For those of you not well-versed in Chinese culture, there is something you should know about the concept of face or having face. Stemming from this, there are also the related concepts of losing face, of saving face, and even of lending face.
Face is a concept not hard to understand because, even as Westerners, everyone has face. When equated to Western values, face is very similar to the notion of reputation. Face is a dynamic which applies to both personal and business relationships in China.
Corollary to face is the inseparable concept of guanxi or “relations”. Face and guanxi work hand-in-hand. One without the other renders useless the dynamic these two concepts collectively work together. I will write about guanxi in a separate article (Be sure to click here to go to the main article index and click SUBSCRIBE twice to get updates).
So, now we will see how face works curiously as a commodity in the business and personal realms…
HAVING FACE (GOOD FACE)
In Asian culture, if someone has “good face” (or quite simply has “face”), such “face” means someone has a good reputation in front of one’s peers. Interestingly enough, having good face is actually a “bankable” notion in Chinese culture. Having face in front of one’s business colleagues or within a community is literally a statement of that person’s value. If someone has good enough face, in some cases they can walk into a lending institution (such as smaller, privately operated banks), and take out a loan on their word only. People with good face are generally dependable, reliable, and safe to do business with.
As we say in Western culture, “His word is as good as gold.” This is essentially what good “face” means.
LOSING FACE (NO FACE)
In situations where someone of reputation has made a mistake or done wrong, and the error is made attributable to that person in public, then that one person has “lost face” – their reputation in the eyes of their peers has been reduced. Losing face is an experience no-one wishes to have befall them. So, even if the one losing face is clearly “wrong”, some folks will go to great lengths to avoid the appearance of losing face.
In any case, when face has been lost, the losing party walks off with “bad face”.
SAVING FACE
Saving face implies a situation where someone’s reputation is under question, or has already been lost, and is undergoing restoration. Saving face is an action whereby one is able to prove that they were not wrong, or show that the degree of their wrongdoing was only very small – not such a big deal.
This restoration is usually done with the help of someone else with good face -usually by making some kind of announcement before one’s peers, exonerating or endorsing the person who had lost face.
LENDING FACE
Lending face (sometimes called giving face) is another interesting study in the face concept as a bankable commodity.
In a case where a person has no face or no recognized reputation within certain circles, this person may be required to seek out and “borrow” a certain measure of face from someone willing to “lend” it to them.
AN EXAMPLE OF “LENDING FACE”
For example, if a business person reputable only in the finance industry wished to invest into a new trade (say, textiles), their progress would be slow to nil without knowing someone already inside that industry or at least related to that industry. On the one hand, they would wish to invest in someone who would be trustworthy, yet willing to take risks. Likewise their prospective textile business partner would wish to be able to trust the financial investor in similar fashion. So…
Q: How to fill this empty gap with trust?
A: Find an intercessory* trusted by both parties.
(*Note: I will write later about the intercessory concept later. Please click here to go to the main article index and click SUBSCRIBE twice with your email address to get updates).
Let’s say the investor made some inquiries and found that they don’t know anyone influential directly within the textile industry, but knew someone who manufactures textile dyes. Then that dye specialist would be their avenue into the textile trades.
All manner of wining and dining appointments would be made and attended. If possible, some business transactions would occur so as to build up “relations” (see more on guanxi below) between the investor and the dye merchant. After a history of good face had been established, then the investor would be in a position to ask their dye merchant buddy the favor of being introduced to a premier textile customer.
The dye merchant would help their partner select a viable textile prospect and the whole process of introduction would begin again, with exception to one factor. The face that the dye magnate had already established with the textile boss would serve to accelerate the investor’s reputation. Instead of starting off cold, the relationship between the investor and the textile magnate would be “warm” already. With this reputation already established, business could commence sooner and possibly in higher volumes (risk) than “cold” partners would normally start off with.
In this scenario, the dye manufacturer had “lent” some if their face to the investor to facilitate such an easy intro.
SEE AN EXAMPLE OF LENDING FACE IN A MOVIE
If you wish to see a charming example of lending face, I suggest you see a movie called “Postman in the Mountains” (also called Nashan naren nagou) which you can rent from Netflix.com. In this movie, an older Chinese postman who delivers mail to a ruggedly mountainous countryside region is getting ready to retire. He is to be replaced by his son, a younger man full of health and vitality. In order to help his son get started in his new job, the old man takes his son with him on the mail route and introduces him to everyone along the way. Through this introduction, the old man is establishing the young man’s face (reputation) by lending some of his own credibility.
This story even shows the way the old man introduces his faithful companion, a large guard dog (who had accompanied the old man for years through the mountains) to his son, and established the trusting bond the boy would need to have before the dog would willfully accompany the son as his new guardian.
Face and guanxi (roughly spoken as “gwahn-shee”) work hand-in-hand. Where face is the substance – the fuel – that makes the Chinese business engine turn over, guanxi is the “personalized glue” that makes it all stick together as a working dynamic.
I will be writing a separate article about guanxi soon. Please click here to go to my article index page and scroll around for “The Concept of ‘Guanxi’ in Chinese Culture”. Another related article will be “The Concept of The ‘Favor Bank’ in Business Culture”.
(Please be sure to click SUBSCRIBE on this page to keep up to date with these articles as I write them.)
SIMILAR TO THE WESTERN CONCEPT OF “NETWORKING”
All of this… Some would say all this is the spitting image of “Western networking with Chinese characteristics.” Well… true!
All the more argument to the idea that, inside we really are all the same.
A CAUTION ON STEREOTYPING
When some people run across something new or unknown, they like to put that experience into a little box. My recommendation: don’t do this.
I would like to end this cultural lesson by saying that it is wrong to look at someone who proudly associates themselves with an ages-old Asian culture and begin to categorize them as “those people who are sensitive about face”. Don’t go around asking them, “Is it right for me to do (this or that)? I don’t want you to lose face.” Treat folks fairly and give them a decent chance just like you would anyone else. At the same time, recognize their culture for the richness and diversity it will bring into your life.
This whole face and guanxi thing is merely a hint, a guideline (not an absolute), into one of many dynamics spilling forth from the amazing cornucopia that is Chinese culture.
