【正确答案】The concept of 'face' can be described as someone's social status or reputation in the eyes of others. Throughout a Chinese person's life, he or she maintains and enhances his or her face with words and actions. It may be something as small as who gets in the elevator first or as big as the awarding of multimillion dollar contracts. Losing face equals losing power or influence. Even to make someone lose face unknowingly is a huge dishonor and could mean the end of a relationship. Chinese people never criticize, ignore or make fun of a person in front of others, even jokingly. When discussing individual performance, they always emphasize good points before bad ones.