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The Fat Years
''The Fat Years'' is a 2009 Chinese science fiction novel written by Chan Koonchung. First published in traditional Chinese versions in 2009 in both Hong Kong by Oxford University Press and also in Taiwan by the Rye Field Publishing Company under the title 'Prosperous Age: China in the year 2013' (盛世—中國2013年), to date it has never been published in mainland China. Plot The novel is set in the near future of 2013, where China has entered a "Golden Age of Ascendancy," while Western nations have stagnated after a second economic crisis in early 2011. Lao Chen, a Hong Kong expatriate and writer living in Beijing, finds himself enjoying the atmosphere of prosperity and contentment. Though suffering from writer's block, he makes a modest living off renting apartments and attends monthly film screenings held at a restaurant owned by his friend Jian Lin (and attended by an insomniac Politburo member named He Dongsheng). Lao gradually find himself pulled into events ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Science Fiction
Chinese science fiction (traditional Chinese: , simplified Chinese: , pinyin: ''kēxué huànxiǎng'', commonly abbreviated to ''kēhuàn'', literally ''scientific fantasy'') is genre of literature that concerns itself with hypothetical future social and technological developments in the Sinosphere. Mainland China Late-Qing Dynasty Science fiction in China was initially popularized through translations of Western authors during the late-Qing dynasty by proponents of Western-style modernization such as Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei as a tool to spur technological innovation and scientific progress. With his translation of Jules Verne's ''Two Years' Vacation'' into Classical Chinese (as ''Fifteen Little Heroes''), Liang Qichao became one of the first and most influential advocates of science fiction in Chinese. In 1903, Lu Xun, who later became famous for his darkly satirical essays and short stories, translated Jules Verne's ''From the Earth to the Moon'' and ''Journey to the Cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, Rocket Force, and Strategic Support Force. It is under the leadership of the Central Military Commission (CMC) with its chairman as commander-in-chief. The PLA can trace its origins during the Republican Era to the left-wing units of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT) when they broke away on 1 August 1927 in an uprising against the nationalist government as the Chinese Red Army before being reintegrated into the NRA as units of New Fourth Army and Eighth Route Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The two NRA communist units were reconstituted into the PLA on 10 October 1947. Today, the majority of military units around the country are assigned to one of five theater commands by geographical location. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area.Sayre, April Pulley (1999), ''Africa'', Twenty-First Century Books. . With billion people as of , it accounts for about of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Despite a wide range of natural resources, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, behind Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography, climate, tribalism, colonialism, the Cold War, neocolonialism, lack of democracy, and corruption. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and the large and young population make Afr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Non-interventionism
Non-interventionism or non-intervention is a political philosophy or national foreign policy doctrine that opposes interference in the domestic politics and affairs of other countries but, in contrast to isolationism, is not necessarily opposed to international commitments in general. A 1915 definition is that non-interventionism is a policy characterized by the absence of "interference by a state or states in the external affairs of another state without its consent, or in its internal affairs with or without its consent". This is based on the grounds that a state should not interfere in the internal politics of another state as well as the principles of state sovereignty and self-determination. A similar phrase is "strategic independence". History The norm of non-intervention has dominated the majority of international relations and can be seen to have been one of the principal motivations for the US's initial non-intervention into World Wars I and II, and the non-interven ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was a United States foreign policy position that opposed European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. It held that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign powers was a potentially hostile act against the United States. The doctrine was central to American foreign policy for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries. President James Monroe first articulated the doctrine on December 2, 1823, during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress (though it would not be named after him until 1850). At the time, nearly all Spanish colonies in the Americas had either achieved or were close to independence. Monroe asserted that the New World and the Old World were to remain distinctly separate spheres of influence, and thus further efforts by European powers to control or influence sovereign states in the region would be viewed as a threat to U.S. security. In turn, the United States would recognize and not interfere with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Home Front During World War II
The United States home front during World War II supported the war effort in many ways, including a wide range of volunteer efforts and submitting to government-managed Rationing in the United States, rationing and price controls. There was a general feeling of agreement that the sacrifices were for the national good during the war. The labor market changed radically. Peacetime conflicts concerning race and labor took on a special dimension because of the pressure for national unity. The Hollywood film industry was important for propaganda. Every aspect of life from politics to personal savings changed when put on a wartime footing. This was achieved by tens of millions of workers moving from low to high productivity jobs in industrial centers. Millions of students, retirees, housewives, and unemployed moved into the active labor force. The hours they had to work increased dramatically as the time for leisure activities declined sharply. Gasoline, meat, and clothing were tightly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Germany During World War I
During World War I, the German Empire was one of the Central Powers. It began participation in the conflict after the declaration of war against Serbia by its ally, Austria-Hungary. German forces fought the Allies on both the eastern and western fronts, although German territory itself remained relatively safe from widespread invasion for most of the war, except for a brief period in 1914 when East Prussia was invaded. A tight blockade imposed by the Royal Navy caused severe food shortages in the cities, especially in the winter of 1916–17, known as the Turnip Winter. At the end of the war, Germany's defeat and widespread popular discontent triggered the German Revolution of 1918–1919 which overthrew the monarchy and established the Weimar Republic. Overview The German population responded to the outbreak of war in 1914 with a complex mix of emotions, in a similar way to the populations in other countries of Europe; notions of overt enthusiasm known as the Spirit of 1914 ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walther Rathenau
Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922) was a German industrialist, writer and liberal politician. During the First World War of 1914–1918 he was involved in the organization of the German war economy. After the war, Rathenau served as German Foreign Minister (February to June 1922) of the Weimar Republic. Rathenau initiated the 1922 Treaty of Rapallo, which removed major obstacles to trading with Soviet Russia. Although Russia was already aiding Germany's secret rearmament programme, right-wing nationalist groups branded Rathenau a revolutionary, also resenting his background as a successful Jewish businessman. Two months after the signing of the treaty, Rathenau was assassinated by the right-wing paramilitary group Organisation Consul in Berlin. Some members of the public viewed Rathenau as a democratic martyr; after the Nazis came to power in 1933 they banned all commemoration of him. Early life Rathenau was born in Berlin to Emil Rathenau, a prominent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microblogging In China
Weibo (微博 ''wēi bó'') is a general term for ''microblogging'', but normally understood as Chinese-based mini-blogging services, including social chat sites and platform sharing. Weibo services makes it possible for internet users to set up real-time information sharing communities individually, and upload and update information. Weibo services use a format similar to the American-based Twitter-service, but is used almost exclusively by Chinese language speakers. The format of specific features is not exactly identical, such as, for example, hashtags on Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo, which both employ a double-hashtag "#HashName#" method, since the lack of spacing between Chinese characters necessitates a closing tag. A major difference – also in this digital arena – is that characters in idiom-based scripts, such as Chinese and Japanese can use fewer characters to convey information, as, for example witnessed by the 280 (formerly 140) characters limit that is in use on Tw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Counterfeit Consumer Goods
Counterfeit consumer goods (or counterfeit and fraudulent, suspect items - CFSI) are goods, often of inferior quality, made or sold under another's brand name without the brand owner's authorization. Sellers of such goods may infringe on either the trademark, patent or copyright of the brand owner by passing off its goods as made by the brand owner.Chaudhry, Peggy E., Zimmerman, Alan. ''The Economics of Counterfeit Trade: Governments, Consumers, Pirates and Intellectual Property Rights'', Springer Science & Business Media (2009) Counterfeit products made up 5 to 7% of world trade in 2013,"Challenging the Counterfeit Connector Conundrum" ''Connector Supplier'', November 4, 2013 [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corruption In The People's Republic Of China
Corruption in China post-1949 refers to the abuse of political power for private ends typically by members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who hold the majority of power in the country. Corruption is a very significant problem in China, impacting all aspects of administration, law enforcement, healthcare and education. Since the Chinese economic reforms began, corruption has been attributed to "organizational involution" caused by the market liberalization reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping. Like other socialist economies that have undertaken economic reforms, such as post-Soviet Eastern Europe and Central Asia, reform-era China has experienced increasing levels of corruption.Yan 2004, p. 2 Transparency International's 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index ranks the country in 66th place out of 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked 180 is perceived to have the most corrupt public sector. Public surveys on the mainland since the late 1980s have shown that corr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Property Rights
The right to property, or the right to own property (cf. ownership) is often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions. A general recognition of a right to private property is found more rarely and is typically heavily constrained insofar as property is owned by legal persons (i.e. corporations) and where it is used for production rather than consumption. A right to property is recognised in Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but it is not recognised in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The European Convention on Human Rights, in Protocol 1, article 1, acknowledges a right for natural and legal persons to "peaceful enjoyment of his possessions", subject to the "general interest or to secure the payment of taxes." Definition The right to property is one of the most controversial human rights, both in terms of its existence and inte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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