Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Chiang Ching-kuo

(Encyclopedia)Chiang Ching-kuo jyäng jĭng-gwô [key], 1909–88, eldest son of Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese Nationalist leader, and president of Taiwan. Returning after 12 years in the Soviet Union (1937), he served ...

Paracel Islands

(Encyclopedia)Paracel Islands päräsĕlˈ [key], Chin. Xisha, group of low coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea, c.175 mi (280 km) SE of Hainan island. They are rich in guano and are underlain by oil dep...

Li Hung-chang

(Encyclopedia)Li Hung-chang lē ho͞ong-jäng [key], 1823–1901, Chinese statesman and general. His first success was as a commander of forces fighting the Taiping Rebellion. As viceroy of the capital province of ...

Lin Yutang

(Encyclopedia)Lin Yutang lĭn yüˈtängˈ [key], 1895–1976, Chinese-American writer, translator, and editor, b. Lunqi, Fujian, educated in China and at Harvard, Ph.D. Univ. of Leipzig, 1923. Lin spent most of hi...

Burma Road

(Encyclopedia)Burma Road, in China and Myanmar, extending from the railhead of Lashio, Myanmar, to Kunming, Yunnan prov., China. About 700 mi (1,130 km) long and constructed through rough mountain country, it was a...

Ward, Frederick Townsend

(Encyclopedia)Ward, Frederick Townsend, 1831–62, American adventurer, b. Salem, Mass. A soldier of fortune, he served with William Walker in Nicaragua and with the French forces in the Crimean War. Ward arrived i...

Ussuri

(Encyclopedia)Ussuri o͞oso͞oˈrē [key], Mandarin Wusuli, river, c.365 mi (590 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Ulukhe and Daubikhe rivers, S Maritime Territory, Russian Far East. It flows N to the Amur ...

Wen Jiabao

(Encyclopedia)Wen Jiabao wĕnˈ jyäˈbouˈ [key], 1942–, Chinese political leader, b. Tianjin. Originally a geologist, he worked for the Gansu provincial geological bureau (1968–82), where he was the head of i...

Tung Chee-hwa

(Encyclopedia)Tung Chee-hwa, 1937–, Hong Kong business and political leader, b. Shanghai. The son of C. Y. Tung, a businessman who left China as the Communists were coming to power, Tung entered the family shippi...

Wu-ti

(Encyclopedia)Wu-ti wo͞o dē [key], posthumous temple name of the 5th emperor (140 b.c.–87 b.c.) of the Han dynasty. Wu-ti [Chin.,=martial emperor] ruled directly through a palace secretariat. During his vigorou...

Browse by Subject