62. Saving Face: Your Actions Are Not Your Own
Episode description
The idea of "saving face" is so foundational to Chinese and broader Asian culture that it's often difficult to accurately describe in English words and within a western context. Shame? Disgrace? The opposite of bringing honor to your family/community?
How do you explain the importance and impact of such an underlying, community-first concept to a "me first" western society?
In this episode we break down what "saving face" or avoiding "diu lian" (in Mandarin) means to us, how it's driven some of our big life decisions, and the amount of pride or disappointment those decisions have brought onto our families and communities. Though we don't agree with everything around the idea of saving face, we also discuss some positive elements of this concept that we think are valuable and that we would want to pass on to future generations.