or structured as indices for empirical investigation or statistical treatment. An basing on these four factors, the present study attempts to establish an analytical framework to study the concept of face.
A position in society would accord a respective face to a person (Lu, 1934: 100) This is an identity given to an individual that is commensurate to his status. Class, gender, and other social differentiation combine to determine a person's face. Those who have higher status would be of greater face, and if their face is solicited to mediate conflicts, the rate of success will be higher (Bond and Wong, 1981: 26).
Some experimental studies in the West also have similar conclusions. Face can be seen in the light of the relationship between two individuals, that relationship may be acquaintanceship, that is, the individual's positions in a social network (Brown and Garland, 1971). Expertise, signifying the status of an individual in a particular field, also contributes to face (Garland and Brown, 1972).
But face is not status, nor is it a corollary of the latter. Status in society gives an individual the basis for a certain face, but it does not guarantee that an individual must have that particular face. Here comes the second dimension of face.
For any position in society an individual occupies immediately renders with it a set of role expectations, the fulfillment of which will have repercussions on the individual's face (Ho, 1972: 242). In a more specific example, one who sings before an audience will lose face if one sings poorly (Garland and Brown, 1972).
Hwang Kuang Kuo also sees face as social position or prestige one has attained as a result of one's achievement. Thus while the amount of a person's face (mianzi) is a ‘function of his social status ... [it] is not fixed in amount' (Ho, 1975: 869). It hinges upon the 'perceived significant discrepancies between the expected and the actual social performance' (Ho, 1972: 240).
In every society, there would be a set of moral standards. As long as a person maintains decent behaviour within this set of moral standards, he would have moral face to interact with other members in society.