Faces Personal Face, Saving Face, and the Face of the Nation

1. FacesPersonal Face, Saving Face, and the Face of the Nation Chris Perez David Smith Alex Wiker

2. Identity “Personal identity deals with questions about ourselves qua people (or persons). The most common question is what it takes for us to persist from one time to another. What is necessary, and what is sufficient, for some past or future being to be you?” Rashomon M. Butterfly

3. Personal Identity Defines who you are as an individual and makes you unique How you present yourself to others Identity can be lost or a new one can be aquired

4. Evidence of Identity How do we find out who is who? How do we know if a person is the same then as now? Memory Remembering you did something usually means it was you doing it. Sometimes the truth is warped or adjusted to the perception of yourself or how you would like others to see you. Physical Continuity “[I]f the person who did it looks just like you, or even better if she is in some sense physically or spatio-temporally continuous with you, that is reason to think she is you.”

5. Rashomon The Face of Truth: What you want to believe and what you want others to believe. Each retelling of the incident made the story teller to be the righteous character Protecting their self-image was so important, that from the evidence it still isn’t known what actually happened

6. Character Identities Speaker Can memory supply all evidence, or does it only work when checked against a third party?

7. M. Butterfly The Face of Deception: What you want others to believe that you are, deliberate and misleading. “Appearance can be deceiving…” -Random fortune cookie Song - submissive, Chinese female Gallimard - masculine, American male Are these identities acquired in response to each others needs?

8. Saving Face f.to save one's face: to avoid being disgraced or humiliated. Similarly, to save (another's) face. Hence save-face adj. = face-saving ppl. adj. s.v. FACE n. 27, and absol. as n.  [Originally used by the English community in China, with reference to the continual devices among the Chinese to avoid incurring or inflicting disgrace. The exact phrase appears not to occur in Chinese, but ‘to lose face’ (tiu lien), and ‘for the sake of his face’, are common.] --Oxford English Dictionary

9. The concept of Face? Refers to the concepts of mianzi and lianzi Lianzi is the confidence of society in a person’s moral character. Mianzi represents social perceptions of a person’s prestige. Face translates into power and influence. A loss of lianzi would result in the loss of trust. A loss of mianzi would result in the loss of authority. The concept of face is incredibly important and historically significant. During the Tiananmen protests of 1989, Wu’er Kaixi, student leader, scolded the Premier Li Peng for being late to a meeting in an attempt to cause him to lose face.

10. Appearances and Characters The Greatest Event in Life – Hu Shih Mrs. T’ien - superstition Mr. T’ien - ancestry Miss T’ien Ya-mei - progressive Hu Shih The True Story of Ah Q – Lu Xun Ah Q - self-delusion Imitation Foreign Devil - conformity Lu Xun

11. Mrs. T’ien Mrs. T’ien trusts the superstitious forecast of a fortune teller and a slip of paper given to her by the Bodhisattva Kuan Yin. -Spiritual Person -Fears offending spirits / the gods / the universe -Saving face in the eyes of the cosmos. Mrs. T’ien is not concerned with recovering lost honor but instead worries over the potential of losing face. Should her daughter marry an incompatible man, as the fortune teller has predicted, the marriage would fail, subjecting Mrs. T’ien to: -criticism for not listening to the fortune teller -loss of honor from her daughter’s unsuccessful marriage KuanYin

12. Mr. T’ien Mr. T’ien trusts rules and customs and relies upon the records of the clan to make his decision. He remains so hung up on tradition that he doesn’t care about anything else. “It makes little difference that I don’t accept it. Society accepts it. Those clan elders accept it.” He maintains a fear of losing face in the eyes of society and of dishonoring his ancestors. Doing right by past members of the family holds more value than respecting current members of the family.

13. Ya-mei Regardless of what her parents say, she is resolved to marry who she chooses. Upon her father’s rejection of her mother’s reasoning: “Thank you, we ought to trust our own judgement, isn’t that so?” What matters is how one views themselves, not how society, spirits, or the gods view them. Hint at a progressive way of thinking, dropping the traditional importance put on face. The final stage direction [Mr. T’ien dashes to the right-hand door, but as he reaches it he looks back with a wide-eyed, helpless look of hesitation and uncertainty] suggests he too realizes his daughter’s happiness is more important that the saving of face, yet he doesn’t know how to cope with it.

14. Ah Q Foolish, tragic protagonist Uncanny ability to twist any situation to convince himself he has avoided any insult. Self-delusional to a fault, so concerned with saving face that he lies to himself and others to maintain a positive image. -held his ringworm scars as honorable -claiming he had been “beaten by [his] son” was enough to “win” -considering himself an insect granted him victory Unconcerned with how others feel – “He looked down on all the inhabitants of Weichuang, thinking even two young “scholars” not worth a smile…” Sets a double standard, so self absorbed yet completely unconcerned with the honor of others. Ah Q confronting Young D

15. Imitation Foreign Devil Concerned with how he is portrayed on an international level. Sacrificed face in the eyes of his family by changing his appearance to conform to a more western style to gain face in the eyes of an international audience, an audience he’ll never have “When he came home half a year later his legs were straight and his pigtail had disappeared. His mother cried bitterly a dozen times, and his wife tried three time to jump into the well.” Ah Q dubbed him “Imitation Foreign Devil” and “Traitor in Foreign Pay” -once again attempting to dishonor others while he should only worry about himself

16. The Face of a Nation

17. Preliminary Comments • Art is a primary force in the creation of nationalism • We see this not only in film and writing (as witnessed in this class) but also in advertisements, the news, on clothing, and so on • One must ask: what is the purpose of the creation of this piece of art? • Few writers of consequence write purely to entertain • We should also ask whose voice is it?

18. South/North Korean Faces • This class reinforced the notion that N. Korea is a land without art • Both in depiction and lack of voice • Thus, it is difficult to identify the face of N. Korea • Always from an outside POV • N. Korea, on the other hand, seems rife with only one issue: The N/S divide

19. “Shiri” was released in 2001 • “Beyond the DMZ” was released in 2003 • Both were produced by S. Koreans • Yet, they portray N. and S. Korea vastly differently

20. North Korea • In “Shiri” N. Koreans are depicted as being poor, animalistic, mindless, unhappy, fanatical nationalists • NK’s repressed economy seems a product of backward ideology • In “Beyond the DMZ”, however, N. Korea is a smooth-running nationalistic machine – filled with modern, happy people… who even dance • NK’s repressed economy seems a product of lack of compassion from the world

21. Obviously, “Shiri” is a blockbuster motion picture and “Beyond the DMZ” is a documentary. Is it safe to say that both are biased in some way? How?

22. American Faces • In “The Wedding Banquet” (1993) and “Who’s Irish” (1999) America is presented: • Through the eyes of immigrants from Taiwan and China • Using both American and Chinese (Taiwanese) characters simultaneously • In America

23. Based on language, the respective audiences are different • “WB” is geared toward Taiwanese/Chinese • “WI” is geared toward the English world • America and Americans are painted in a more positive light in “WB” • Simon is decidedly more successful, caring, and harder working than the Irish husband • America is a land of affluence in “WB” vs. a land of adversity in “WI”

24. “Wedding Banquet” was directed by a Taiwanese director and “Who’s Irish?” written by an American • Why is Gish Jen so much harsher toward America than Ang Lee? • On a larger scale, how do each of these mediums reinforce the face of America: the melting pot?