Face (Mianzi)

Face (Mianzi)
People in Taiwan care a lot about their dignity, in other words, they care a lot about their faces (Mianzi). Most of the Taiwanese tend to would pop their faces (mianzi) in front of others. The main reason why people do such kind of thing is they want to earn others’ respect and higher social status.

On the contrary, if you make people lose their faces (mianzi) in public by revealing their secrets or something they don’t want others know, people would think of you as a rude person because you insult this person to some degree.

In order to keep their mianzi, people usually only share something positive with others during the chatting, conversation, or interaction with others in public.
For instance, if a man lost all of his belongings, in order to save his mianzi, this man might simply act as if there was nothing happened to him.

Saving mianzi doesn’t only happen to men, women also do similar things. For example, when Taiwanese women encounter some thing bad such as domestic violence, rape, or conflict with their husbands, most of Taiwanese women would choose to remain silent instead of asking help from others. The reason why these women do not reveal the negative sides of their lives is they want to save their mianzi so that the society won’t treat or see them with special attitude.

In short, in Taiwan society, you need to save face (mianzi) not only for yourself but also for the ones that you interact with. In this way, you can show your respect to others and earn others’ respect at the same time.