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Senkaku Islands

(Encyclopedia)Senkaku Islands sĕnˈkäko͞o [key], small, uninhabited island group, 8 sq mi (20.7 sq km), Okinawa prefecture, extreme SW Japan, in the East China Sea. Located 90 mi (45 km) NNW of Ishigaki in the R...

Manchu

(Encyclopedia)Manchu mănˈcho͞o [key], people who lived in Manchuria for many centuries and who ruled China from 1644 until 1912. These people, related to the Tungus, were descended from the Jurchen, a tribe know...

Tian Shan

(Encyclopedia)Tian Shan or Tien Shan both: tēĕn shän [key] [Chin.,=celestial mountains], mountain system of central Asia, extending c.1,500 mi (2,410 km) from the Pamir Mts., Tajikistan, NE through the Xinjiang ...

Mo Yan

(Encyclopedia)Mo Yan, 1955–, Chinese novelist, pen name of Guan Moye, b. Shandong prov. Mo is one of contemporary China's most prolific and popular writers. He left school in the fifth grade and did farm and fact...

Pingxiang

(Encyclopedia)Pingxiang or Pingsiang both: pĭng-shyäng [key], city (1994 est. pop. 451,700), W Jiangxi prov., China. It is a major coal-mining center, producing quality coking coal for the Huangshi iron and steel...

chalk

(Encyclopedia)chalk, mineral of calcium carbonate, similar in composition to limestone, but softer. It is characteristically a marine formation and sometimes occurs in great thickness; the chief constituents of the...

ammonium nitrate

(Encyclopedia)ammonium nitrate, chemical compound, NH4NO3, that exists as colorless, rhombohedral crystals at room temperature but changes to monoclinic crystals when heated above 32℃. It is extremely soluble in ...

Nadal, Rafael

(Encyclopedia)Nadal, Rafael (Rafael Nadal Parera), 1986–, Spanish tennis player, b. Majorca. Widely regarded as the greatest clay-court player ever, “Rafa” turned professional at 15. In 2005 he won his first ...

Ohr, George Edgar

(Encyclopedia)Ohr, George Edgar, 1857–1918, American ceramist, often considered the first art potter in the United States, b. Biloxi, Miss. He apprenticed in New Orleans, traveled to potteries in 16 states to obs...

Abakanowicz, Magdalena

(Encyclopedia)Abakanowicz, Magdalena, 1930–2017, Polish sculptor, studied Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw (1950–54). She won notice with her Abakan series, begun in 1967; these monumental woven abstract sculptures...