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May Fourth Movement

(Encyclopedia)May Fourth Movement (1919), first mass movement in modern Chinese history. On May 4, about 5,000 university students in Beijing protested the Versailles Conference (Apr. 28, 1919) awarding Japan the f...

Kublai Khan

(Encyclopedia)Kublai Khan ko͞oˈblī kän [key], 1215–94, Mongol emperor, founder of the Yüan dynasty of China. From 1251 to 1259 he led military campaigns in S China. He succeeded (1260) his brother Mongke (Ma...

Karakorum, ruined city, Mongolia

(Encyclopedia)Karakorum käˌrəkōˈrəm [key], ruined city, central Republic of Mongolia, near the Orkhon River, SW of Ulaanbaatar. The area around Karakorum had been inhabited by nomadic Turkic tribes from the 1...

Cai Guo-Qiang

(Encyclopedia)Cai Guo-Qiang, 1957–, Chinese painter and a sculptor especially known for using gunpowder as a medium and explosions and fireworks as means of artistic expression, b. Quanzhou, Fujian prov., studied...

Tanaka, Kakuei

(Encyclopedia)Tanaka, Kakuei käko͞oˈā tänäˈkä [key], 1918–93, Japanese political leader and prime minister (1972–74). Born to a poor rural family, he moved to Tokyo at the age of 15 and by 1937 had esta...

warlord

(Encyclopedia)warlord, in modern Chinese history, autonomous regional military commander. In the political chaos following the death (1916) of republican China's first president and commander in chief, Yüan Shih-k...

Wuhan

(Encyclopedia)Wuhan wo͞o-hän [key], city (1994 est. pop. 3,519,600), capital of Hubei prov., central China, at the junction of the Han and Chang rivers. The great industrial, commercial, and transportation center...

Chang

(Encyclopedia)Chang yăngˈsēˈ, yängˈdzŭˈ [key], Mandarin Chang Jiang, longest river of China and of Asia, c.3,880 mi (6,245 km) long, rising in the Tibetan highlands, SW Qinghai prov., W China, and flowing g...

Chinese

(Encyclopedia)Chinese, subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages), which is also sometimes grouped with the Tai, or Thai, languages in a Sinitic subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan lan...

Gordon, Charles George

(Encyclopedia)Gordon, Charles George, 1833–85, British soldier and administrator. He served in the Crimean War, went to China in the expedition of 1860, taking part in the capture of Beijing, and in 1863 took ove...