It's All About Face

There was a concept in China that had always eluded and confused the foreigners, and that was the concept of giving face. As long as one had the necessary influence or power, or could provide the other person with some benefit, then they would look the other way when it came to things that would be forbidden by the law.

Those who had the social awareness would not have pointed this out, and normally, no one would have exposed this strange behavior. Instead, everyone would have pretended not to notice. After all, give face one day, and receive face the next. If the people in charge did not make a big deal out of it, the authorities would not get involved. This was a form of collectivistic culture—after everyone's benefits and relationships were mixed together, and people started to owe each other favors, a lot of things could not be clearly delineated anymore.