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Middle Kingdom

(Encyclopedia)Middle Kingdom or Middle Country, Mandarin Zhongguo, Chinese name for China. It dates from c.1000 b.c., when it designated the Chou empire situated on the North China Plain. The Chou people, unaware o...

Mao Tun

(Encyclopedia)Mao Tun or Mao Dun shəˈ yĕnˈbĭngˈ [key], 1896–1981, Chinese novelist and Minister of Culture (1949–65). His fiction offers a sympathetic portrayal of working-class life and praise of revolut...

Ross, Edward Alsworth

(Encyclopedia)Ross, Edward Alsworth, 1866–1951, American sociologist, b. Virden, Ill., Ph.D. Johns Hopkins, 1891. He taught economics (1893–1900) at Stanford Univ., from which he was ousted in a controversy ove...

Fenollosa, Ernest Francisco

(Encyclopedia)Fenollosa, Ernest Francisco fĕnəlōˈsə [key], 1853–1908, American Orientalist, educator, and poet, b. Salem, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1874. A pioneer in the study of Asian art, he lived much of his...

Great Leap Forward

(Encyclopedia)Great Leap Forward, 1957–60, Chinese economic plan aimed at revitalizing all sectors of the economy. Initiated by Mao Zedong, the plan emphasized decentralized, labor-intensive industrialization, ty...

Qiqihar

(Encyclopedia)Qiqihar tsēˈtsēˈhärˈ, chēˈchēˈhär [key], city (1994 est. pop. 1,104,100), S central Heilongjiang prov., China, a port on the Nen River near the Da Hinggan Mts. It is connected by rail with ...

Huangpu, city, China

(Encyclopedia)Huangpu hwämˈpōˈäˈ [key], city, S Guangdong prov., SE China, on an island in the Pearl River. It is c.9 mi (14.5 km) SE of Guangzhou, of which it is an outer port; it has been enlarged and moder...

Swakopmund

(Encyclopedia)Swakopmund sfäˈkôpmənt [key], municipality (1991 pop. 17,681), W Namibia, on the Atlantic at mouth of Swakop River. A rail terminus and seaside resort surrounded by the Namib desert, the town was ...

Taklimakan

(Encyclopedia)Taklimakan or Takla Makan täˌkləməkänˈ [key], vast sandy desert, c.125,000 sq mi (323,750 sq km), central Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, NW China, between the Kunlun Mts. on the south and the...

Sparks

(Encyclopedia)Sparks, city (1990 pop. 53,367), Washoe co., W Nev., just E of Reno; inc. 1905. The Southern Pacific RR was the major employer until the dieselization of railroad engines forced the closing (1957) of ...