The Ideas of Face and Guānxi

In my previous time in China, a Chinese friend yelled at me that I had made her lose face in front of the class and she seemed very upset. I was confused as in the Western view of 'reputation' I did not see any loss. In the style of the HSBC advert, I already know not to give scissors, clocks, or sandals, not to wrap presents in white, blue or black, and to avoid giving new friends my umbrella in the rain. However the finer points of the Chinese social concepts of face, guanxi and ganqing are still a mystery. Hence I set out to find out more...

Face is divided into two separate but related concepts mianzi(面子) and lianzi(脸子). Lianzi is the confidence of society in a person's moral character, while mianzi represents social perceptions of a person's prestige. To illustrate the difference, gossiping about someone stealing from a cash register would cause a loss of lian but not mianzi. Repeatingly interrupting one's boss as he is trying to speak may cause a loss of mianzi but not lian. In the West, these concepts are not separated.

As someone new to China do I start with a score of zero for my face and have to built it up? Do Westerners escape the face system as foreigners to the UK can often escape the rigidity of the class system? I don't know.

The most common response to indicate acceptance of an apology in Mandarin is méi(yǒu) guānxi (没(有)关系) which literally translated means "doesn't have guānxi [implications]".

Guānxi is often translated as "network of contacts" and the net seems full of advice to businesses trying to move into China about the perils of ignoring guānxi. In fact, it is not a network based on friendship but a reciprocal network of favours and debt. The network can stretch very far and often a request for a favour will be transmitted through many people until it can be fulfilled. In return there will then remain a dormant debt which can rest for many years before it is called upon. As a Westerner, this doesn't sound that unfamiliar to me, but the websites seem to think differently. Maybe when (if) I see it in play, then I will understand.

As always comments and advice would be great, otherwise this blog is basically just me thinking out loud and not progressing any further!


A view over the fields and karsts of the Li river

Somewhere in Beijing..