The concepts

"rigid side chain liquid crystal polymers" and "liquid crystal polymers with two-dimensional mesogenic units"are proposed. The former is used to distinguish the formerly proposed mesogen-jacketed liquid crystal polymers from the conventional comb-like side chain lops which are in principle flexible. The latter is proposed to describe liquid crystal polymers with two-dimensional mesogenic units and to guide the molecular design and synthesis of high performance lcps with both good tensile and compressive properties and with less anisotropy in physical properties.