What Is Face
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What Is Face
It has been widely acknowledged that Chinese people like saving face. What does face actually refer to? It seems to be an abstract thing which is hard to define. However, as far as I am concerned, particularly in most cases where Chinese people are involved, the conception of face seems essentially to be vanity.
Generally, people who want to save face will try every means to show their wealth, intelligence, status, good social relationships, shining virtues, etc., which are far beyond the reality. For instance, a father only needs to prepare a dowry that agrees with what they can really afford for his daughter. However, since he believes that the wedding is the most important thing in his daughter’ life, he who keens on face-saving will give out the most generous dowry even if he will be in debt for years. He believes that only in this way can he, as well as his daughter, gains face and makes others envy them. That is vanity in their heart.
Meanwhile, for some young people, it often happens that everything they buy is of famous brands. They prefer designer clothes, imports, luxury products, and even a pair of name-brand socks which, in fact, differ little from ordinary ones. What they think will help save their faces is to possess more expensive things to compare and show off, so that they will become superior among the peers. And that is no other than vanity.
In addition, it is said that, to some extent, saving face can be interpreted as striving for more and unwilling to fall behind. However, if this kind of emotion goes beyond a certain limit, it turns out to be some follies. As we all know, in order to recover some pride, the Empress Dowager Ci Xi arranged an extremely magnificent sixtieth birthday party at the cost of the sovereignty of Taiwan and hundreds of millions of silver which were originally used to purchase warships. Maybe she intended to tell the foreigners that Qing dynasty was as strong as before. Nevertheless, what Ci Xi got from the so-called face, or vanity, was not admiration or respect, but a bad name which would never die.
From the foregoing, a conclusion can be drawn that, the conception of face in Chinese people’ mind is more a pursuit of vanity than the physical appearance. What a pity that the notion of face, which is first regarded as a expression of self-esteem and self-respect, and which is such an important thing as concerning people’s sense of worth, dignity and identity, has changed so much that it eventually come to be the great Chinese malady.
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