the man who will fulfill his obligations regardless of the hardships involved, who under all circumstances shows himself a decent human being. It represents the confidence of society in the integrity of ego's moral character, the loss of which makes it impossible for him to function properly within the community. Lian is both a social sanction for enforcing moral standards and an internalized sanction' (Hu, 1994:45).
In each society, there is a set of socially approved moral standards. A person who is concerned with moral face would act accordingly to become a decent man. If not, he would be denounced and denied the respect others pay him in order that he could function in society. Even without this external sanction, a person who is concerned with moral face would abide by some internalized virtues, by which he could regard himself a morally worthy person. This may be said as a latent part of moral face.
On the other hand, individuals would occupy different positions in society. These positions render them status and role expectations. For example, a medical doctor would be highly regarded in society, and thereby enjoy high status. In turn, he would be expected to heal people with his medical expertise. His performance in this capacity would affect his prestige and his strength of social functioning. If his performance is good, he would be said as 'having face', or 'having big face'.
Face is a 'reputation achieved through getting on in life, through success and ostentation', and unlike lian, social/positional face or mianzi, is dependent at all times on [the person's] external environment' (Hu, 1944: 45). For a person's performance in a certain social role would always be gauged against another's in the same or similar capacity. Recognition of this performance is often in the form of grades, certificates, faith expressed by others in the person's prospective performance in that same capacity etc, all of which are extrinsic to and without the control of the person.
The Four Variable Factors Of Face
From the above, it can be seen that face is delimited by four variable factors. They are status, role performance vis-a-vis role expectations, moral conduct in terms of moral standards, and others' reactions. Although they have been discussed by previous studies, they have never been selected