President Hu's Visit Series: President Hu Unfazed by White House Attempts to Take His Mian Zi
By Li Mu
Suppose you have an appointment to visit the house of an old acquaintance with whom you've perceived some troubles in your current relations. When you arrive at the house with a lot of expensive gifts, and find the host does not plan to treat you to a stately dinner, you shrug and say, Okay. Then you find that your old-time pain-in-the-ass was also invited to the house, and then the host addresses you with a nickname you do not wish to hear for your entire life.
What is great about President Hu is that he kept his face well, even though he was not received properly by the White House.
While there are a hundred ways for the host to explain all these "snafus," and you keep an unperturbed smile, saying no, no, it will not affect our relationship; you know you have lost a thing Chinese cherish most: "Mian Zi."
Lu Xun said that there are several types of "Mian Zi." For each position, there is a type of "Mian Zi," also called "face." It is as if there is a line in the "face." If you do something beyond it, you have your face. And if your face drops beneath the line, you lose it.
In Chinese, some one who has a lot of "Mian Zi" speaks powerfully in his society. And President Hu is supposed to have more "Mian Zi" than any other Chinese. Unfortunately, he encountered the kind of embarrassment, which he had done nothing to deserve, that no Chinese will ever want to be associated with.
During our five thousand years of history, we have cultivated an etiquette stressing "propriety suggests reciprocity." A coin is for a coin, if not for a pile of gold. Having given enough "Mian Zi"--16o million worth of purchases, a mild appreciation of RMB value, anti-piracy regulations, and more favorable conditions for Chinese to invest overseas and buy imported beef--to a host who made you lose "Mian Zi" by allowing in someone who shouldn't have been there and announcing the wrong title of your country, you are in the most awkward situation any Chinese could imagine. However, President Hu did what most Chinese do when they have lost much face: prevent losing more.
That's why he kept an unfazed face.
That's why a delegation from the Chinese Embassy demanded an explanation from Washington for the disturbance during President Hu's address at the White House, but did not openly protest over being announced as the "Republic of China." They were not really in need of an answer, for nothing can be more explicit than what is seen and heard. What they wanted, however, was part of the "Mian Zi" that had been lost.
China, as one of the most powerful nations in the world, wants its face back.
Squabbling over protocol gaffes does not make any more sense than slapping the host in the face. So the long term China-U.S. relationship will unlikely be greatly affected by the embarrassment experienced by President Hu. But what many people probably do not realize is that a part of the mission of President Hu was spoiled by those unthinkable occurrences.
Back in 1894, Arthur H. Smith observed in his Chinese Characteristics: A Chinese man likes to put himself in a dramatic setting and think in terms of the drama he belongs to. If his troubles are unsolved, he finds it hard to "come off stage." If one plays his role well in a complex setting, he will have "Mian Zi." What really matters are not matters but formalities.
And what really mattered in President Hu's visit was to enhance the "Mian Zi" of the Sino-U.S. relationship instead of making concrete agreements with regards only to a U.S. agenda. In fact, there is not much impetus for him to make any more promises than what he has. So given the context of this visit, he couldn't have asked for much more than pomp and pageantry.
Of course, there is always trouble shooting behind the scene when "Mian Zi" is involved. No one can expect all grave matters such as China's trade surplus with the U.S. or piracy problems to be solved with the effort of a four-day visit by the Chinese President.
When it comes to an issue that touches upon the "Mian Zi" of China, be it a spiritual sect or a few jailed journalists, Chinese people will prefer to close the door and discuss it at home, because "domestic shame should not be made public."
Anyway, for many Chinese government officials, good "Mian Zi" outweighs a few of those who are dead from SARS infection.
Suppose you have an appointment to visit the house of an old acquaintance with whom you've perceived some troubles in your current relations. When you arrive at the house with a lot of expensive gifts, and find the host does not plan to treat you to a stately dinner, you shrug and say, Okay. Then you find that your old-time pain-in-the-ass was also invited to the house, and then the host addresses you with a nickname you do not wish to hear for your entire life.
What is great about President Hu is that he kept his face well, even though he was not received properly by the White House.
While there are a hundred ways for the host to explain all these "snafus," and you keep an unperturbed smile, saying no, no, it will not affect our relationship; you know you have lost a thing Chinese cherish most: "Mian Zi."
Lu Xun said that there are several types of "Mian Zi." For each position, there is a type of "Mian Zi," also called "face." It is as if there is a line in the "face." If you do something beyond it, you have your face. And if your face drops beneath the line, you lose it.
In Chinese, some one who has a lot of "Mian Zi" speaks powerfully in his society. And President Hu is supposed to have more "Mian Zi" than any other Chinese. Unfortunately, he encountered the kind of embarrassment, which he had done nothing to deserve, that no Chinese will ever want to be associated with.
During our five thousand years of history, we have cultivated an etiquette stressing "propriety suggests reciprocity." A coin is for a coin, if not for a pile of gold. Having given enough "Mian Zi"--16o million worth of purchases, a mild appreciation of RMB value, anti-piracy regulations, and more favorable conditions for Chinese to invest overseas and buy imported beef--to a host who made you lose "Mian Zi" by allowing in someone who shouldn't have been there and announcing the wrong title of your country, you are in the most awkward situation any Chinese could imagine. However, President Hu did what most Chinese do when they have lost much face: prevent losing more.
That's why he kept an unfazed face.
That's why a delegation from the Chinese Embassy demanded an explanation from Washington for the disturbance during President Hu's address at the White House, but did not openly protest over being announced as the "Republic of China." They were not really in need of an answer, for nothing can be more explicit than what is seen and heard. What they wanted, however, was part of the "Mian Zi" that had been lost.
China, as one of the most powerful nations in the world, wants its face back.
Squabbling over protocol gaffes does not make any more sense than slapping the host in the face. So the long term China-U.S. relationship will unlikely be greatly affected by the embarrassment experienced by President Hu. But what many people probably do not realize is that a part of the mission of President Hu was spoiled by those unthinkable occurrences.
Back in 1894, Arthur H. Smith observed in his Chinese Characteristics: A Chinese man likes to put himself in a dramatic setting and think in terms of the drama he belongs to. If his troubles are unsolved, he finds it hard to "come off stage." If one plays his role well in a complex setting, he will have "Mian Zi." What really matters are not matters but formalities.
And what really mattered in President Hu's visit was to enhance the "Mian Zi" of the Sino-U.S. relationship instead of making concrete agreements with regards only to a U.S. agenda. In fact, there is not much impetus for him to make any more promises than what he has. So given the context of this visit, he couldn't have asked for much more than pomp and pageantry.
Of course, there is always trouble shooting behind the scene when "Mian Zi" is involved. No one can expect all grave matters such as China's trade surplus with the U.S. or piracy problems to be solved with the effort of a four-day visit by the Chinese President.
When it comes to an issue that touches upon the "Mian Zi" of China, be it a spiritual sect or a few jailed journalists, Chinese people will prefer to close the door and discuss it at home, because "domestic shame should not be made public."
Anyway, for many Chinese government officials, good "Mian Zi" outweighs a few of those who are dead from SARS infection.
4 Comments:
At 6:07 AM , Anonymous said...
Didn't Confucius say "The man who emphasises 'face' is most in danger of losing it".
(Or if he didn't, he perhaps should have)
At 7:13 AM , Anonymous said...
China leader only lose his face during the visit to the White House. On the other hands, Bush has lost a lot more --- for becoming a debtor nation to of all nations --- China, its sworn strategic enemy....
At 9:15 PM , Anonymous said...
'Bush has lost a lot more'
Maybe, but Mr Bush isn't Chinese and so I don't suppose he considers being in debt to China to be a matter of 'face'.
In his view it is probably considered to be an economic and strategic matter.
So, as Confucius might have said: "A man who has no 'face' cannot lose it."
At 11:36 AM , Anonymous said...
So, according to you, it is OK for people to die of SARS--a disease that the gov't lied about for months--but losing face--well, that is quite unacceptable?
My, what interesting values you have.
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