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Fourthly, face is moral. Face carries moral standards. The fear of losing face will keep a person’s deeds within moral boundaries. “Losing face” is a kind of blame from social group when you did something immoral or contrary to social rules. Once what you have done was exploded, it will be your lifetime stain, and everyone will blame you and discriminate against you. As a result, all Chinese people want to protect their face no matter how rich or poor they are, and no matter in what social status they stay.
Fifthly, face is modest. When interacting with people, Chinese always try to disparage themselves and elevate others to protect both their own face and other people’s face. Even if when they have to criticize people, they will compliment them first and then point out their shortcomings. The Chinese face value has been well accepted for thousands of years long confirmed and fortified by “li”, an ideology advocated by Confucianism and deeply influencing Chinese people. In order to comply with this doctrine, people should be self-restrained and considerate and loving one another.
All in all, Chinese people value others’ face through their hard work and accumulated wisdom in life experience. Moreover, Chinese face value owns five important elements, and those elements are related to people’s emotion or personality. As a conclusion, Chinese face values are more complicated than western face values.
3 Face in Cross-cultural Communication
Different face views influence people’s daily acts, so people from different cultures may take on different verbal or non-verbal behaviors in addressing, compliments, mistake admittance and even the negotiation style.
3.1 Forms of Address
When it comes to address, Chinese elder people believe they deserve respectful address, if the address is unsuitable, elder people will feel his positive face is lost. In west, people use different addresses measured by their social status. The children may call their parents or teachers with first name because the children believe they are all equal and they do not feel strange about it.
In western countries such as America, first names are used such as Jackson or George rather than the more formal address such as Mr. Smith or Miss Jones. This also applies even when people meet for the first time. It is also a common habit that young children address older people by the first name including their grandparents, and students often call their teachers by their first names. However, the Chinese custom in this aspect certainly seems to counter what is practiced in western countries. In China, appellation represents social status; people would feel ashamed if the appellation is improper. Seniority deserves respect; it is expected for the junior to address the senior in a formal and proper way. Grandparent and teachers would be shocked or feel displeased if the children or students call them by their first names.
In fact westerners regard the use of the first name as the symbol of equality, which reveals their desire for freedom. Besides westerners prefer to call the other by the first name or use the democratic forms like Mr. Smith, which avoids interfering personal privacy. It is the reflection of the favor of negative face. On the contrary, Chinese traditional hierarchical structure has helped maintain this respectful form of addressing others. Different appellations appreciated by Chinese culture aim to leave a good impression. Chinese prefer to save the positive face in front of people.
3.2 Compliments and Praise
Both cultures use compliments on many aspects such as talents, personal qualities and material possessions. However different people may have different reactions or have different behaviors to express praise. Generally speaking, Chinese do not like to give others compliment or praise initiatively, and also do not like to accept compliment or praise directly as apposed to the westerners, which are exemplified in the following cases.