1. The Chinese concept of 'face'

The concept of 'face' is immensely important to people in Chinese communities. People are expected to know and abide by the rules of face - and are penalised harshly if they break them.  And the this concept of 'face' can strongly influence how relationships play out among Chinese Christians...

So what is face, and how does it work? And how should we reflect theologically on the concept of face?

I've recently be reading quite a nuanced article by David Yau-Fai Ho called "On the Concept of Face", from the American Journal of Sociology. He seeks to work out how 'face' works in Chinese culture, and to show how it is distinguish from related concepts such as status, prestige, dignity, honour. David points out there are two Chinese words used to describe face, each with a different nuance: lien and mien-tzu.

Lien represents "the confidence of society in the integrity of ego's moral character, the loss of which makes it impossible to function properly within the community." Lien is the basic moral uprightness that all people begin life with. Everyone is entitled to lien as honest, decent members of society. It cannot be gained, it can only be lost for immoral or socially disagreeable behaviour.

In another article, Hsien Chin Hu ("The Chinese concepts of 'face'", American Anthropologist) describes how lien may be lost. "A serious infraction of the moral code of society, once come to the notice of the public, is a blemish on the character of the individual and excites a great deal of comment. A fraud detected, a crime exposed, meanness, poor judgment, lies told for one's own profit, unfaithfulness while in office, a broken promise, the cheating of a customer, a married man making love to a young girl, these are just some of the acts that incur the criticism of society, and are rated as 'losing lien'".

Mien-tzu, however is "a reputation achieved through getting on in life, through success and ostentation." While everyone initially enters society with the same amount of lien, one usually starts off with no mien-tzu at all - and you gain mien-tzu throughout life. Mien-tzu can be gained in two ways, either through personal achievement, or through non-personal factors (such as a display of wealth, or having social connections).

And so a poor but honest farmer would be someone who has high lien (because he is honest and hardworking), but low mien-tzu (because he is poor). And a feared warlord may have high mien-tzu (because of his position and his military power), but low lien (because he perpetrates crimes for the sake of money).

2. Losing, gaining and regaining 'face'

How then does face 'work'?

One loses or gains face relative to the level of face one is expected by society to have. And so an action that would gain face for a person with lower face, might do nothing for another person who already has more face. Thus face has to do with the expectations that society already has for that individual. Paying for a wedding reception at an up-market restaurant would gain face for a poorer family, but would only be expected for a wealthy family.

The face that is being spoken of in this instance is mien-tzu. Ho writes that, "one does not speak of gaining lien because, regardless of one's station in life, one is expected to behave in accordance with the precepts of the culture; correctly conceptualised, exemplary conduct adds not to one's lien, but to one's mien-tzu".

However if that previously wealthy family did not have a reception at an up-market restaurant, it would cause them to lose face. The circumstances that led to them not having a reception may have existed earlier (eg. a downturn in business earnings), but loss of face doesn't happen straight away, but only when there is a public crisis or testing point (eg. a wedding reception), and that person is unable to protect their face from loss.

Face that has been lost can be regained. This may happen "through compensation, corrective actions, making up for one's shortcomings, etc.: but regaining face does not constitute gaining face--it is merely a restoration to the individual of what ought to have been due him in the first place."

But one is not always able to regain face - sometimes what has been uncovered is so serious that the loss of face is permanent. "The loss of face may well be permanent in cases here the misconduct is serious and in direct contradiction to role-imperatives and/or taboos." That loss of face can be so serious that it leads to suicide (often as a way to regain some kind of face). Ho writes that "face can be more important than life itself."

It's important to realise that face is a sociological thing - not a psychological thing. That is, it doesn't exist in a person - but distributed 'out there' in society. And you can see this because your face isn't entirely under your control - other people can actually damage your face.

And so a person could lose face not only because of their failure to match up to society's obligations on them - but also from "the failure of others to act in accordance with his expectations of them--that is, not only from the individual's own actions, but how he is treated by others." And so if your friends, relatives or subordinates treat you badly, you will lose face. Imagine the boss scolding his employee in his office: "Look what you have done! You have made me lose face!"

Because of this, a concern for face is also seen as an indicator that you will know how to play the 'game' of adult society properly. Hu notes that people will be more willing to interact with you if they know you have a concern for face, because they know how you will behave - you will avoid situations that will be damaging to your face. Someone who doesn't have concern for face (pu-yao lien), however, is unpredictable, and is best avoided.

And because face is given and expected in society, sometimes people might choose to give mien-tzu to a leader in society that they actually despise by showing just enough deference to avoid it being noticed by that person, in order to obtain their goodwill (pad their mien-tzu). Imagine an official coming to a village and showing deference to a wealthy but heartless local landowner!

This may happen because that person had built up their reptuation, avoiding social censure for a time. But then once wealth, power and position have come to him, "they trust their mien-tzu to be strong enough to hush talk about their moral character." And so while loss of lien is often catastrophic, powerful people can prop themselves up in society for a time by their mien-tzu. Hu points to Chinese warlords who became powerful and feared through their armies - yet were secretly held in contempt for their disregard for the moral standards of society, and whose liquidation was thus cause for national rejoicing.

3. Stay tuned!

We've actually only scratched the surface here. But already you can see how important face is for Chinese culture. Ho writes that, "it is virtually impossible to think of a facet of social life to which the question of face is irrelevant. The desire to gain face, to avoid losing face, and to save face when it is threatened is a powerful social motive." And perhaps you can even begin to see how face might influence relationships amongst Chinese Christians.

Imagine a Chinese Christian not forgiving another, and that behaviour being accepted - because of their concern for face. Or someone who really dislikes a leader, but who behaves very civilly towards them in public - because of face. Or an older Chinese Christian not apologising to a younger, and that behaviour being defended - because of face. Or a youth leader revealing a fault of an older Chinese church leader - and the youth leader being the one taken aside and spoken to - because he made the older lose face.

In future posts we'll look at what face reveals about a society, and consider how to think theologically about face!

[ PS: how have you seen 'face' play itself out in relationships around you? ]

So. How do you fight temptation?

Do you just ... try harder? Do you just ... remind yourself again and again that sin is bad, and that God hates it?

You'll find that many Christians have a woefully inadequate understanding of how to deal with sin. You'd think that's one of the most basic things about the Christian life that everyone would know - but surprisingly that's not the case.

In fact most Christians you ask for advice will have very simplistic and ineffectual suggestions to make, which reflect the lack of understanding of the internal workings of the human heart. And that's no surprise, because that's what our age is like: brilliant at technology and manipulating the world 'out there' - but helpless at understanding what's going on inside ourselves.
 
How then do we fight temptation?

Christians from a previous age understood very well the internal dynamics of the human heart, and knew how to equip themselves to stand strongly against temptation. The Puritans get a bad press, but I've done some study on them and in reality we have massive amounts to learn from them - in terms of their bravery in the face of opposition (many pastors lost their jobs for failing to compromise on theology), in terms of well thought out theology (they were reformed theologically) - but also in terms of understanding the ways of the human heart.

Last year I read a brilliant work by Thomas Chalmers called, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. And it's something that I believe everyone doing ministry ought to read - whether you're a Bible study leader, a theological student, or a pastor. It's very short, and you can get it on the Internet (get in in PDF here), but allow me to summarise his main points.

People won't actually turn away from a sin because you tell them that it's pleasure will only last a short while (though that may be true). Nor will they turn away from sin because it is has bad effects on them in this world (though that may also be true). Nor do will they turn away from a sin because you tell them that it will incur them God's displeasure and judgment in the future (though that may also be true).

That's because their affections have been captured by that sin. They love doing it, they love what it does for them - even though they may know intellectually it'll only last a short while. And you can see this in Christians around you: people know that a thing is wrong - but it doesn't stop them doing it. And keeping on telling them it's wrong doesn't really help in the long term - because their affections are set on it!

However you can see that sometimes people do turn away from a sin. But what has happened there isn't that they have stopped loving that sin - instead they have grown in their love for something else, which is greater. That new thing has now captured their affections. Chalmers describes how the passions of a boy, is replaced by the passions of a young man, which is then replaced by the passions of an older man:


It's not as though the young man has mastered his love for pleasure (by being convinced of its vanity, say) - it's just that he now has become mastered by an even greater love for money. And later on that man seems to not be driven by money - but that's not because he's controlled his love for money (by being convinced that it will earn him God's displeasure). Instead he's become mastered by an even greater love for power.

The way to deal with temptation, then, isn't really to teach about how it is wrong, or how it will cause them harm in this life or the next. We must say these things, but that isn't the real battle. The real battle is actually to show them the excellencies of God, who is the rightful occupier of our affections. To grow someone in their love for God - so that they will no longer be gripped by a love for pleasure, or money, or power. Chalmers says,


The way to fight temptation, then, is to see God in all his glory and grace - and for our hearts to be filled with joy and contentment in Christ, to be filled with awe and worship for God and a longing to see his face.

When we are doing that, we will find that the fight against temptation takes on a whole new character. Temptation is no longer an enormous and powerful boss-robot that we feel powerless to fight. Instead temptation becomes a small squeaky annoyance, whose puny squeaks for our attention are laughable. Just like a young man finds hop-scotch an embarrassingly childish pursuit. Or how an older man regards a younger man's pursuit of money with bemusement.

And when this happens, I have seen people's fight against pornography, or nagging their husband, or their desire for a boyfriend take on a whole new character. No longer are they gazing with longing at the thing they love and trying at the same time to will themselves to push it away - instead they are gazing at God in all his satisfying greatness, and they can't imagine why people would want to chase after those other things in the first place.

In all this we have to point out that the fight is not ours alone - it is God's Holy Spirit who alone can change our hearts. We can expose ourselves to God's word and meditate on the glory and grace of God - but as we do so we must ask and pray and plead for a heart that loves God. Because it is only God himself who changes hearts and makes people grow in their love for him.

But this is how we fight temptation. Not just by telling ourselves it's wrong (though sometimes we don't know, and so we must do that). But by seeing the massive greatness of God - and praying that God would grow us in our love for him.

[ PS: be aware that Thomas Chalmers' language is a bit dated, but read it! and you'll find it transforms your understanding of ministry... ]