为什么在中国文化中，“丢脸”的概念那么强烈？（下） [美国媒体]

Why is the concept of ‘losing face’ so strong in Chinese culture?

为什么在中国文化中，“丢脸”的概念那么强烈？（下）

Emanuel Leung, lived in China (2011-2012)
Answered Jun 8
A2A for Garrick Saito
Its a form of respect. It is also a form of reciprocity among equals. It can drive people to work extremely hard to “keep up with the Joneses”. As this phrase is in American english, you can see that “face” is not a uniquely Chinese trait. Japan also has similar concepts of face and honour and if anything it is taken even more seriously in Japan than in China.
On the positive side it by default instills a strong work ethic into people as they don’t wish to be looked down upon. Chinese culture has zero tolerance for laziness. Hence when their economic energies were unleashed in the 1970s, the majority of the growth came from the people working hard to improve themselves and their families. Every family member contributes to the well being of the family.
On the negative side, it can lead to a lot of conformity and a fear of breaking away from the group. There is also no culture of “agreeing to disagree” so when disagreements do occur, the mutual anger from the loss of face due to disagreements/open disapproval only makes things worse. Those who have legitimate mental disabilities are seen as extremely shameful. Stress level is high in Chinese societies because of face.
So there are both positive and negative aspects of face in modern Chinese culture.

这其实是一种尊重。也是地位相同的人之间的一种互惠。它会激励人们努力工作，不落后于他人。其实面子这种东西并非中国独有，日本也有类似的面子和荣誉概念，日本人甚至比中国人还要看重这种概念。
积极的方面看，它刺激人们努力工作，因为人们不想被他人轻视。中国文化对懒惰持零容忍的态度。所以当1970年代中国开始迸发自己的经济能量时，大部分的经济发展源于人们努力工作提高自己和家人的生活。每个家庭成员都为整个家庭的幸福作出自己的贡献。
消极的方面看，会导致很多的屈从，害怕脱离团体。而且也不存在“和而不同”的文化，所以当意见不一时，由于不同意见或者公开反对而导致的丢脸就会产生相互间的愤怒，从而让事情变得更糟糕。而那些拥有精神残疾的人会觉得特别丢脸。由于面子问题，中国社会的压力水平是相当高的。
所以在现代中国文化中，面子既有积极的一面也有消极的一面。

Wing Chau, my heart never left.
Answered Jun 8
Having face to me means getting respect from someone. The reverse of that is losing face when someone disrespected you. I think this concept exists in all cultures. People place different level of importance on respect depend on many factors, one of which is how self-assured you are.

获得某人的尊重，就使得你有了面子。反面就是某人不尊重你导致你没有面子。我认为这种概念存在于所有文化中。根据多种因素的影响，人们对尊重的在意程度有所不同，其中的一个因素是你自己有多自信。

Jamie Cawley, Author of "Beliefs and the world they have created. Lives in China
Answered Jun 8
‘Face’ is no stronger than it is in the West but, sometimes, western - actually, in my experience, American, businessmen come to China, completely unaware that they are treating the Chinese like peasants.
I watch and cringe as they visibly ignore advice (‘No, we do it this way…’) and even talk right over senior and important Chinese businesspeople and then get upset when the Chinese are offended.
To give you an idea, I have had one of these explain to me (I was hired to help him in China) that the Chinese are taking to red wine because red is a lucky color in China. He knew this, I guess, because he had read it somewhere. Those funny little yellow men, eh!

中国的“面子”概念并不比西方强烈，但是根据我自己的经历，有时候西方人，比如来中国的美国商人，完全没有意识到自己对待中国人的态度是多么的恶劣。
我看到他们忽视建议（“不，我们是这样行事的”），甚至对重要的中国商人直言不讳，然后在中国人受到侵犯后他们还生气。
其中有一个美国商人对我说（他雇佣我去中国帮他），中国人和红酒说话，因为红色在中国是幸运色。我猜他知道这一点，因为他在哪里读过。这些有意思的小黄人，额！

Priscilla Ferguson
Sat
As an American born Chinese person growing up in Los Angeles, we were always told NEVER do anything to lose face while away from home. As a child I always questioned that notion as I couldn’t understand why anyone would take my face. More so, what would they do with it and would they give it back. Wasn’t until later on did I come to realize that it’s meaning was about a Family’s honor and reputation. I too agree with that idea as we as individuals are not islands of our own. We are connected to family members as a unit. We stand united and with pride in our Clan. It’s a Confucius concept taught for generations. Nothing is more important than family and honor.

作为一个在美国出生的在洛杉矶长大的中国人，我一直被告知永远不要在外面做任何丢脸的事情。作为一个孩子，我一直质疑这样的观念，我无法理解为什么别人要拿走我的脸呢。还有，他们拿我的脸去干什么，会还给我吗？直到后来我才意识到它的意思是有关家庭的荣耀和荣誉。我赞同这个观念，因为作为个体的我们并非孤岛。我们和家人连结在一起。我们骄傲的站在一起。这是一个世代相传的儒家概念。没有什么比家庭和荣耀更重要的了。

Gabriel Chan, Overseas Chinese（华侨）
Answered Jun 8
5000 years of continuous cultural development promoted the concept of social consensus and social conformity to becoming a non-biological evolutionary trait: civility meant a chance of a better future for yourself and your offspring. Confucianism merely codified what it means to be civilized: social protocol.
Face is like an extension of body, a sensitive non-organic organ whose function is for interfacing with social protocol. It regulates the rest of the body with respect to social protocol and it detects breaches in social protocol, also known as disrespectfulness. Most importantly, it detects updates and changes in social protocol. This is rather tricky, because the protocol does change with time and space, and is decentralised with an unclear consensus mechanism (although the upper classes are the super nodes). But that's why the ability to detect the state of 失礼 (breach of protocol) is so important to evolution.
All human cultures have the concept of face, but it wouldn't be wrong to say that the Chinese and other Sinospheric cultures have the most refined sensitivity to face in the world. All the “uncivilized” people did not pass down their genes.

5000年持续的文化发展推动了社会共识和社会统一概念的发展，形成了一种非生物的进化特征：礼仪/礼貌意味着你自己和你的子孙拥有更好未来的机会。儒家将文明定义为：社交法则
脸就像是身体的延伸，一个敏感的非有机的器官，其功能就是为了和社会法则连接。它在社会法则方面管理身体的其他部位，并且用来发现有违社会法则的行为，也就是失礼。最重要的是，它发觉社会法则的更新和变化。这听起来相当刺手，因为社会法则确实会随着时间和空间而变化，而且在不明的共识机制下被分散。但是这也是发觉失礼的能力对于进化是如此重要的原因所在了。
所有人类文化都有面子概念，但是中国人和其他中华文化圈国家的人确实拥有最精致的面子文化。所有“不文明的”人都无法传播自己的基因。