Moral face and social face: Contingent self‐esteem in Confucian society

Abstract

Three empirical studies related to the Chinese concept of face are reviewed to provide examples of the indigenous approach of Chinese psychology. Using the technique of paired comparison, the first study indicated that college students (who are preparing to enter the job market) feel that they “have face” most when they do well in their academic performance, followed by being morally upright. Retirees (who have withdrawn from the workplace) feel that they “have face” most when their children are morally upright and successful in their careers. The second study (on patterns of emotional reactions of related others to an agent's social and moral incidents) showed, first, that incidents of positive achievement were generally evaluated by college students as being experienced with a more intense feeling of having face than were incidents of positive morality, while incidents of negative morality were experienced with a more intense feeling of “having no face” than were incidents of negative achievement. Second, for a positive incident of having face, the intensity of emotional reaction experienced by acquaintances was generally lower than that of family members. The difference was not so strong as in the negative incident of having no face. The third study (which was a cross‐cultural one on cognitive distortion caused by misconduct of related others) indicated that American college students tended to adopt a consistent standard to judge the wrongness of illegal behaviours, regardless of their relationships with the transgressor. But Taiwanese college students tended to judge an illegal behaviour as more wrong when it was done by a person outside the family, while they held a more lenient attitude towards the misconduct of parents, and a similar or more harsh attitude towards their children. Research findings are interpreted in the context of Confucian tradition.

Encountering Selves and Others: Finding Meaning in Life Through Action and Reflection on a Social Service Learning Program

“…The participants' appreciation of themselves indicated that college students' meaning in life is based not only on the role of an individual in society, as indicated by other research findings (Lu & Yang, 2005). The participants in the SGIP program did not focus on being appreciated by a superior authority, which is emphasised in Chinese society (Hwang, 2006), indicating that the meaning in life as perceived by the younger generation has changed in response to the evolution of Chinese culture.…”

“…The participants' appreciation of themselves indicated that college students' meaning in life is based not only on the role of an individual in society, as indicated by other research findings (Lu & Yang, 2005). The participants in the SGIP program did not focus on being appreciated by a superior authority, which is emphasised in Chinese society (Hwang, 2006), indicating that the meaning in life as perceived by the younger generation has changed in response to the evolution of Chinese culture.In addition, the participants learned to care for family, peers, and children, and how to cooperate with their peers in groups, indicating that they engaged in communicative learning according to Mezirow (2000). This type of learning requires a person to recognise the ideas and needs of others.…”

A ‘Third Culture’ in Economics? An Essay on Smith, Confucius and the Rise of China

“…This is why the flow of gifts is also called the exchange of renqing, even referring to cash as renqing (Wilson 1997). The public nature of social relations is also evident from the pivotal role of 'face' in Chinese social interactions, where a clear distinction between social status mianzi 面子and moral reputation lian 脸is made (Hwang 2006). The exchange of renqing is a matter of moral reputation.…”

The Self-Fulfilling Discriminations and Mismatches for Old Workers and Poor Workers

“…In Confucian culture, "face" can be defined as an individual"s contingent self-esteem (Ng, 2001). An individual will feel "lose face" when his failure was exposed in public (Hwang, 2006). This will contribute to a high proportion of skilled workers and better wages for them in some east Asian countries, like Japan.…”