of bending the truth, in most countries’ of the world the truth is valued and praised as being good moral standing. In Chinese culture on the other hand, telling a lie is part and parcel in their norm where applicable.

In a world where no one wants to be called a liar, then the issue of exposing a lie in Chinese culture becomes a conundrum. Whereas it is logical to stand by the truth, for an outsider of Chinese culture the situation may escalate father away from a positive outcome as the Chinese culture causes them to retreat causing ones meaningful exchange to become more difficult.

Lastly it is critical to mention that based on the Chinese culture in relation to how it complicates intercultural communication it is important to mention that the Chinese education system teaches on the aspect of listening then speaking (Yu, 1998).

This resorts in anti-social behavior where for instance workers in Chinese tradition will avoid their employee which they fain as shyness or just mere lack of knowledge in English. The reasons given are that if being so social reflect that they are not competent in their work. These causes the Chinese to find it difficult to engage in intercultural communication as people find it difficult to understand them as their faces don’t show or reveal what goes on their mind.

References

Ting-Toomey,S., (1988). Intercultural Conflict Styles: A Face Negotiation Theory,” in Theories in Intercultural Communication. Newbury Park: Sage Press

Wierzbicka, A., (1993). Reading human faces: Emotion and components universal semantic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Wierzbicka, A., (1999).Emotions across Languages and Cultures: Diversity and Universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Yu, N., (1998).The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor: A Perspective from Chinese. Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s.

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IvyPanda. (2019) 'Meaning of Face in Chinese Culture'. 23 March.

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IvyPanda. 2019. "Meaning of Face in Chinese Culture." March 23, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/meaning-of-face-in-chinese-culture/.

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