2015 Conference of the Parties
Nations agreed in the Paris Agreement to keep global temperatures down
Ancestor Worship
A belief that the living can communicate with the dead and that dead spirits, to whom offerings are ritually made, have the ability to influence people's lives
Anime
A distinctive stylized form of Japanese animated film
Anthropocene
The human era, The current geological epoch in which human activity dominates the planet
Asian Brown Cloud
A blanket of air pollution 3 km think that hover over most of the tropical Indian Ocean and South, Southeast, and East Asia stretching from the Arabian Peninsula across India, Southeast Asia, and China almost to Korea
Asian Tiger
Newly industrialized territories of Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, And Singapore that have experienced rapid economic growth
Atheism
The denial and/or lack of belief in God or gods
Buddhism
A belief system that stresses nonviolence, moderation, and the cessation of suffering and originated in South Asia and is traced to a religious leader who came to be known as Buddha
Confucianism
A spiritual and philosophical tradition native to China expressed in a philosophy that emphasizes the importance of ethics, good governance, education, family and hard work
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
A global treaty first signed in 1990 that restricts trade in rare or endangered animals and their parts between member countries
Cultural Revolution
A sustained attack on Chinese traditions and cultural practices in which millions of people were displaced, tens of thousands lost their lives, and much of urban China was plunged into a terrifying climate of suspicion and recrimination; launched in 1966
Cyberwarfare
Activities by nations or firms/corporations to gain access to, hack, or sabotage the computers, networks, and information infrastructure of another country or company
Dalai Lama
The spiritual leader of Tibet; the latest reincarnation of a series of spiritual leaders who, according to Tibetan Buddhism, have chosen to be reborn in order to enlighten others
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
A designated area between two or more countries where military activity is prohibited
Feng Shui
The belief that the physical attributes of places can be analyzed and manipulated to improve the flow of cosmic energy, or qi, that binds all living things. Including landscape, architecture and furniture placement
Five-Year Plan
Social and economic development initiatives typically in centrally planned economies, especially including communist China and the Soviet Union
Great Leap Forward
A Chinese policy scheme launched in 1958 to accelerate the pace of economic growth by merging land into huge communes and seeking to industrialize the countryside; largely viewed as a massive failure and partly responsible for starcation in the period tha
Green Revolution
A technological package of higher-yielding seeds, especially wheat, rice, and corn that in combination with irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides and farm machinery was able to increase crop production in the developing world after about 1950
Hukou
A record system in china for the registration of household, which differentiates rural from urban populations and has been used in attempts to control and rationalize the rate of population migration
Hutongs
Narrow lanes in area of Chinese cities that characterize traditional tightly packed residential neighborhoods
Hydraulic Civilizations
Large state societies hypothesized to have arisen from the needs of organizing massive irrigation systems; civilations that survive thrive and expand based on their capacity for controlling water
Ideograph
A linguistic symbol representing a single idea o object rather than a sound
Import substitution
A process by which domestic producers provide goods or services that were formerly bought from foreign producers
Keiretsu
Japanese business networks facilitated after World War II by the Japanese government in order to promote national recovery
Kim II Sung
An anti-Japanese Marxist-Leninist nationalist leader who came to power in 1949 in North Korea and imposed an austere regime and regimented way of life
Kim Jong II
A son of Kim II Sung who succeeded his father in North Korea and was known as the "Dear Leader" during his regime, food shortages increased between 1995 and 2005
Kim Jong-un
A son of Kim Jong II who succeeded him in 2012; the youngest head of state in the world, he governs North Korea as one of the most highly militarized countries in the world
Manga
Japanese print cartoons books which date at least to the last century
Mao Zedong
A communist leader and founder of the People's Republic of China
Massif
A mountainous block of Earth's crust bounded by faults of folds and displaced as a unit
One-child Policy
A Chinese policy introduced in 1978 involving rewards for families that give birth to only one child, including work bonuses and priority in housing
Opium Wars
Conflict between China and Great Britain in the middle of the 1800s that resulted in China's defeat and the signing of the Treaty of Nanking
Pacific Rim
A loosely defined region of countries that border the Pacific Ocean
Pinyin
A system of writing Chinese language using the Roman alphabet
Ring of Fire
A chain of seismic instability and volcanic activity that stretches from Southeast Asia through the Philippines, the Japanese archipelago the Kamchatka Peninsula and down the Pacific coast of the Americas to the southern Andes in Chile it is caused by the
Shinto
A Japanese indigenous religious culture which stresses a belief in the nature of sacred powers that can be recognized in existing things, and which include practices entailing ritual purification the offering of food to sacred powers, sacred music and dan
Shogun
A local noble lord in dynastic Japan
Silk road
An ancient east-west trade route between Europe and China
Special Administrative Regions
Territories and geographical areas within China that fall within the sovereignty of the People's Republic of China but exercise relatively high levels of autonomy and self-goverence
State Capitalist
A market-based economy with private ownership and investment in which the state continues to own some firms to seek and obtain technology and to carefully control the value of its currency
Treaty of Nanking
The 1842 treaty that ended the first Opium War between China and Great Britain and ceded the island of Hong Kong to the British; the treaty allowed European and American traders access to Chinese markets through a series of treaty ports
Tsunami
A sometimes catastrophic coastal wave created by offshore seismic actiity