Face

I will attempt to explore the idea of "face".
According to Wikipedia Face is a sense of worth that comes from knowing one's status and reflects concern with the congruency between one's performance or appearance and one's real worth. (Huang 1987:71)
All of us have a public face and a private face. There are things that we would never (intentionally) allow to become part of our public face though they are very much part of us.
I decided to explore this topic cause I have discovered that I barely know some of my friends, family members,and many of them do not really know me. There is a huge difference between one's appearance and one's real worth. Many people maintain a public persona and a private persona.
Public figure shocking private life revelation is made into big news by the media, but do these revelations really shock us? Dont we all have somethings that would prefer to keep away from our family, our friends and the public?
Is there anyone out there whose appearance and real worth match 100%? I really doubt it.
Saving face usually leads us to do some peculiar things such as keep secrets, tell lies, look over our shoulder all the time and attempt to live a lifestyle that is not really ours. Majority of people want to appear to have more things than they actually do, to be more learned than they actually are, to have more friends than they actually do, to earn more than they actually do, to be better lovers than they actually are, etc etc. Somewhere along the way, the two personas become more and more distant.
In some cultures, individuals would rather commit suicide than lose face. Face is associated with 'prestige; dignity; honor; respect; status'. If face is lost, family members might even kill you to save face of/for the family. That leads me to ask: what makes our appearance to the public so important that we are willing to give or take people's lives to maintain it? Are other people's perception of us that important?

What is it that makes us want to save face?
Wouldnt it be easier to appear as we are worth?