Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2360–2372

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Journal of Pragmatics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pragma

Re-conceptualizing the Chinese concept of face from a face-sensitive

perspective: A case study of a modern Chinese TV drama
Ming He a,*, Shao-jie Zhang b,1
a
Foreign Languages Faculty, Nanhai Campus, South China Normal University, Nanhai District, Foshan City 528225, Guangdong Province, PR China
b
Foreign Languages School, Northeast Normal University, Renmin Street 5268, Changchun City 130024, Jilin Province, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: The present study adopts a new approach to face-analysis, originally proposed by Spencer-
Received 19 April 2009 Oatey (2007:639–656) in light of identity theories, to analyze and re-conceptualize the
Received in revised form 27 February 2011 Chinese concept of face based on data collected from a modern Chinese TV drama. The results
Accepted 6 March 2011
reveal that miànzi in Chinese culture is inherently associated with the respectable identity
Available online 6 April 2011
and/or status that an individual establishes, and many Chinese miànzi phenomena can be
explained and understood in terms of people’s attributes or characteristics from a miànzi-
Keywords:
Miànzi sensitive perspective on identity theory. Its findings also indicate that Chinese people tend to
Face be miànzi-sensitive about those attributes or characteristics foregrounded in social
Chinese culture interactions of their own, as well as those of their family members, close friends, colleagues,
Miànzi-sensitive factors and social groups. Based on these categories of miànzi-sensitive factors, this paper concludes
Identity that the Chinese concept of face, as a holistic term, can be categorized as individual,
relational, and group miànzi.
ß 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The Chinese concept of face, or miànzi, has been discussed since 1944, when Hu attempted to explain and define the
notion of face in Chinese culture for the first time. Scholars both in China and in other countries have shown their interest in
this concept and contributed a great deal to our understanding of miànzi, such as Goffman (1955), Ho (1976), Brown and
Levinson (1987), Hwang (1987), Gu (1990), Mao (1994) and Zhai (2004), just to name a few. If we refer back to these studies,
however, we find that there is still no general agreement on what miànzi really means in Chinese. Scholars’ conceptions of
miànzi vary from ‘‘prestige’’ (Hu, 1944:45), to ‘‘respectability and/or deference’’ (Ho, 1976:883), to ‘‘public self-image’’
(Brown and Levinson, 1987) and to ‘‘self-evaluation and psychological position in other’s mind’’ (Zhai, 2004:55, Translations
from Chinese are ours). The variety of conceptions of miànzi show that this indigenous Chinese concept is itself a very
complex one and its cultural connotations are abundant. However, none of these definitions, considered alone, comes close
to fully capturing the entirety of miànzi phenomena in Chinese society.
Hu (1944) begins the first serious study of the Chinese concept of face by examining many set phrases of miànzi and liǎn
in Chinese and concludes that miànzi ‘‘stands for the kind of prestige . . . a reputation achieved through getting on in life,
through success and ostentation’’ (p. 45). Those phrases are apt in that they satisfy our intuition regarding miànzi
phenomena in Chinese society. Nevertheless, her conception of miànzi as ‘‘prestige’’ or ‘‘reputation’’ only emphasizes the

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 757 86687805.

E-mail addresses: hem1998@live.cn (M. He), zhangsj@nenu.edu.cn (S.-j. Zhang).
1
Tel.: +86 431 85098608.

0378-2166/$ – see front matter ß 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2011.03.004
 M. He, S.-j. Zhang / Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2360–2372 2361

individual aspects of miànzi, because prestige, as Ho (1976) points out, is earned by having personal qualities that are socially
approved of, such as competence, expertise, trustworthiness, and integrity of character. Apart from those personal qualities,
however, miànzi may also be gained ‘‘directly from the non-personal factors, such as wealth, social connections, and
authority obtained through personal effort’’ (Ho, 1976:869–870). Therefore, miànzi claims are grounded on a larger base
than reputation or prestige, and it is possible that ‘‘a person may have face but not personal prestige or vice versa’’ (p. 879). In
the same vein, Brown and Levinson’s2 (1987) construal of face as ‘‘public self-image’’, when it addresses miànzi in Chinese,
also suffers from similar inadequacy as it is ‘‘individualistic’’, or ‘‘self-oriented’’ (Mao, 1994:599), in nature. Ho (1976) argues
that miànzi is never ‘‘a purely individual thing’’ (p. 882), because one phenomenon he observes in Chinese culture indicates
that a person’s miànzi may also be influenced by the actions of someone else, especially one closely related to him. For
example, Chinese parents will likely suffer miànzi-loss because of the misconduct of their son. Mao (1994) identifies a third
level of Chinese face as ‘‘a public image’’ emphasizing ‘‘not the accommodation of individual ‘want’ or ‘desires’ but the
harmony of individual conduct with the views and judgments of the community’’ (p. 605). Both Ho’s observations and Mao’s
findings show that Brown and Levinson’s notion of face as public self-image is insufficient to account for the complexity of
miànzi in Chinese culture.
Another attempt to conceptualize the Chinese notion of face made by Ho (1976) is, in our opinion, also inadequate. In his
definition, Ho regards miànzi as ‘‘respectability and/or deference’’ (Ho, 1976:883). Respectability refers to ‘‘the quality of
being considered morally correct and socially acceptable’’ (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2004:1680).
Therefore, Ho’s definition is similar to Goffman’s (1955) and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) concepts of face, since all
emphasize those individual characteristics or attributes positively valued and accepted by society. Moreover, even though
miànzi is related to ‘‘giving due recognition to other’s social status and achievement’’ (Mao, 1994:607), manifested as
deference to others or to their opinions, or as accession to a request in gěi-miànzi (giving face) behaviors in the case of one’s
demand for personal favors, miànzi is not deference. Instead, miànzi in Chinese culture, we maintain, is inherently associated
with the respectable identity and/or status established by an individual.
Although Ho observes that an individual’s face concerns frequently arise not only from his/her own actions, but also from
the actions of people closely related to him/her, and how that individual and his/her intimates are treated by others (p. 882),
he does not convincingly explain this phenomenon. Ho attributes this phenomenon in Chinese society to reciprocity of face
behavior, which means two things in Chinese culture. First, it means that a person must extend miànzi to others if others
have given him/her miànzi in order to maintain a harmonious relationship. Second, it means that ‘‘[b]y giving miànzi to
others, one also reinforces one’s own miànzi, because such an act lends credence to one’s miànzi as well’’ (Mao, 1994:607).
According to these two interpretations, if one has given miànzi to other people, miànzi is expected to be returned by those
people to that individual, not to someone else closely related to him/her. Therefore, reciprocity alone cannot explain this
complicated phenomenon.
A recent conceptualization of Chinese face made by Zhai (2004) as ‘‘self-evaluation and psychological position in other’s
mind’’ (Zhai, 2004:55, Translations from Chinese are ours) is contradictory in itself. It is difficult to view miànzi as both a
‘‘self-evaluation’’ and ‘‘psychological position in the other’s mind’’ at the same time, because one’s miànzi cannot exist both
in the individual’s and other’s mind. What Zhai most likely means to say is that miànzi is a result of the self-evaluation of an
individual and the judgment passed by others, or by a larger community, onto that individual.
Despite the inadequacies of the aforementioned conceptions of Chinese face, all point out that miànzi claims are closely
linked to factors such as position, wealth, power, ability, family status, personal ties, knowledge, and character. Some of these
factors, such as ability, wealth, knowledge, and character, belong to an individual whose miànzi is at stake, while some are
not directly related to the individual, but related to others with whom the individual is closely associated, or even to the
individual’s social groups that are defined by position, status, or other factors. None of these analyses of miànzi, however,
consider all three categories of factors in one theoretical framework, or elaborate on why miànzi phenomena operate in such
a manner. A more recent approach, originally proposed by Spencer-Oatey (2007), drawing on theories of identity, can
provide us with a better understanding that incorporates all three categories of factors central to identity theories into the
analysis and conceptualization of miànzi in Chinese culture. In response to Chen and Gu’s (1997) criticism of previous
research on the Chinese concept of face as ‘‘lacking original Chinese discourse studies’’ (quoted in Bargiela-Chiappini,
2003:1462), this paper approaches face-analysis by examining and re-conceptualizing miànzi embedded in some data
collected in modern Chinese. It begins with a brief review of Spencer-Oatey’s (2007) approach in section 2, documents the
research design and data analysis in section 3, and is followed by a summary and discussion of the results in section 4.
Section 5 concludes the paper by stating the significance of this study and pointing out its potential limitations.

2. Spencer-Oatey’s face-sensitive approach

Spencer-Oatey (2007:639–656) proposes a new approach to analyzing and conceptualizing face by exploring the
potential understanding that identity theories could provide. She begins with a review of several social psychological
theories of identity, with a focus on Simon’s (2004) self-aspect model of identity and Brewer and Gardner’s (1996) theory of

2
Also, Brown and Levinson’s (1987) notion of negative face has been hotly debated when taken to explain the concept of face in Chinese culture (Ervin-
Tripp et al., 1995; Gu, 1990; Mao, 1994; Li Jun and Song Yanni, 2004; Ji, 2000), in Asian cultures such as Japanese culture (Matsumoto, 1988, 2003; Ide, 1989)
and Korean culture (Ervin-Tripp et al., 1995), and even in African culture (Nwoye, 1992).
2362 M. He, S.-j. Zhang / Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2360–2372

levels of identity, and then moves on to distinguish between face and identity, pointing out that face and identity are both
connected to an individual’s attributes. The former is associated with positively valued attributes, while the latter is related
to negatively, neutrally, and positively evaluated attributes. However, if we perceive the two concepts cognitively, according
to Spencer-Oatey, face and identity are similar in that they both have to do with one’s self-image. Therefore, different factors
that constitute a person’s identity may also influence his/her face. In order to demonstrate this idea, Spencer-Oatey further
develops three perspectives of face analysis—individual, relational and collective perspective (based on Brewer and
Gardner’s (1996) framework), and analyzes face based on several authentic examples from these three perspectives.
Through her analyses, she identifies different attributes that can be ‘‘face-sensitive’’ for the interactants, and more fully
explains the face-gain/loss phenomena.
Spencer-Oatey’s approach to face-analysis is useful in two ways, the first being that it offers methodological insights into
the study of face in general. The idea of ‘‘face-sensitivity’’ is central to Spencer-Oatey’s approach. In the examples presented
in her paper, face phenomena are clearly explained in terms of her defined face-sensitive factor(s) for the interactants. Her
logic behind the analysis of those different interactions could be generalized as follows:

(1) Describe how the face-gain/loss phenomena happen from the perspective of the interactant(s) involved in a specific
situation.
(2) Find out what caused the interactant(s) to lose or gain face; in other words, to find the specific face-sensitive attribute(s).
(3) Determine what face means or represents for the interactant(s) involved in a particular situation, or interpret the
pragmatic meaning of face in those situations.
(4) Generalize the meanings of face based on different situations.

This line of reasoning is useful. If we intend to study what face is, we should undoubtedly first determine how a face
phenomenon occurs; and then figure out what causes it to happen. This procedure naturally leads us to a further understanding
of what face is. Spencer-Oatey does not follow steps (3) and (4) because the concept of face, as preconceived in the mind, is not
the focus of her paper. Her purpose is to demonstrate how rewarding it might be if we could analyze face in light of identity
theory. However, we can fill in the gap by following the suggested steps to analyze the Chinese concept of face, or miànzi.
Second, Spencer-Oatey’s approach is particularly useful for analyzing and re-conceptualizing miànzi in Chinese culture
because the three perspectives of face-analysis she develops are sufficient to examine multifaceted miànzi. Her approach
explains (as demonstrated in sections 3.3.2 and 3.3.3) the complex miànzi phenomena in situations where one’s miànzi is
influenced by the actions of people to whom he/she is closely related and in situations where one’s miànzi is influenced by
the actions of people in the same group, both large and small. As we have claimed, miànzi in Chinese culture is inherently
associated with the respectable identity and/or status that an individual establishes, and people tend to view themselves in
relation not only to different attributes of their own and to group membership, but also to their social connections and role
relations (Spencer-Oatey, 2007:641; Brewer and Gardner, 1996:83). Therefore, the attributes or factors of an individual’s
intimates and of an individual’s group members would contribute to the perceived identity and/or status of that individual,
and further affect that individual’s miànzi.

3. Research design

3.1. Methodology

This study collects data from a modern Chinese TV drama, Love Stories in the Countryside, which tells the story of a
romance between a young man who has just graduated from college and a peasant girl who lives in the same village in the
countryside of northeastern China. The data is collected from a single TV drama for two considerations. First, some cultural
traditions that remain relatively unchanged in the countryside more accurately reflect the notion of miànzi as perceived by
contemporary Chinese. Second, a TV drama set in the countryside more accurately represents the daily discourse of farmers.
In the analysis of data, the study chiefly examines the miànzi-gain/loss phenomena in relation to the potential miànzi-
sensitive attributes of the main characters from the TV sitcom, and, based on this holistic analysis, presents a qualitative
description of miànzi from a face-sensitive perspective.

3.2. Data collection and description

We watched all 20 episodes from season one of Love Stories in the Countryside on a computer. First, we identified the
conversations where expressions of miànzi and liǎn occurred, for the reason that the two concepts of miànzi and liǎn often go
together in Chinese (Hu, 1944; Ho, 1976; Hwang, 1987; Gu, 1990; Mao, 1994; Zhai, 2004). Second, we recorded them with
the help of the ‘pause’ function of the Storm Player (a multi-media player software developed by a Chinese company), which
enabled us to stop playing and note down all the conversations we needed. This procedure was used for all 20 episodes
because the scripts of the drama were not available. All together, 13 extracts of conversations were noted down in Chinese
characters. To guarantee the validity of our study, we played the extracts twice for checking.
While checking to ensure that the concept of miànzi or liǎn was involved in these situations, we noted down those
utterances with set phrases and expressions, such as dı̄u liǎn (to lose face), dı¯u rén (to lose dignity), zhēng liǎn (to earn face),
 M. He, S.-j. Zhang / Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2360–2372 2363

liǎnmiàn nánkān (to look bad on one’s face), gěi miànzi (to give face), bùgěi miànzi (not to give face), měi miànzi (to have no
face), gùji miànzi (to consider one’s face), yào miànzi (to want face), and gěi ... yàohuı´ miànzi (to have one’s face returned). For
each conversation, we recorded the general background information of what the conversation was about so that those who
have never seen the TV series would be assisted in checking the data analysis process. Therefore, the noted conversations and
the background information may help us gain a more complete understanding of the above-mentioned phrases and
expressions.
Both the background information of interactions and conversations are transcribed in English, with each conversation
followed by a transcription (italicized) in hànyǔ pı̄nyı̄n, the Chinese phonetic alphabet officially established in 1958. In
addition, two ways of translating Chinese into English are adopted: (a) word-for-word translation, (b) free translation. Word-
for-word translation is preferable because we can easily check what one specific Chinese character means in English, while
free translation is provided for a clearer and more sufficient understanding of interactions. The background information of
the 13 examples is freely translated into English. Each conversation includes at least one turn between two interactants, with
the language being kept colloquial and close to real-life interactions.

3.3. Data analysis

The miànzi phenomena in the 13 examples3 are analyzed from the three perspectives—individual, relational and
collective, proposed by Spencer-Oatey (2007). We begin by examining how these miànzi-loss/gain phenomena happen and
then move on to find the miànzi-sensitive factors in each situation. We conclude by conceptualizing miànzi. The following
three sections present the detailed analyses from each of the three perspectives.

3.3.1. Individual miànzi and potential miànzi-sensitive factors

One level of miànzi rests on a person’s individual attributes or factors. We call this individual miànzi. In this section,
we present two examples from the data collected to analyze individual miànzi situations and demonstrate the importance
of identifying miànzi-sensitive factors in interactions. We begin with a situation where one of the speakers explains
miànzi:

Example 1: [The father and the wife were taking care of their son, Zhào, in the hospital. The son was injured in a car
accident a few days ago. Before the accident, he was engaged to a girl, Liú, from the same village. He
expected his fiancée to see him at the hospital, but she did not come. Rumors spread that Liú’s parents
did not allow Liú to see Zhào because her parents planned to break off the engagement for fear that
Zhào should be handicapped and not be able to sustain a family. Consequently, Zhào’s father planned to
go back to the village and ask the matchmaker, Xiè, for more information regarding Liú’s attitude
towards the engagement. The following conversation happened right before the father left the ward for
home.]
Son: diē, wǒ gēn nǐ shuō hǎo le, nǐ huı´qù shı̀ huı´qù, nǐ kě bié
Dad, I with you say good (phrase-final particle), you go back, is go back, you but not
sǐqǐbáilàidı` qı´uzhe tā lǎolı´ujı¯a, xiàng wǒ zhǎobùzhe xı´fùér sı`de, ràng rén
knavishly beg they lǎolı́u family, as if I find not wife seemingly, let others
kànbùqǐ.
look down upon.
(Dad, I have to say this to you. When you go back home, you can’t knavishly beg them to see me at
the hospital. If you did that, I might be thought of as being unable to marry a girl. This will make
others look down upon me.)
Father: kàn nǐ zhè huà shuōde, nǐ diē shá rén nǐ bù zhı̄dào ā?
See you this word say, you dad what person you not know (rhetorical-question mark)?
(How can you say things like that? Don’t you know what kind of person your dad is?)
[The father went out of the ward and the son began talking with his mother.]
Mother: kàn nǐmen yéliǎér, méishı` xiā mánghuó shénme wányı`ér.
Look you two, nothing blind busy what thing.
(What’s wrong with you two? Stop doing silly things like that.)
Son: niáng, nǐ bù dǒng, zhè jiào miànzi.
Mom, you not understand, this call face.
(Mom, you don’t understand. This is face.)

3
In the following three sections, we only present six examples for illustration. The rest of them are listed in Appendix A for further reference.
2364 M. He, S.-j. Zhang / Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2360–2372

Mother: miànzi, miànzi zhı´ duōshǎo qián?

Face, face worth how much money?
(Face? How much money is face worth?)
Son: zhè miànzi, tā jiùshı` zūnyán, wǒ yı̄ dàlǎoyémenér, wǒ bùnéng yı¯nwèi zhè diǎn
This face, it is dignity, I a big man, I cannot because this
xiǎoshı`ér, zài zán quáncūn miànqián gěi zán lǎozhàojiā diàojià!
little thing, in our village front for our Zhào’s family lose price!
(This is face and it’s dignity. I’m a man. I cannot destroy our family’s reputation in our
village because of my engagement.)

In the above conversation, the son asked his father not to push his fiancée to see him at the hospital when the father
returned home. If the father did that, the villagers might mistakenly believe that the father had to plead with the fiancée’s
family to keep the engagement after the son became handicapped following the car accident. If so, some negative
evaluations of the son would spread among the villagers and he would lose miànzi. The conversation between the mother
and the son reflects this more clearly. In the conversation, the mother first complained about what the son and his father
had said in the preceding context, and then she said that it was not important whether or not his fiancée and her parents
came to see him at the hospital. But the son believed that miànzi was involved in this matter and explained that miànzi is
zūnyán (dignity) (In Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (1996), zūnyán is defined as the ‘‘respectable identity and/or status’’
(p. 1683).). In order to safeguard his own miànzi, the son continuously asked his father not to beg the girl and her parents to
see him at the hospital. In this situation, for the son, the disrespectable behavior of begging a girl to keep the engagement
when he was likely to be disabled would degrade his own image and status. Therefore, the son was miànzi-sensitive about
his (potential) handicap.
Let us consider another example:

Example 2: [A college graduate, Yǒngqiáng, was dating a girl from the same village. The girl, Xiǎoméng, had never
received a higher education and was making tofu for sale in the village. On the day when the young man
came back home with his girlfriend following graduation, they met his father, Xiè, and her father, Wáng, at
the same place. The following dialogue occurs between Xiè and the girl, and between Wáng and the girl.]
Xiè: Dà zhı́nüˇ, shuō jù nǐ búyuàntı̄ngde huà, nǐ juédé nǐ néng pèishàng
Big niece, say one you not want hear word, you think you can match
wǒmen jiā Yǒngqiáng ma?
our family Yǒngqiáng (question mark)?
(My niece, to speak unpleasantly, do you think you can be a match for (my son) Yǒngqiáng?)
Girl: Nǐ bù jiēshòu wǒ kěyǐ, nà nǐ bùnéng qiáobùqǐ wǒ.
You not accept me ok, but you cannot look down upon me.
(It’s ok for you not to accept me as your son’s girlfriend, but you cannot look down upon me.)
Wáng: Xiǎoméng, nǐ hái gēn rén jiǎng shénme wányı`ér? nǐ bù xián dı̄urén,
Xiǎoméng, you still with him say what thing? You not mind lose face,
wǒ hái xián dı¯urén ne! huı´jiā, huı´qù.
I but mind lose face (expletive)! Go home, Go back.
(Xiǎoméng, why are you still here talking to him? You might not mind losing your face, but I do
mind losing mine. Come back home!)

In this example, the boy’s father insulted the girl by saying she was not a suitable match for the boy, thus causing her to
lose miànzi. In Chinese culture (especially in traditional Chinese culture), marriage is believed to be a match between males
and females of similar identity or status. Thus, the girl came to realize that her boyfriend’s father considered her to be inferior
because of her poor education background (compared with the boy’s higher education background). This perceived negative
judgment (inferiority) passed on to her caused her to suffer miànzi-loss. Here, she identified one important miànzi sensitive
factor—her poor education background.

3.3.2. Relational miànzi and potential miànzi-sensitive factors

Another level of miànzi rests not on an individual’s attributes, but on those of people to whom an individual is closely
related. We call this relational miànzi. In this section, we present a number of examples from the data collected to analyze
relational miànzi in connection to the miànzi-sensitive factors.
In Example 2 presented in section 3.3.1, we noticed that the girl’s father, Wáng, also suffered miànzi-loss when Xiè
insulted his daughter. The miànzi sensitive factor Wáng identified was his daughter’s poor education background (which Xiè
 M. He, S.-j. Zhang / Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2360–2372 2365

takes advantage of to make Wáng feel inferior about his identity, compared with the identity of Xiè’s son) because Wáng
believed that he was responsible for his daughter’s education.
Let us look at another example for a clearer illustration of the effect that other’s attributes have on an individual’s own miànzi:

Example 3: [One day, the girl’s boyfriend, Yǒngqiáng, met his brother-in-law, Pı́, who also believed that the girl was
not a good match for him. The following conversation happened when Pı́ explained to Yǒngqiáng why
the girl was not suitable.]
Pı́: wǒ búshı̀ shuō Xiǎoméng bùhǎo, zhè háizǐ yě tǐnghǎo, dànshı` hé nǐ bù héshı`.
I not say Xiǎoméng not good. This girl also quite good, but with you not suitable.
nǐ kàn ā, wǒ júedé nǐliǎng, búlùn shı̀ zài wénhuà, shēnfèn,
you see (expletive), I think you two, no matter is in knowledge, identity,
sı̄xiǎngshàng, yǒu yı̄dı`ngde chājù--- nǐ jiānglái ya, děi qù xiànlǐ
thought, have certain distance---you in the future (expletive), will go county
shàngbān, nàshı̀ gànbù, nǐ shuō xı´fùér shı̀ mài dòufǔ de, chuánchūqù
work, that is cadre, You say wife is selling tofu (particle), spread out
méiyǒu miànzi.
not have face.
(I don’t mean that Xiǎoméng is not good. She is quite good, but she’s not a match for you. You see,
there’s a gap between you two regarding knowledge, social status and thoughts. In the future, you’ll get
to work in the county and become a cadre. When that happens, you won’t have face if you say that your
wife is selling tofu on the street.)
Yǒngqiáng: wǒ jiānglái kěyǐ bú ràng tā mài dòufǔ ā!
I in the future can not let her sell tofu (expletive)!
(In the future, I can ensure that she will not have to sell tofu.)
Pı́: nǐ kàn, nǐ bù yěshı` xiánqı` tā mài dòufǔ ma? tā xiànzài shı` yào xuélı`
You see, you not also mind her selling tofu (question mark), she now is want diploma
méi xuélı̀, yào nénglı` méi nénglı`, jiālǐ yòu méiyǒu shı´lı̀,
have no diploma, want ability have no ability, family also have no power,
néng gàn shá?
can do what?
(You see? You also don’t want her to sell tofu because it makes you feel embarrassed. She’s not an
educated girl or even a capable one. What’s worse, her family has no power. What can you
expect her to do for you?)

In the conversation, both Pı́ and Yǒngqiáng agreed that having a girlfriend of lower status or of less respectable identity
would cause a man to lose miànzi. To Yǒngqiáng’s family members, a less educated girl was not a good choice for Yǒngqiáng
unless she had some qualities better than being educated. In Chinese culture, we call this tradition méndāng hùduı` – marriage
should be established between males and females of similar qualities and from families of similar conditions. In this
example, the main miànzi-sensitive factor for Yǒngqiáng is his girlfriend’s lower status, as defined by her poor education,
ability, and economic situation.
Contrary to poor education background in the above examples 2 and 3, the higher education background of someone else
with whom a person is closely associated is related to that person’s miànzi positively, as the fourth example demonstrates:

Example 4: [One day, Xiè, the father of the only college graduate in the village, Yǒngqiáng, met the director
of the village committee. They began to talk about Yǒngqiáng.]
Director: dàxuéshēng ma, chūxı̄ le.
College graduate (expletive), show promise (phrase-final particle).
(As a college graduate, your son Yǒngqiáng is promising.)
Xiè: tā zài chūxı̄ yě gǎnbúshàng nǐ zhè cūnzhǔrèn na!
He however promising still match not you the village director (expletive).
(No matter how promising, he’ll never be as great as you, the director of the village.)

In this dialogue, the director of the village first praised Xiè’s son by saying that, as a college graduate, Yǒngqiáng would
have good prospects. This compliment gave Xiè miànzi because his identity was made prominent as the director considered
2366 M. He, S.-j. Zhang / Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2360–2372

his son to be an educated man. For Xiè, the major miànzi-sensitive factor was his son’s higher education background. In
response to the director, Xiè said, ‘‘He’ll never be as great as you, the director of the village committee.’’ Xiè’s flattery made
the director feel that his identity and status were emphasized or even enhanced. Thus, the director also had miànzi in this
interaction (this miànzi is individual). The miànzi-sensitive factor identified by the director is his position and the power
attached to it. As shown in this exchange, people usually employ kètàohuà (utterances that show politeness) in Chinese
culture to show their respect for other’s miànzi. Another interesting point is that the behavior of gěi miànzi is reciprocal; if the
speaker gives the addressee miànzi, the addressee should give miànzi to the speaker in return. Otherwise, a potential conflict
would arise.

3.3.3. Group miànzi and potential miànzi-sensitive factors

From the data collected, we find one more level of miànzi, resting neither on an individual’s attributes or factors, nor
on those of people to whom an individual is closely related, but on those of the person(s) with whom an individual
shares group membership. We call this group miànzi. In this section, we present two more examples and focus our
analysis on group miànzi situations in connection to the miànzi-sensitive factors in order to understand more miànzi
phenomena.
Following example 4 presented in section 3.3.2, the director continued to speak highly of Xiè’s son in response to Xiè’s
compliment, as the following dialogue shows:

Example 5:
Director: bié zhème shuō, āiya! Háizǐ chūxı̄ le, jiù wǒ zhè
Not so say (expletive). Child promising (phrase-final particle) then I this
cūnzhǔrèn yě gēnzhe gāoxı`ng ā! gěi záncūnrén zhēngle bùshǎo liǎn.
village director too together happy (expletive)! for our villagers earn lots of face.
(Please don’t say such things. Both the villagers and I are very happy to see your son
graduate from college and show his great potential. He’s earned a lot of face for our village.)
Xiè: zhēng shá liǎn ā?
Earn what face (expletive)?
(He’s earned face for the village, has he?)

In this example, the director praised Xiè’s son by saying that the son had earned liǎn (here similar to ‘‘a good reputation.’’)
for the whole village. Thus, Xiè had miànzi once again. To Xiè, the miànzi-sensitive factor is his son’s good education.
Furthermore, the director’s comments reflected the notion that, in the countryside of China, when a village has a college
graduate while its neighboring villages have none, the college graduate will establish a good reputation for the whole village.
This gives miànzi to the people of the village, the claim of which rests on the excellence or reputation of a member from that
village. To villagers, the miànzi-sensitive factor is a member’s recognized excellence (in this situation, it refers to being a
college graduate and being educated). Let us consider a similar example:

Example 6: [When the only college student in the village came home after graduation, the director of the
village held a reception to welcome him back. At the reception, the director made an informal
speech and proposed a toast to him.]
Director: Yǒngqiáng, dàxuéshēng huı´lái le, gěi záncūnér
Yǒngqiáng, college graduate comes home (phrase-final particle), for our village
zhēngliǎn, zhēngqı` le, wèile zhègè, gòngtóng gān yı̄bēi.
earn face, earn qi (phrase-final particle), for this, together drink one cup.
(Our college graduate, Xiè Yǒngqiáng, has returned home. He’s earned face for our village. Let’s
drink to this.)

In this example, the director’s speech reaffirmed the fact that one member’s excellence can give miànzi to the entire
village.
For this reason, in order to safeguard the group miànzi of a family or other larger groups, members usually avoid
doing things that will damage the reputation or the image of the family or other groups. In example 1 presented in
section 3.3.1, the disrespectable act of the father’s begging a girl to keep the engagement to his son when the son was
likely to be disabled would degrade the image and status of the whole family. Therefore, the son requested that his father
not do this to avoid degrading their identity (diàojià). All of the family members are miànzi-sensitive to the son’s being
disabled.
To summarize, in the previous three sections we have analyzed six examples of miànzi phenomena in Chinese culture
from three perspectives by focusing on miànzi-sensitive factors. We have observed three levels of miànzi: individual,
relational, and group miànzi. Among the three levels, both relational and group miànzi are more prominent in Chinese
 M. He, S.-j. Zhang / Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2360–2372 2367

culture. In the next section, we will present the results of data analysis and further elaborate on the manifold miànzi. Our
focus will be on potential miànzi-sensitive factors underlying the concept of miànzi in Chinese.

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Miànzi-sensitive factors

A further analysis of these miànzi-sensitive factors presented in section 3.3 and in Appendix A shows that they are
manifested in three ways: some factors are attached to the person who experiences miànzi-gain/loss; some are attached to
someone closely related to the person who actually gains/loses miànzi; and some are found in other members of a group to
which that person belongs. For example, the handicap of a person may be miànzi-sensitive both for him/herself and for his/
her parents. A member’s excellence as a college graduate may give miànzi to the whole group. Consequently, we can further
classify them into three categories, as illustrated below in Table 1.

4.1.1. Individual factors

As indicated in Table 1, a person may be miànzi-sensitive about particular self-possessed aspects like physical features (e.
g. being disabled as shown in example 1), education background (e.g. being a college student as shown in example 7 of
Appendix A), and competence (e.g. ability to avoid mistakes as shown in example 13 of Appendix A). These characteristics
belonging to an individual constitute the identity of, or contribute to, the status of that individual and further differentiate
that individual from others. They are miànzi-sensitive for a person because miànzi, as we have stated, is about one’s identity
and status. We take such attributes or characteristics of a person as individual factors. There would be numerous such factors
depending on different situations. In this paper, we enumerate examples where people felt miànzi-gain/loss based on
aspects such as physical features, education background, ability, position, and power. However, they would extend to
include all those attributes or features of an individual.
When one person praises another, he/she is actually foregrounding that person’s positive attributes in the interaction and
acknowledging the identity and/or status of that person. This positive evaluation of another’s identity will give others
miànzi. On the other hand, when one weak part of a person is spoken aloud and put in the foreground of an interaction, he/
she would probably feel as if they were being looked down upon by the speaker and immediately suffer miànzi-loss because
a weak part of a person (e.g. poor education background) would contribute to his/her own image or identity negatively.
When speaking of so many potential miànzi-sensitive factors in an individual, we have to acknowledge that he/she is not
miànzi-sensitive about all of those factors during a single situation. They are potentially present in a way that only some of
them would be triggered by particular interactions. What factors become miànzi-sensitive for a certain person depends on
value orientation and ‘‘affective sensitivity’’ of that person, as pointed out by Spencer-Oatey (2007:644), as well as what
factor(s) has been put in the foreground of a particular context. Ho (1976) also believes that variation of and changes in value
orientation, both cross-culturally and intra-culturally, would influence people’s judgments concerning whether to lose or
gain face and the extent of face loss/gain (p. 874). Value orientation refers to people’s choice in deciding what values are
important to them. What values are important to them, in turn, will determine what self-factors are sensitive. Additionally,
only those features which are foregrounded and strongly felt by interactants in a particular situation are likely to become
miànzi-sensitive for either speaker.

4.1.2. Relational factors

As shown in Table 1, an individual may also experience miànzi-gain/loss when other speakers evaluate attribute(s) of
that person’s intimates positively or negatively. In section 3.3, we have seen that when others speak highly of the son by
emphasizing his higher education background, the father feels an immediate miànzi-gain. When others look down upon
the daughter by comparing her education background as a high school graduate to that of the college graduate boy, her
father loses miànzi accordingly. The two examples also explain why people usually compliment others’ family
members. They intentionally want to enhance others’ miànzi. The miànzi-sensitive factors manifested in the two
examples belong to another category—relational factors. By relational factors, we mean those individual attributes or
characteristics such as personality, behavior, appearance, education background, ability, position, social status, and
wealth of people to whom one is closely related biologically and/or interpersonally, such as family members, good
friends, and colleagues.

Table 1
Three categories of Miànzi-sensitive factors.

Individual factors Relational factors Group factors

Being handicapped Daughter’s poor education background Member’s handicap (in a family)
Poor (higher) education background Girlfriend’s lower status and identity Member’s excellence as a college graduate (in a family)
Position and power Son’s higher education background Member’s excellence as a college graduate (in a village)
Ability to do things right Inviter’s position, identity and social
(avoid mistakes) connectedness with the invitee
2368 M. He, S.-j. Zhang / Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2360–2372

It is obvious that for the two fathers, the miànzi-sensitive factors are different from those factors which directly
constitute their identities or status. However, their children’s individual features might also contribute to their own
perceived identities or status. The reason lies in the traditional responsibility defined by social relations within a family
or organization. Traditionally (and potentially in modern China), parents are supposed to be responsible for raising and
cultivating their children until the age of marriage. Under such circumstances, if the children did not excel, others would
assume that the parents were not excellent. In the Chinese countryside, a girl’s being unengaged to a boy when she
reaches the age of marriage would cause the parents to lose miànzi (Yang, 2007:106–111). At school, teachers’
responsibilities, as defined by the relationship between teacher and student, are supposed to solve a student’s problems
as well as ‘‘pass knowledge’’ onto them. With such expectations, if students in one class excel in an important exam, then
others would believe that their teachers are excellent. If the opposite occurs, others would think that the teachers are not
good enough. For example, two Chinese teachers of English A and B are talking about the same student C (previously in
A’s class, now in B’s class). If B says to A that C has currently become very good at English, A might suffer miànzi-loss
because A may think that B implies A is not as good a teacher as B. Although B is talking about student C’s performance,
not teacher A’s performance, the teacher-student relationship may cause A to think that B was making a negative
evaluation of his/her teaching through the evaluation of C. This indirectly leads to the construction of A’s perceived self-
image in his/her mind and thus results in A’s miànzi-loss.
In Chinese culture, people also evaluate an individual based on their judgments of his/her good friends or colleagues.
People often hold the view that ‘‘Birds of a feather flock together.’’ Consequently, there is a tendency to believe that the
characteristics of a person are also found in his/her friends. Thus, in an interaction where one speaker evaluates a friend of
another speaker positively, the second speaker would possibly gain miànzi. This becomes prominent when a person has a
friend of high social status, important position, or great power in society.
Interpersonal relations are highly valued in Chinese culture. Many gěi-miànzi behaviors are conducted due to the
consideration of relational factors. We have observed that in Chinese, gěi miànzi often occurs in situations where the
addressee shows his/her due respect to the identity or status of the addresser by agreeing with the addresser in general.
Typical behaviors of gěi miànzi include accepting the other’s invitations or requests for a favor, agreeing with the other’s
ideas or opinions, and doing things as the other wishes. Take accepting a request for example: When one party in an
interaction makes decisions on whether or not to accept the other party’s request for a favor, he/she will first consider
the requester’s identity and status. If the requester does not seem important enough to be given miànzi (gěi miànzi), the
requestee will not immediately decline the request; instead, he/she will further consider whether or not the requester
has a close interpersonal relationship with him/herself or with someone of great power and/or high position. Hwang
(1987) explains this phenomenon, arguing that miànzi and favor are part of the Chinese power game (pp. 944–974). By
giving miànzi to others and complying with their requests, one is actually doing others special favors. The consequence
is that that individual would likely get huı´bào (a return of favor) and the chance to share power with others. Hwang also
points out that those with power usually use a third party to request others to do things personally, because those
people believe that others will give the third party miànzi when they know that the third party is related to someone of
power.
It should be pointed out that the relational factors we identify concern not only the relational attributes of the parties
involved in an interaction, but also the attributes of some third party(ies) with whom either interactant is closely associated.
Therefore, when dealing with miànzi phenomena, especially gěi miànzi, one has to consider not only his/her relationship
with the speaker he/she interacts with, but also the speaker’s social relations. In this sense, our conception of relational
factors is more inclusive than the one Spencer-Oatey identifies and demonstrates in the example presented in her paper
(Spencer-Oatey, 2007:646–647).

4.1.3. Group factors

Examples 5 and 6 presented above in section 3.3.3 demonstrate that a member’s excellence in one particular aspect could
help other members in the same group gain miànzi, while a member’s characteristics negatively evaluated by society could
result in miànzi-loss on the part of other members of the group. In Chinese society, it is observed that the attributes and
characteristics of one group member, which can bring either glory or shame to the group, are miànzi-sensitive for other
members of the same group. A typical example given above is that the identity of a college graduate gives miànzi to the
whole village in the countryside. In contrast, a villager’s bad actions, such as theft or violence, could reduce the miànzi of
the entire village. In order to safeguard the group miànzi, members usually avoid doing things that will either undermine the
image of the group, as shown in example 1 of section 3.3.1, or degrade themselves as a group member (in Chinese it is called
yǒushı¯ shēnfèn), as demonstrated in example 7 of Appendix A.
The reasons for this are twofold. First, Chinese people are group-oriented, as pointed out by Ervin-Tripp et al. (1995). In
order to live comfortably, people first establish a sense of belonging within a certain group by living up to the attributes and
characteristics highly valued and approved of by that group. Only then can they feel safe. Consequently, they try hard to
earn positive judgments for other members by doing things that will glorify the group. Second, the concurrent general
practices and mechanism of reward and punishment in China may help people experience miànzi-gain/loss in such a
manner. For example, if a college teacher has won the first prize in a national teaching contest, that teacher will earn miànzi
for the entire college. In turn, the college will probably also be awarded a prize of ‘‘an exemplary college’’. This enables the
whole college to gain miànzi, including those teachers who have never won such a teaching prize. It seems that miànzi
 M. He, S.-j. Zhang / Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2360–2372 2369

could be passed on to other group members from the member(s) who has actually won miànzi. Of course, this kind of
miànzi, to some extent, is cross-cultural.
Group factors, as the name suggests, also include the attributes or characteristics of general social groups defined by such
variables as income, occupation, and educational background. These attributes or characteristics are potentially miànzi-
sensitive for members of a social group. A typical example from our study (example 10 of Appendix A) is when the
accountant of the village mentioned that he admired college graduates very much to the boy (the lone graduate of the
village) and the boy felt immediate miànzi-gain.

4.2. The Chinese concept of miànzi

The results of data analysis show that miànzi, to Chinese people, is a respectable image which is built up among people
and expected to be acknowledged in society. It is manifested as a behavior of respect which an individual wants others to
have towards him/herself, his/her relatives, friends, colleagues and his/her social groups. According to the three categories of
miànzi-sensitive factors, miànzi in Chinese culture needs to be interpreted on different levels, preferably as individual,
relational, and group miànzi, illustrated above.
It is observed that individual miànzi is one’s own perceived respectability built up by possessing those attributes or
characteristics positively valued by society – or by not possessing those attributes negatively evaluated by society. These
attributes or characteristics identify a person as agreeable and respectable. They range over different aspects of a person,
such as personality, behavior, appearance, education background, ability, position, social status, and wealth. This level of
miànzi is close to Brown & Levinson’s concept of positive face as ‘‘the positive consistent self-image or personality claimed by
interactants’’ (Brown and Levinson, 1987:61).
While individual miànzi mainly rests on one’s individual attributes or characteristics, relational miànzi is closely linked to
attributes or characteristics of someone else on the basis of interpersonal relations. It refers to the respectable identity and/or
status or positive image that an individual wants to establish by taking advantage of the positively evaluated attributes or
characteristics of others to whom that individual is closely related biologically and/or interpersonally, such as one’s relatives,
close friends, colleagues, and classmates. An individual may identify him/herself from the relationship he/she has with
others. Therefore, his/her perception of him/herself being agreeable or having a reputed image may also be based on those
positively valued attributes or features bound up with those with whom he/she has an intimate relationship, such as a
husband–wife relationship, father/mother–son/daughter relationship, brother–sister relationship, or friendship. This level
of miànzi will be prominent if one of the family members or relatives is of high rank or power, as it is socially admired and
needed for an interpersonal relationship.
Apart from individual and relational miànzi in Chinese culture, group miànzi is also prominent. It refers to the respectable
identity and/or status or image that an individual wants to build up based on positively valued attributes or characteristics of
a social group (or a member of a social group) of which that individual belongs. A group with a positively valued image
usually establishes a respectable identity and/or status in a bigger community. This respectable public image can be passed
on to its members, and serves as the basis of group members’ claim for miànzi. In the same way, group members’ pre-
established positive images can add to the respectable identity of the group and enable the whole group to claim miànzi from
other groups or members outside the group. In Chinese society, an individual is so closely tied to groups such as family,
workplace (dānwèi in Chinese), hometown, and sport team that he/she will lose miànzi as the related group loses miànzi, and
he/she will gain miànzi as the related group gains miànzi.
Group miànzi, thus defined, comes close to Mao’s (1994) ‘‘public face’’. As Mao points out, ‘‘Chinese face emphasizes not
the accommodation of individual ‘want’ or ‘desires’ but the harmony of individual conduct with the views and judgment of
the community’’ (Mao, 1994:605). The goal of harmony is reflected by community members’ avoidance of behaviors which
will cause them to lose valued attributes or characteristics, because other members of the community will also claim miànzi
on those valued attributes or characteristics. Similarly, Nwoye (1992) identifies such an effort of group members to avoid
‘‘the behavior capable of lowering the public self-image or self-worth of one’s group’’ (Nwoye, 1992:314).
The above three-level account of miànzi in Chinese culture within the three categories of self-based miànzi-sensitive
factors, echoing Brewer and Gardner’s (1996) three levels of self-presentation, as summarized by Spencer-Oatey (2007:641),
indicates clearly that the Chinese concept of miànzi is multifaceted. Since Chinese people tend to define and perceive
themselves by considering, altogether, their own attributes, social relations, and group membership, it is reasonable to
maintain that miànzi is generally claimed based on attributes or characteristics that people have, their social relations
provide, and their group membership defines.

5. Conclusions and implications

From the preceding analyses and discussions, we may now draw some conclusions and point out the implications of this
study.
First, Chinese people are sensitive about their miànzi in many different ways. These range from their own attributes
identifying themselves as individual persons, to those attributes possessed by other people to whom they are socially related
to (relatives, friends, and colleagues) and to those attributes shared by the social group (or exclusively possessed by some
members in the group) of which they are a part.
2370 M. He, S.-j. Zhang / Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2360–2372

Second, miànzi is inherently associated with people’s respectable identity and/or status, established by taking advantage
of the three categories of attributes or characteristics.
Third, according to the three different aspects which people tend to be miànzi-sensitive about, the Chinese miànzi is
better understood as one concept with three tiers: individual, relational, and group miànzi. In addition, the latter two tiers of
miànzi have greater prominence in Chinese culture.
These findings are rewarding because they have both practical and theoretical implications. In practice, many of the
miànzi-sensitive factors identified from the data analysis can help us understand the Chinese concept of miànzi in a
more clear and realistic way. In turn, a better understanding of the miànzi phenomena in interaction will facilitate both
intracultural and intercultural communication where Chinese speakers are involved. It also helps us appreciate one
unique aspect of Chinese culture: that miànzi is closely associated with people’s identity and status. In regard to the
theoretical implications, this study demonstrates that, by providing a novel perspective, identity theory can be applied
to analysis of miànzi phenomena in Chinese. It should be acknowledged, however, that the three-level perspective on
face may be applied to the analysis of other languages besides Chinese. Spencer-Oatey (2007) presents it as a broader
perspective on face-analysis that offers us great methodological insights into the study of face in general, as we have
mentioned in section 2. Therefore, a follow-up study of face in other cultures using this framework would be
illuminating.
However, the present study has limitations. The results of this study are generated from the analysis of a limited amount
of data collected from a modern Chinese TV drama. We suggest that a further study should be conducted based on a larger
corpus of naturally occurring data, preferably collected from a variety of Chinese interactions in communication.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions on
this study. Of course, the coauthor is responsible for all the misinterpretations or fallacies, if any, of the data presented in the
study.

Appendix A

Example 7: [Yǒngqiáng, the only college graduate in the village was leaving for town. His father wanted him to
carry two chickens on his bike to one of their distant relatives–the governor of the town, because he
was helping Yǒngqiáng find a job in the town. Yǒngqiáng refused his father by saying the following.]
Yǒngqiáng: nà nǐ shuō wǒ yı¯gè dàxuéshēng, lı̄nzhe liǎngzhı̄jı¯ duō nánkàn ne!
Then you say I a college graduate, carrying two chickens so embarrassing (expletive) !
(You see, I am a college graduate. How can I carry two chickens with me when I go downtown to visit
the governor, Qı́? That’ll be so embarrassing.)
Example 8: [At the reception held to welcome the college graduate, Yǒngqiáng, the village director’s daughter,
Xiāngxiù, was proposing a toast to him. The conversation happened on this occasion.]
Xiāngxiù: Yǒngqiáng, wǒ gěi nǐ dào bēi jiǔ.
Yǒngqiáng, I for you pour a cup beer.
(Well, Yǒngqiáng, let me pour you some beer.)
Yǒngqiáng: bú yòng, bú yòng, wǒ zhēnde bú huı` hējiǔ.
No need, no need, I really not can drink.
(No, thanks. I really cannot drink.)
Xiāngxiù: lái, lái, bù gěi miànzi, shı`búshı̀?
Come, come, not give face, right?
(Come on. You won’t give me face, will you?)
Yǒngqiáng: búshı` bù gěi miànzi, wǒ zhēnde bú huı` hējiǔ.
No not give face, I really not can drink.
(It’s not that I won’t give you face. I really can’t drink.)
Example 9: [Later at the reception, the village director’s daughter Xiāngxiù was once again proposing a toast to
Yǒngqiáng. The conversation happened on this occasion.]
Xiāngxiù: lái Yǒngqiáng, lǎo tóngxué de, jı`ng nǐ yı¯ bēi.
Come Yǒngqiáng, old classmate (phrase-final particle), propose you a toast.
(Come on, Yǒngqiáng, we are old classmates. Let me propose a toast to you.)
 M. He, S.-j. Zhang / Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2360–2372 2371

Yǒngqiáng: wǒ hēbùliǎo le, zhēn hēbùliǎo le.

I drink not (phrase-final particle), really drink not (phrase-final particle).
(I can’t drink anymore, really.)
Xiāngxiù: nǐ kàn dōu lǎotóngxué le, bù gěi miànzi, shı`bú?
You see already old classmate (phrase-final particle), not give face, right?
(You see, we are old classmates, but you won’t give me face, will you?)
Example 10: [At the reception, the accountant of the village, Xú, also proposed a toast to Yǒngqiáng.]
Xú: dàxuéshēng ma, zán tèbié chóngbài de, shı`búshı`?
College graduate (expletive), we especially admire (phrase-final particle), right?
Jı¯ntiān wúlùn rúhé nǐ gěi wǒ diǎnér miànzi, nǐ bı`xū děi hē!
Today under any circumstance, you give me some face. You must have to drink!
(We admire college graduates very much. For this, you must give me some face and drink this cup of
beer I propose, whatever happens to you today.)
Example 11: [The governor of the town (administrating villages), Qı́, planned to bǎoméi (to arrange an engagement
between two persons) for the college graduate, Yǒngqiáng, and the daughter of the director of the
village, Xiāngxiù. Qı́ was discussing the idea with their fathers, Xiè and Chángguı̀. Without asking for
their children’s opinions, the two fathers immediately guaranteed that both Yǒngqiáng and Xiāngxiù
would agree on the engagement. Xiè made the following comment after the governor expressed his
wish to arrange the engagement.]
Xiè: nà Yǒngqiángde jiā, wǒ yě néng dāng; zàishuōle, rén zhènzhǎng
Then Yǒngqiáng’s family, I also can run; moreover the governor
qı¯nzı` gěi bǎode méi, tā hái néng shuō gè bù zı` ā?
himself for make match, he still can say one no word (rhetorical-question mark)?
(Then I can also make the decision for Yǒngqiáng and agree with the governor’s arrangement on the
engagement. Since Governor Qı́ is the matchmaker, how can Yǒngqiáng refuse this engagement?)
Example 12: [This example immediately follows example 11.]
Qı́: Yǒngqiáng, nǐshuō, rénjiā shı̀ dàxuéshēng, mǎshàng yòu yào dào xiànlǐ qù
Yǒngqiáng, you say, he is college graduate, soon also will to the county go
gōngzuò le; Xiāngxiù, zài cūn wèishēngsuǒ, nǐ kàn rén Chángguı`
work (phrase-final particle); Xiāngxiù, at village hospital, you see he Chángguı̀
hái shı̀ cūnzhǔrèn.
also is village director.
(Yǒngqiáng is a college graduate and will go to work in the county soon, while Xiāngxiù is working at
the village hospital and her father, Chángguı̀, is the director of the village committee. [It is quite
appropriate for the two to marry each other.])
Xiè&Chángguı̀: (almost at the same time) shı̀, shı`. (Yes, yes.)
Qı́: nǐmen liǎnggè yě bié tài bǎoshǒule, shı`búshı`? Yào zhēngqı´u yı¯xià rénjiā liǎnggè
You two also not too conservative, right? Need ask for once they two
rénde yı`jiàn, xiànzài dōu hūnyı̄n zı`yóu, duı`búduı`? Nǐmen liǎnggè
persons’ opinions, recently already marriage freedom, right? You two
qiānwàn bié gùjı´ wǒde miànzi, wǒ zhǐbúguò jiùshı̀ gěi bǎo gè méi.
never consider my face, I just am for make one match
qiānwàn bié gùjı́ wǒde miànzi!
Never consider my face!
(You two should not be so conservative. Concerning the engagement, we have to ask both Xiè
Yǒngqiáng and Wáng Xiāngxiù for their opinion. Nowadays, young men have to make their own
decisions regarding their marriage. As parents, we should respect their attitudes and opinions towards
marriage. You two need not consider my face and agree on the engagement between Xiè Yǒngqiáng
and Wáng Xiāngxiù just because I’m the governor of the town. Never agree on this simply to consider
my face. I’m only a matchmaker.)
2372 M. He, S.-j. Zhang / Journal of Pragmatics 43 (2011) 2360–2372

Example 13: [Liú’s daughter was originally engaged to a young man named Zhào from the same village. Later, Zhào
was seriously injured in a car accident. As a result, Liú cancelled the engagement between his daughter
and Zhào for fear that Zhào should become handicapped and not be able to support their family. One
month later, Zhào was fully recovered from the injury. Liú wanted to rearrange the engagement, but
Zhào became reluctant because he thought that Liú had not given him miànzi. Interestingly, Liú also
wanted miànzi (‘yào miànzi’) and was unwilling to talk to Zhào directly and apologize. Instead, he came
to Xiè, the matchmaker, and requested Xiè to ask Zhào’s father to apologize to him and further discuss
the rearrangement of the engagement. Xiè was surprised by Liú’s request because she knew that it was
Liú, not Zhào’s father, who cancelled the engagement, thus wanted to apologize to Liú on behalf of
Zhào’s father since she hoped the two families could rearrange the engagement. However, Liú refused
Xiè’s rearrangement by saying the following.]
Liú: dàitı` bù liǎo, bùxı́ng.— zhè, zhè qı¯nshı` wǒ méi yı`jiàn, zǎdı`
replace not, no way. —this, this engagement I have no opposition. No matter what
děi ràng wǒ yào diǎnér miànzi ba!
have to let me have some face (expletive)!
(No, you can’t apologize to me on behalf of Zhào’s father. I’m not against the engagement,
but I want some face from Zhào’s father.)
Xiè: hǎo, hǎo, hǎo, wǒ xiànzài jiù shàng lǎozhàojiā zǒu yı¯ tàng, wǒ kàn kàn
Ok, ok, ok, I now will go lǎozhào family walk one trip, I see see
néng bù néng bǎ nǐde miànzi gěi yào huı´lái
Whether can have your miànzi for fetch back
(Ok, now I’ll go visit Zhào’s father to see if he’ll come apologize to you and give back your face.)

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Ming He, M.A., is a lecturer of Foreign Languages Faculty, Nanhai Campus, South China Normal University. His research interest is currently in politeness,
pragmatics–semantics interface and pragmatics and grammar.

Shaojie Zhang, Ph.D., is a professor of Foreign Languages School, Northeast Normal University. His research areas mainly include philosophy of language, general
linguistics, pragmatics, and applied linguistics. He has published and compiled several books including Linguistic Theories and Applications and A Study in
Arbitrariness of Linguistic Signs: Exploring Saussure’s Philosophy of Linguistics as well as over 40 articles in journals such as Foreign Language Teaching and Research,
Modern Languages, Foreign Languages and Journal of Foreign Languages.