Self-esteem has been examined with respect to personality traits, affective states, self perceived competence, and interpersonal relations, but not with respect to self-perceptions of one's personality dispositions. To address this shortfall, the present study correlated the eight, independent dimensions of the self-concept as measured by the Sino-American Person Perception Scale (SAPPS) with global self-esteem as measured by Rosenberg's (1965) scale. For Chinese university students it was found that global self-esteem could be jointly explained by the SAPPS factors of Application, Intellect, Extraversion, and Emotional Stability. These results were discussed in terms of the Western "masculine" model of self-esteem which appears inadequate to explain the current results.