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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: what is the "face concept" and "Sa jiao"...?
coming for some time to China soon folks, was wondering about those...
"Face" is what rules the land here... it's the concept of how you appear and what connections you have.
"Sa jiao" is how the ladies will act like they are children to boost the ego of the man they are with.
Nadinka:
"how you appear" you mean the look and sum of money spent on, has the most influence of all other factors? stronger then in European or Anglo saxon countries?
Face is "mianzi“,like reputation.but its not for often
"sajiao" ,I think its vert cute,it is used to describe a kind of action gril want his lover to mind her.
indeed,i think so called face and sajiao are actions of dailylife,or else,the life will be too boring and inflexible.
so the face concept used by Chinese towards foreigenrs or its a general term for China?
"Face" is not being embarrassed, basically. If someone insults you or talks down to you, you lose face. If you see someone accidentally do something embarrassing, and you either take the blame (even though it obviously wasn't you) or act like it was no big deal, it's giving face. "You don't want face" is a common insult for someone who is acting in a shameful way. A respected manager has lots of face, a new employee has no face. It applies to basically every situation in China. For some reason, embarrassment is really a big deal here.
The Chinese worry about face in the eyes of other countries, yes, but I've seen people give me face about my country just to be polite. For example, someone asks, "Where are you from?" and I say Canada, the reply is often "That's a really good place." even though I doubt that guy has opinions on Canada one way or another.
Sa jiao means "temper tantrum". A lot of twenty-something girls act childish in order to appear more girly and cute in the eyes of Chinese men. They talk in high-pitched voices, dress like little kids, and sometimes have somewhat intentional tantrums, like asking their boyfriends to buy something expensive and having a little sa jiao when he says it's too expensive. It's all an act and seems really contrived. It seems weird to a foreigner but people in their early twenties in my country seem weird to me for whole different reasons so there you go.
Last week I was at this dinner get together, which was attended by this "bigwig". Anyway, well into the dinner, as we were all standing around and toasting, the big wig sneezed and at the same time passed some gas, quite loudly! Everyone knew it was him. Then, this other man started to apologize profusely for the gas passing even though ir was obvious that it was not him! Anyway, that guy was plied with drinks and smokes for the rest of the evening, especially by the bigwig who had basically ignored him up to that point.
My guess: "little guy" saved the big guys "face" and thus won face as well, even though he owned up to something embarassing that was not his fault.
I guess this would be face.
foreigners have "face concept" too.....Look at those famoue foreigner ppl and noble families.....you know how scared they are afraid of something leaking out......"face concept" is ancient way about Chinese manners.....not as serious as some foreingers here think it is....being RESPECTFUL is a serious issue in chinese culture though...
"Sa jia" it's same...Women all do something to get more attention from their men...
kchur:
Yes, but we also think that making mistakes is part of learning, and that being embarrassed sometimes is just something you have to live with. Getting upset over a little embarrassment seems very childish to most foreigners. And don't judge us by our celebrities. Do you think Chinese celebrities are indicative of average, normal Chinese people?
Localla:
Chinese celebrities is same as ordinary Chinese...maybe worse...!!..lol...I use your celebrities is just to make it easy for others to understand face thing.....about sajia...look that "summer" guy reply...there are lots of ppl love it....hehe....guess you either change yourself or change a gf to deal with this....
face means to make people either respect or envy you. More about envy than rspect in my mind. Sa jiao is the stupidest thing I have ever seen! My last GF tried it on me many times. I told her to grow up or get out. She thought I was playing....
-The excuse of a culture which has no shred of honor.
-Make a mistake in Japan, kill yourself
-Make a mistake in America, get FIRED
-Make a mistake in Russia, get drunk
-Make a mistake in China, blame SOMEBODY else.
Shining_brow:
Actually - make a mistake in America, get promoted.
Make a mistake in China, get your friends to cover it up for you - pay them back later with a promotion and some red envelopes.