Managing “Face” and Image

“Face” is an aspect of Chinese business culture that may not be readily apparent at first, but is vitally important. Understanding what face is, defending it in oneself, and ensuring it for your business contacts will bring you a great deal closer to success in China.

Understanding face

In China, face combines one’s social status or prestige, and one’s reputation for integrity and morality. It is the image you project and the status you claim in society. Building or saving face means projecting an image of goodness, competence, and strength. Social position, respect, and personal honor are very important in China, so your personal image and your effect on the image of those you meet are key to your success.

Saving, giving, and losing face

In practice, almost every conversation you engage in involves a negotiation of face between participants. Do your actions and ideas imply high personal honor and rank for yourself? If so, you are saving face. Do your ideas and proposals implicitly enhance the honor and prestige of the person you are speaking with and his or her organization? If so, you are giving face. Knowing how this works is essential to working with Chinese people. In their hierarchical culture, people in general only deal seriously with those they perceive to be of higher or similar rank. Loss of face can cut you off from the contacts most important to success; you may be perceived as undesirable or unreliable—an unsuitable business partner. Should you cause a business contact to lose a lot of face in an important situation, you may make a permanent enemy.

Build or save face by:

• Being seated in a separate, more desirable part of the meeting room (such as behind the podium)

• Employing one or more assistants, translators, drivers, etc.

• Avoiding mundane tasks, such as taking phone calls directly or distributing handouts

• Having (or appearing to have) a full calendar with only limited meeting times available

• Signaling status by using luxury products and services (cars, clothing, hotels, restaurants, etc.).

Give face to others by:

• Standing while the other person stands, sitting only after he or she is seated

• Minimizing or ignoring the minor errors or failings of others

• Allocating good ideas or achievements to others

• Paying close attention to, and remembering, important details about your business contacts—the ultimate sign of respect and honor.

Don’t lose face by:

• Rejection of a social or business proposal

• Receiving a personal criticism in public or private

• Being the subject of contradictory or derogatory remarks

• Arranging meetings which do not implicitly reflect rank and prestige

• Using or providing cheap, poor quality products or services

• Giving in on issues of little substance

• Failing to achieve goals or meet promises

• Revealing a personal defect, weakness, or mistake

• Sustaining loss or damage to a guanxi relationship

• Performing tasks appropriate to those at a lower level.