丢面子 or 丢脸 To lose face, to be disgraced in front of others.
给面子 To give face, to show someone respect in public.
情面 Affection and face.
家丑不可外扬 Family shame must not be spread outside.
Red Faces and a Little Sweat
The Communist Party’s Regulations on Intra-Party Supervision, adopted in October 2016, describe four forms of discipline. In the first, regular criticism, self-criticism, talks and written inquiries should make “red faces and a little sweat” (红红脸、出出汗) the normal response.
Light Party penalties and changes of position should make up the majority of disciplinary cases. Heavy penalties and major changes of position should be a minority. Investigation for serious violations that may be crimes should be a very small minority.
A Regulatory Talk
On November 2, 2020, China’s central bank, its banking and securities regulators and its foreign exchange administration held a “regulatory talk” (监管约谈) with Jack Ma, who controlled Ant Group, and with the company’s chairman and chief executive.
The next evening, the Shanghai Stock Exchange suspended Ant Group’s planned listing on its STAR Market. In December, the regulators summoned the company for another talk.
Public Notice of Criticism
通报批评, a public notice of criticism, is a formal penalty in Chinese law. Article 9 of the Administrative Penalty Law lists the types of administrative penalty. The first line reads: “warning, public notice of criticism.”
Invited to Tea
喝茶, to drink tea, has a second meaning in China. To be “invited to tea” (请喝茶) means to be summoned and questioned by the state security police.
According to a 2012 report by the website China Change, the sessions take place in police stations, workplaces, schools or homes, and last from an hour to several hours.
The March 15 Gala
Every year on March 15, World Consumer Rights Day, China’s state television normally broadcasts an evening gala that exposes companies for violating consumer rights. The first was broadcast on CCTV on the evening of March 15, 1991. In 2020, the pandemic pushed it back to July.
In 2014, the gala exposed a Hangzhou trading company for selling expired imported food ingredients, and debris problems in the shutter of Nikon’s D600 camera.
Struggle Sessions
At a pidou (批斗) session, a person was publicly criticized and “struggled against” in front of a crowd. Victims had half their heads shaved, wore tall hats and placards, were paraded through the streets, or were forced into the bent “jet plane” position. They were insulted and beaten.
The method was used against landlords during land reform. It reached its peak in the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976.
Spanked at a Training Course
In June 2016, according to Chinese business media, a video spread online showing employees of a rural commercial bank in Changzhi, Shanxi, being struck on the buttocks with a wooden board during a training course. According to reports, the group that ranked last was given this “corporal punishment.”
The provincial rural credit union ordered the trainer and his training company to apologize publicly. The course was stopped, and the bank’s chairman and a vice president were suspended.
Lu Xun on Face
In October 1934, Lu Xun published a short essay called On “Face” (说”面子”). It begins: “‘Face’ is something we often hear about in conversation.”
Lu Xun writes that it is good that Chinese people want face. The pity is that this face is “round and flexible” (圆机活法) and good at changing.
Bombard the Headquarters
On August 5, 1966, Mao Zedong wrote “Bombard the Headquarters: My Big-Character Poster” in pencil in the margin of a newspaper. It accused “certain leading comrades” of running a “bourgeois headquarters” inside the Party Center.
The poster named no one. Deng Xiaoping later said that it had bombarded the headquarters of Liu Shaoqi, the head of state, and his own. Afterwards both men remained members of the Politburo Standing Committee, but in practice they had lost their positions of leadership.