Abstract

In Confucian cultures, the phenomena and notion of Chemyon(體面, social face) pervade widely in the social contexts of interpersonal behaviors. The Korean's consciousness about Chemyon of his own as well as his counterpart person's is so strong as to sometimes manifest Chemyon behavior against his or her true self and authentic mind. From the viewpoint of Western values of honesty and internal consistency between behavior and self, such Chemyon behaviors are often seen or interpreted as implying that Koreans show inconsistency between inner minds and outer behaviors or do not have solid selves, or in its extreme tell lies without a strong sense of guilt. The concept of(social) face in Western culture has been dealt with in psychological literatures as having significance in the context of self-esteem or impression-management. The Chemyon in Confucian cultures, besides the social dimension of its significance, is directly linked to the concept of human being. According to Confucian philosophy, Chemyon is grounded on the quality standard of humanness, 禮義廉恥(Behaving according to propriety and knowing shame when propriety is violated). The philosophy is reflected even in folk way of cursing a person who is not aware of Chemyon as "the bitch like Kum-so(禽獸, birds and animals)". In the Confucian model of human being, loosing social face should induce or result in sense of shame, which differentiates human beings from non-human-beings. Shame can emerge in two ways. One way is from knowing alone that he or she behaved him/herself against the standard of Chemyon. The other way is from knowing through others who reveal despising responses to one's demeaning behavior of violating Chemyon standard. The former is named here as 廉恥體面(self-shamed Chemyon) and the latter as 羞恥體面(other-shamed Chemyon). In Confucian teaching, 廉恥體面 was given higher priority and emphasis over 羞恥體面. However, the notions and practices of Chemyon prescribed in Confucian teachings have gone through changes incorporating secular societal and personal interests and values. For instance, 羞恥體面 overrides 廉恥體面 in its prevalence and importance 廉恥體面 in contemporary Korean society. The sources of shame and Chemyon also reflect substantial changes along with social and cultural transformation. Korean people in the past was conscious more about shame associated with moral inadequacy than shame coming from one's incompetence. In the present, however, it shows a reverse tendency. In the past, self-construed shame and Chemyon which comes from one's own reflection on his or her behavior was given higher priority and importance than other-directed show-up Chemyon which is directed toward demonstrating outwardly one's own superiority in ability, power and/or morality. In the present, the latter prevails over the former. Chemyon practices were categorized in teens of the target for which the Chemyon behavior was intended to serve; self-directed Chemyon and other-directed Chemyon. The Chemyon confounded with ritualistic symbolism in Korean culture was identified and named as Uiryesung Chemyon(儀禮性 體面). Finally, Korean Chemyon was compared with Chinese Lian and Mianzi and Japanese Mentz.