GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Face refers to two separate, but related, concepts in Chinese social relations. One is mianzi (Chinese: 面子), and the other is lian which are both used commonly in  speech rather than in formal writings.

Lian is the confidence society has in a person's moral character; while mianzi represents the social perception of a person's prestige.  Maintaining face is critical in Chinese social relations, because it translates into power and influence, and it affects goodwill. A loss of lian would result in a loss of trust within a social network; while a loss of mianzi would likely result in a loss of authority.

Émigré is a French term that literally translates to mean a person who has "migrated out." It often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile.

Guanxi describes the basic dynamic in the complex nature of personalized networks of influence and social relationships, and it is a central concept in Chinese society. In Western media, the Pinyin romanization of this Chinese word is becoming more widely used instead of the two common translations—"connections" and "relationships," as neither of those terms sufficiently reflect the wide cultural implications that guanxi describes.

Marketization is the process that enables the state-owned enterprises to act as market-oriented firms. This is achieved through reduction of state subsidies, deregulation, organizational restructuring, decentralization and privatization.

Decentralization is the delegation of power from a central authority to regional and local authorities.

Pinyin (Hanyu Pinyin) is the most commonly used Romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu is the Han (Chinese) language and Pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound." Developed by a government committee in the People's Republic of China, the system was initially approved by the Chinese government on February 11, 1958.