Saving Face and Mortgage

Leona just called her sister-in-law about the Cathay mortgage. She told Leona Cathay had agreed to give us even less of a mortgage than HSBC offered. I asked how much less but she didn’t tell me. I asked her if the reason why was the same as HSBC’s reason about too much non-living space. Leona didn’t tell me. The bottom line is her sister-in-law’s face has been saved. We can get the HSBC mortgage without embarrassing her sister-in-law. I told Leona to call HSBC back and tell them we agree to their terms for the mortgage. I’m not sure if Leona is going to do as I said so I will wait a few minutes and ask her again. The point is to get the keys to our new home as soon as possible so we can start decorating the house and install air conditioners and other heavy appliances, beef up the kitchen, and tell Mr. Hung we want to make a deal for the jukebox and maybe pinball.

      The process of saving face in Taiwan is an interesting. Leona’s sister-in-law is an insurance saleswoman who related to Leona what some unknown person in their mortgage department told her, not even showed her on paper. There is no written determination of our mortgage application with Cathay and there might never be, I bet. The mortgage may have even been rejected outright but Leona’s sister-in-law doesn’t have to tell her that. In fact, she could be trying to gain points with Leona by saving her face just in case Leona has a face to lose by having the mortgage application rejected for any reason such as her not having an income in Taiwan or America. In that way the sister-in-law isn’t losing face at all! In that way, Leona’s sister-in-law actually looks like she did Leona a favor by saving her face, too. Wow.