The Comparative Analysis Of Han "Mianzi" And Javanese "Rukun Hormat" Concept

Since the resumption of China - Indonesia diplomatic relations on August 8th 1990, almost every aspect of China - Indonesia relations has gradually developed including in their socio-cultural relations. China’s rise in this globalization era brings an enormous effect to Chinese language:it becomes one of the world’s major international languages. Nowadays, a lot of Chinese teachers come to Indonesia, especially to Java Island, to teach Chinese language and promulgate Chinese culture to the people. Hence, a comprehensive understanding of Javanese culture, especially its cultural courtesy, will help to avoid unnecessary conflict with the local communities. This paper aims to provide comparison between Han Chinese and Javanese Indonesian cultural courtesy.Han Chinese cultural courtesy reflected in its Mianzi concept (面子); while Javanese Indonesian cultural courtesy reflected in its Rukun Hormat concept. In this paper, Han people refer to Han Chinese people who live in Mainland China, and Javanese refer to Javanese people who live in Java Island. Mianzi and Rukun Hormat concepts are similar in many aspects:their ultimate goal is to maintain a harmonious society, they encourage people to respect and prioritize society’s needs over individual interest, they like to address others like the way they address their family members. And the most importantly, for the sake of a harmonious relationship, it is acceptable to wear such "social masks" and conceal individual’s true self from others. However, as Mianzi and Rukun Hormat come from different cultural backgrounds, they also have some differences.Firstly, Rukun Hormat is way more passive than Mianzi. Rukun Hormat causing the Javanese people may feel awkward towards superior or unfamiliar person; hence Javanese people will behave in a shy way in their social interactions. Secondly, although both of Mianzi and Rukun Hormat concepts believe an individual’s social relations should be divided into inner circle (families and closest friends) and outer circle (mostly refers to strangers), but Rukun Hormat encourages people to act polite towards unfamiliar person or even strangers, therefore Javanese people tend to act more polite towards strangers rather than the Han people. Thirdly, Rukun Hormat’s modest value reflected in its language, which has numbers of clearly distinct status styles:Ngoko (informal), Madya (middle) and Krama (formal, deferential style of Javanese language). Fourthly, these two concepts have different visiting friends and acquaintances’norms. Fifthly, Mianzi concept derives from Han Chinese’s Confucianism, while Rukun Hormat derives from Javanese’s Kejawen.