The Chinese Concepts of Guanxi, Mianzi, Renqing and ... - ANZMAC

not solely commercial, but also social, involving the exchange of renqing and the giving of
mianzi (Luo, 1997b).
Yang (1992) distinguished three groups of Chinese relationships: (1) jiajen (family members),
shoujen (relatives outside the family, friends, neighbours, classmates, and colleagues), and
shengjen (strangers). These distinctions are consistent with Hwang’s (1987) conception of the
three major guanxi categories in Chinese societies.
Chang and Holt (1991) identified four common methods that one might establish guanxi with
another: (1) appealing to kin relations; (2) pointing to a previous association; (3) using ingroup
connections or mediators; or (4) social interaction requiring social skills such as the
ability to play the “renqing (favour) game”.
Empirical evidence suggested that guanxi-based business variables have profound and
positive impacts on the efficiency and growth of companies doing business in China (e.g., see
Luo, 1997a; Luo and Chen, 1997; So and Speece, 2000).
The Chinese Concept of Mianzi
While it is argued that face behaviour is universal, the concept of face is Chinese in origin and
is a literal translation of the Chinse terms of mianzi and lian (Goffman, 1955; Ho, 1976). Hu
(1944, p. 45-46) made very clear distinctions between the two Chinese words for “face”: lien
(or lian) and mien (or mian):
“Of the two words for ‘face’: lien and mien, the latter is by far the older, being found
in ancient literature. Mien has acquired a figurative meaning referring to the relation
between ego and society as early as the fourth century B.C. Lien is a more modern
term, the earliest reference cited in the K’ang-hsi Dictionary dating from the Yuan
Dynasty (1277-1367). This word seems to have originated somewhere in North China
and gradually to have supplanted mien in the physical sense, and also to have acquired
some of its figurative meaning. Meanwhile, mien, with the meaningless syllable –tzu
(zi) attached, had developed different connotations”.
On the physical level, both lian and mian(zi) mean the physical “face”. On the connotative
level, mianzi stands for the kind of prestige or reputation achieved through getting on in life,
through success and ostentation; mianzi is accumulated by means of personal effort or clever
maneuvering. Mianzi is therefore a kind of recognition ego dependent on the external
environment. Lian is the respect of the group for a man with a good moral reputation; it
represents the confidence of society in the integrity of ego’s moral character, the loss of which
makes it impossible for a person to function properly within the community. Lian is therefore
both a social sanction for enforcing moral standards and an internalised sanction (Hu, 1944).
Hu (1944) indicated that the Western concept of “face” corresponds to the Chinese mianzi but
is lacking in the connotation of lian.
The loss of mianzi simply means that a person does not deserve the honour or glory.
However, a sense of self-blame or shame is association with the loss of lian as a result of
wrong-doing regardless of the presence of an audience (Bond and Hwang, 1986). The
importance of lian in day to day life of the Chinese is reflected in the old saying: “Every
person needs lian; every tree needs bark.” As Hu (1994, p. 63) put it, “A person with a feeling
for lien can be trusted implicitly, for lien is worth more than a fortune to those who value it.”