The Cost of Face

A few months ago, my husband and I became embroiled in a near-stranger’s suicide attempt. My husband was conflicted when I suggested we call an ambulance. It was one in the morning and my husband looked at me bewildered, and said, “…but the neighbor’s will see her if the ambulance comes…”

For a moment, I was speechless. I didn’t know how to respond to my husband’s fear that involving paramedics would cause a scene and the woman would lose ‘face’ when she returned home. Until that moment I hadn’t realized just how much people in China were willing to sacrifice to save ‘face.’