“So-So” is NO-NO
China is a developing country and will remain a developing country so long as the national standard (excuse) for poor services and poor products is “This is China, so-so is ok.”
From sales clerks in department stores, to policemen on the street, to medical staff in the best hospitals, service is extremely poor, the result of apathy, indifference, and incompetence. Nobody seems to care.
Goods and products are substandard and even defective but no one complains. Chinese people have learned that complaining brings you personal trouble.
Most Chinese do not want to excel or stand out. They would rather be lost in a crowd than recognized for excellence. Criticism is expected but compliments are taboo and considered embarrassing.
“FACE” is the most prized possession. Chinese do not realize that FACE is simply false pride and has no real time value or that it in fact inhibits personal growth and development. It is not good to lose FACE (be embarrassed) or to cause someone else to lose FACE. Take FACE to Starbucks and see what it will buy. NOTHING!
Take FACE to class and refuse to participate for fear of making mistakes and losing FACE. There will be no educational progress.
Conclusion
This article has developed the argument that the influence of face in classroom interactions is pervasive, complex and powerful among Chinese, illustrated here in a UK university. The concept of face enables us to account for much Chinese behavior in the classroom setting. The four types of face-related factors: low-risk face, collective face, hierarchical face and harmonious face, which are clearly demonstrated in the three Chinese participants in this study, revealed their effectiveness in preventing the active participation of the three Chinese in the classroom activities regardless of their linguistic abilities. The dynamics of the concern for face revealed in this study has confirmed the findings of Chang and Holt (1994), Gao (1996) and Hwang (1987) concerning the face issue among Chinese in settings other than the
classroom. To cite this Article Wu, Xiaoxin(2009) ‘The dynamics of Chinese face mechanisms and classroom behavior: a case study’, Evaluation & Research in Education, 22: 2, 87 — 105
The above article is available to SYSU students on Professor Wolff’s university page.
http://engedu.sysu.org.cn/graduate/holistics/index2.html
The “collective face” retards China’s development. “So-So” is non-confrontational and allows everyone to maintain FACE. But it also insures that services and goods remain at the poorest common denominator, poor.
FACE is a direct consequence of the socialist society that criticizes and even punishes anyone who achieves, excels or stands out, but rewards those who blend in or melt into the crowd. So-So becomes the social standard, although it is a standard of mediocrity.
China’s educational system is a direct product of this collective face mentality. It fuels the test taking mentality and the chalk and talk pedagogy. Every student is required to memorize the exact same answer to each and every question. No one is allowed to think or act differently. Everyone is a robot with programmed thoughts and memorized answers and no one loses FACE. For all to succeed and not lose FACE, the regimen must be at the lowest common denominator.
A BEAUTIFUL MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE!
So long as FACE is a prized possession, China will remain a developing country. FACE predestines failure, it does not foster success.
JUST SAY “NO-NO” TO “SO-SO.”
This phenomenon is culture based. We can not judge one country’s culture good or not good, advantage or not advantage. Put the face traditional aside, there is improvement in our generation. As you can see, nowadays, more and more youths want to be outstanding. Instead being mediocre sometimes means you lack of capability. However, sometimes we do not express our ideas or stand out directly is how we protect ourselves.
As for Chinese students’ English study, students have already figured out how important to open mouth and speak. It needs time for them to collect enough courage to speak in front of others. I think encouragement would be effective.
I absolutely agree with the author. We shouldn’s be afraid to lose face, especially when we are learning English. Losing face can make your English better. On other aspects,we shouldn’t be afraid to lose face, we should be creative, outstanding.
This topic might be divided into two parts. On one side, it is Eastern culture to keep moderate even if you think yourself as excellent and outstanding. If you always show off, others regard you as an arrogant man and you are not welcomed in the group. This would be a very serious matter indeed since we Chinese see harmony and peace as the most important. There are many Chinese old sayings expressing the idea like”shoot the bird which takes the lead”. I think there must be a higher proportion of shy and intrinsic people in China than in Western countries. Confusion stressed “golden mean” to achieve others’ respect so as to approach success. In some situations nowadays keeping moderate is still useful especially in China.
However, the “golden mean” notion is not suitable for work and other things. It is about one’s professional ethic. Many people don’t love their work in China, they just earn a living with it. The management is lack of concerns at the same time, which makes the lazy behavior not be punished while the good ones are not encouraged. It is still a long way to go to learn from the western countries in this respect.
I personally feel that China’s education is a long historical and cultural process, and its existence certainly has its rationality. Deng Xiaoping has proposed that education should be oriented toward modernization, facing the world and the future, which is China’s educational endeavors. The Chinese people will continue to strive and make progress, we can surely have better and better education.
Frankly speaking, the main idea of this article really gives me a shock. FACE predestines failure, it will not help you success. Thousands of years, we Chinese people are always pay more attention about FACE. Should we all will be failure?
After thinking it over, there is some truth in this idea to some extent. Maybe this is why we Chinese scholar cannot get the Nobel Prize. In China there is a joke about the Noble Prize. In 1976, our scientists have invented the Human insulin. Because of this great contribution for the human, the committee of the Nobel Prize wants to give an honor to the Chinese scientists. When this lucky news was sent to the Chinese scientists, they were asked to send the Name of the scientists who contribute the greatest effort. But because of FACE, our scientists can not pull out the name of the scientists, and finally they sent the committee a list of name of all the scientists of the team. Unfortunately, the Noble prize can only be given to three individuals at most. So we lose this valuable opportunity to get the Prize.
Now let we get back to the FACE,I believe it is Double-edged sword. When we are studying or learning something, we should pay less attention to FACE, unless you will learn nothing. But when we are doing business with others, FACE is important; in my opinion the Chinese community is correlated with relationship. If the person doesn’t care about FACE, he can do anything he want to do. This will be terrible if the guy have a heart of devil. And of course, the guy will lose his social status of the community. In China, the people will find it useless to live.
Open the mouse in the classroom is important, we all know this, but why we all keep silence in the class. Maybe this phenomenon may have some relationship with the oriental culture. As we know that, the main oriental couture is the Confucianism. The Confucian are claiming for that the people should keep adiaphorism.So the people don’t act aggressive, they act more peaceful. This is incorrect which I mentioned in the prior section. We should cultivate the awareness of express freely in the classroom or even in the field of scholar.
“FACE” is not only a phenomenon, it is actually a part of our culture.If you are a leader,once loss face,you would think that is a disgrace when you face to your subordinates.So, when you were wrong, you subordinates would remain silent on some occasions.when you are not sure about some things,in order to not lose face, you will remain silent.If you made your colleagues lose face,you would be afraid of his revenge.So,”collective face” is very importmant.
There are different explanations about SO-SO. One is to be polite. It’s China’s traditional virtue that you’d better not embarrass others in most of occasions. It’s kind of a way to show respects. However, in some other occasions, the so-so expression sounds not so bold and confident. In these cases, the FACE becomes the stumbling stone of progress. It’s a word that is sort of passive. Neither an individual nor a country can get development if the SO-SO or FACE dominates.
In fact, many people are aware of the problem, but in reality , we still remain silent.It is still a long way to go if we want to change the phenomenon.
I have two purpose to submit my comment on this thread.
First i just to express my opinion on this passage.I am very agree with you that “so-so is no-no”,In china ,most of us are not perfectionist,we do everythings at a so-so attiude.Probably because we Chinese have used to a “nation-oriention system”,that is we do everything for the country but no ourself,so we can be lazy,otherwise we feel we lost.Even today ,China is strike to establish a “profit-oriention system”,we fail to accustome to this system quickly.
Secondly, I want to finish my special assignment,to talk about “why we think Martin is a horrible teacher”–the special assignment fo Class 10.
Most of us didn’t have the experience that be repelled from a class,that’s is a shame for us.But just calm down,and think twice,we fail to follow teacher’s instruction ,so we are asked to leave.We are to blame,our “so-so” attiude to blame,but not Martin.Martin looks horrible because he is responsible.Most of us didn’t meet so serious teacher before.From now on ,we should enjoy Martin’s lesson,and do what he told us to do .
This artical touched me deeply.I am a Chinese,I always have soma ethnic complex,so,I hope I could stick up for our nation when she puzzled,and I consider she is great.Perhaps I have not recognize our nation impersonality.The promblem that mentioned in this artical is a truth in some degree.So,we shuold keep a clear head to improve and perfect our motherland.
I don’t agree with most ideas of this article, such as “So long as FACE is a prized possession, China will remain a developing country. FACE predestines failure, it does not foster success”, face is more complex and profound for our Chinese than what this article tells, and that whether China will remain a developing country or not does not depend on how we value face. We’d been the world’s most developed country for a long time in the history, and we treasured our face all though our history. And it’s a common sense that growth depends on many factors, which barely include the valuation of FACE. Moreover, Chinese goods and products are not as substandard as the author mentioned. They are sold all over the world, with fair price and quality, if they’re this substandard, why people, especially people in OECD countries who don’t care the price so much as we are, are now live on Chinese products?
However, I have to admit that many of us have a “So-So” attitude, and we have poor services all over the country. There are connections between the two, too. This idea the author share is hitting the nail on the head .
The question “whether the FACE culture should be encouraged in China” has long debates. Hence, we cannot judge that the FACE culture is absolute wrong. Poor people take FACE because they don’t want to be despised. This maybe results in working hard and changing their life. In terms of “SO-SO” phenomenon, I don’t think it is a negative effect to society. “SO-SO” doesn’t mean that Chinese only pay attention to their FACE and never criticise anything. Clients rarely complain some sale clerks to their face, because most Chinese people respect and understand their work. Too many stinging words probably threaten their self-esteem, so Chinese chose to show them tolerance. In my opinion, if you cannot be familiar with Chinese culture, you might hardly make an objective comment.
I don’t know how other people regard this issue, but in my opinion, more and more Chinese have been wiling to be outstanding and most of the crowd are quite admired them and glad to set them for a good example. Golden mean may be a result of treasure of the harmony and peace, but Chinese have realized how important to promote themselves and been making great efforts to let them more prominent and charming especially after China has accessed to WTO. On the other hand, I guess losing face during the process of study may be a little inevitable to a certain extent if you really want to study quite well. From my perspective what we should do is to figure out which is more important, the knowledge or the face and to correct the attitudes.
“So-so” is culture base.We can trace back to the Doctrine of Mean, the golden mean of the Confucian school.But nowaday,it seems that people have mistaken the original meaning of “so-so”.It doesn’t means that we should be common,not outstanding.Yup,this only turns out that our country is still a developing country.We need outstanding people,not modest ones,not people pay more attention to his face.
“So-so” also brings great influence to chinese safety and quality in production.It’s not strange for us to hear “counterfeit and shoddy products”,because it’s offen mentioned in our everyday life.Without a serious positive attitude towards our productivity,and also our everyday life,how could we heighten our living standard?
“So-so” is harmful.But China’s education is a long historical and cultural process.To become creative, outstanding needs the great efforts made by each generation including us.
The concept of “FACE” is something about Chinese culture.Most of us know that we do poorly in Enlish due to we take FACE to class and refuse to participate for fear of making mistakes and losing FACE,but most of us still can not let our FACE go.On the other hand,some of us are good at Enlish,and more importantly ,they do well in Enlish also due to they are concerned about face saving,they don’t want to be defeated by any other student.
Generally speaking,so-so attitude is not good.But it is ingrained in Chinese culture.Chinese people love face and are afraid of losing face. Moreover,Chinese culture includes doctrine of the mean thought.This thought has told people to be so-so for thousands of years.However,in this modern time,we have plenty competition with others.We have to pursue preeminence in our job or our study.In my opinion,we should do our best to learn and make our work more and more perfect.
The “This is China, so-so is ok”in this article is the fact.many chinese don’t dare say no to others,they don’t want to be in trouble.this do obsticle the development of our country.because this reason,many people lost their opportunity.and lost things that should be theirs.what a pity!
but I can’t totaly agree with the author,Yes,we chinese pay much attention to FACE,it is the tradition,we can’t change it at once .the society is very large ,one person can’t decide a world.first we should adapt to it ,than change it,but we have to say to protect others’ FACE.then we become the person who have the power to change the situation.there are system reasons in our country ,it is not easy to revolute them.
I can’t agree more with the author, though sometimes I also say so-so to myself and decrease the standard with my job. In my mind, we say so-so is just want to comfort ourselves when things doesn’t appear to be better than we expected. However, this also stop us to pursue a better way to do things perfect.. Be strict to ourselves and even others, do not stop finding a much better method and being satisfy with what we did. There always is something we can do to improve it
“Made in China”, now is printed in many products sold in western countries. Some news showed that why Chinese goods are popular abroad is because of the low price not the good quality. It’s a vicious circle, poor quality, low price, worse quality, less price, such like this. But it’s kindly of a common thought of Chinese people at So-So is ok. Few people want to stand out to complain.
And about the FACE issue, I hold the opinion that advantages and disadvantages both exist. At least, Chinese people rarely make people embarrass in public. But, it’s the deep reason that Chinese people are less risky, less creative, and dare not to express their complaints.
The author catched the core word of chinese culture.In fact，this is a word we always avoid to talk but everyone take it in heart，because it will become a sensitive topic.But the things have not always happened as the author thougt.If we undstand this word from another part,we will find that what this word represent is a self-confident in fact。
In my opinion, Face is not a most direct reason for China is a developing country, long-time war, large amounts of population, long-time closed and so on. However, as to me, pay too much attention to FACE have a disadvantage for personal’s even a country’s improving indeed. Afraid to lose face means dare not express real opinions in public, if everyone has this view, we will lack debate atmosphere to outcome new thoughts. Actually, great changes happen in China, we always hear different voices from classroom, lab, conference, and internet…
The standard for a good children in china’s convention are not new differently ideas thought by themselves, but thinking about problems and doing things under the rules and never disobeying these only rules. Why we want to keep the “So-So” attitude, one reason is that we want to follow the convention which may just us as “good children”, and as we are brought up in that environment, we get used to limit us behaviors under regularities. The other reason mar be that we Chinese are afraid to lose “FACE” which is valued much by us. We always talk and behavior discreetly. We are afraid to make mistakes or let others know we are not familiar with something; even don’t know it at all. Others may laugh at us for these mistakes, and then we lose our “FACE”. How horrible it is. Then as a result, we are melted in the crowd and live an ordinary life.
Once I am such a person who tries her best to be a good student and a good daughter, so I always do things as they expected and planed. I am too “good” to object them, so I don’t have my thought and ideas. And when it’s timing for interaction in English class, I always hide myself in the classmates and never look at the teachers. I am just scared that they may laugh at my substandard pronounce. So I missed many opportunities to practice my oral English, which lead to dummy English. If I can grab those opportunities, my spoken English may have been improved much. So if we want to improve ourselves, we must forget the things about “FACE” and throw the “So-So” attitude far away.
“China’s a century lag behind (compared with the US), both in medical equipment and service.” My friend Duane complained to me after his dreadful experience at a public hospital in China several years ago. “It’s just unbelievable!” A light of distrust from his eyes stung me and it itches even till now. Never had I experienced what’s the real condition in the US, so I’m not sure how much can this grain of sand reflects the pararoma of this lag. Another instance: Nike migrated to China and every year myriads of its products pour out. But ultimately, it is still an American brand that made in China, but not made by China. When globalization knocked our door, we get lost. Particularly when the ingrained sentiment of being inward and modest that hides in our controlled smile in low profile and even inactive way of stepping up and standing out, there’s no reflection but normalization. Instincts of avoiding being disgraced arise with nice excuses of “being modest”, and it will always be a dead silence afterwards. A silence of most students’ attempt of bending into the wall, a silence of brings about innovation in those edge-cutting areas, and a silence of action in rejuvenates our civilization by picking up shells of essences. Break this silence or we’ll still be trapped and lagged, and being “so-so”.
I have to say that I have been deeply suffering from caring too much about my face since I can think. There are so many times when I remind myself that I should not care about face any more because face means nothing. But I just can’t make it. It is like blood of my body. This is what we Chinese may think and do. It is very strange. Our culture has changed and affected by western culture in almost every area. However, we can never lose our faces. We can accept everything as long as we can keep our faces. We don’t care to be mediocre if someone is worse than us. What a terrible concept! We are restricted by ourselves. It is just like we are afraid of a better self.
It is no doubt that we should change the situation. But we must do it in a suitable way. Chinese people are not aggressive. We have a tradition that not to do things overly or extremely. This is good and we should remain that. However, doing our best or standing out is not contradictory to this tradition. We can still accord great importance to our faces, but the meaning of face should be redefined. We should raise our standard of keeping faces from not being the worse to doing our best. To try our best is not aggressive because we are competing with ourselves. It is also not over or extreme because our potential is measureless. We can still say no to “so-so” while highlighting our faces as long as we comprehend face in a positive way.