what does the term "giving face" mean?

We've heard the phrase "giving face" used in a couple of very different ways.

We've heard that in Asian business culture it's used in the context of "giving honor," or "giving respect." If a manager were to praise a particular worker's efforts on a project, the manager could be said to "give face" to the worker.

It could also be as simple as complimenting your counterpart during in introduction, this too would be considered giving your counterpart face.

On August 13, Miley Cyrus used it in another way; she Tweeted "Giving face all day" before posting pictures of her new shorter haircut. We took the expression as she used it to mean that she was going to be showing her newly framed face off all day to people.

Giving face all day.

— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) August 13, 2023