„Their most precious posession“? – Das chinesische Face als Marker kontingenter kultureller Differenzierung

Face is widely recognized as an important concept of social practice and communication in China. In contrast, the assumption of the existence of a “cultural character” as a singular entity – of which the “Chinese face” would be a cornerstone – is considered problematic due to the implications of essentializing and culturalizing determinism in anthropology. In this article, I argue that the concept of Face as a Chinese character trait added a culturalist level of description to tell apart the “other” that was often marked as inferior to the Westerners in the late 19th century. While phrases such as “losing face,” “saving face,” and “giving face” have since found their way into European languages as loan words from Chinese, Face continues to serve as a stereotype and emic concept for cultural difference. However, the use of Face as a marker does not necessarily hierarchize differences, it’s use is contingent. This article will show how Face has been associated with changing categories of difference and conceptualizations of China over time in both Western and Chinese discourse. The article thus combines historical research of differentiation processes with systematic considerations on the functioning of difference markers.