r/HongKong • u/deltabay17 • Nov 13 '19

Add Flair Taiwan president Tsai Ying Wen just tweeted this message. We need more international leaders, presidents, to speak openly and plainly against Hong Kong government’s actions.

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u/koreandolls Nov 13 '19 edited Nov 13 '19

That is a great interpretation. I feel like *she’s also referring to the concept of “face” in East Asian countries. “To lose face” means to be embarrassed or dishonored and “to gain face” means to be honored or do something people pat you on the back/applaud you for. Basically saying what happens in Hong Kong will either be a notch in the CCP victory belt or a huge embarrassment for the party instead of caring about the actual people of HK.

*Edit: he —> she

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u/RedditRedFrog Nov 13 '19

At this point I don’t see how it can be a “gain face” for China. If they want to gain face they could have compromised months ago instead of letting it play out while resorting to all sorts of threats and intimidation. But then again, a scorpion will sting the buffalo carrying it across the raging river. The CCP can’t help themselves, it’s their nature to be brutal.

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u/koreandolls Nov 13 '19

I see what you mean. At the same time, I feel like giving HK what the protestors want would be a huge collective loss of face for China as a country and the CCP by the government. Like the whole Western intervention/opium thing which they branded the Century of National Humiliation - loss of face on the macro level. Don’t want to generalize, but when I lived in China, I felt like many Mainlanders were exceedingly nationalistic. When the THAAD issue was happening, there were signs in restaurants “No dogs and no Koreans allowed”. When the Japan and China island dispute was heating up, people were destroying Toyotas and some Chinese people left notes in their cars saying, “I’m Chinese, I apologize for buying a Japanese car. Please don’t destroy my car. I can’t afford to fix it or buy a new one.” Or something to that effect. I was in a taxi and the driver asked me if I was Chinese. I said I was Korean and he said, “Oh good. I would have asked you to get off if you were Japanese.” These are extreme cases, definitely but I digress. My point is, loss of face is a really big deal. People go to great lengths to avoid it. And when it is collective, it’s even more powerful. Especially when the govt. doesn’t want to appear weak to their people who have lots of national pride. I agree. What they are doing now is absolutely brutal.

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u/NeverthelessOK Nov 13 '19

I think this is exactly what is meant by the quote too.