relations with the United States, which in practice does not recognize the change in capital, are still in flux. See also AUNG SAN SUU KYI; BURMESE NAMES; COLONIALISM; IMPERIALISM.
Naming rules are complex. Names typically consist of two one-syllable names, but often with another word as an honorific, such as Daw for older women, Maa for younger women; and Naw, Saw, Maung and U (pronounced “oo” as in two) for men.
Once known as Kampuchea, Cambodia has been independent from France since 1953. Between Thailand and Vietnam. Abut the size of Oklahoma. Border and other international disputes with Thailand and Vietnam. In 1975, the Communist Khmer Rouge conquered the country, leading to the death of an estimated 1.5 million. Capital: Phnom Penh. Population: 15 million (2012 estimate). Proportion of population younger than 15: one-third. Languages: Khmer (official), French, English. Faith: Buddhism (96 percent), others (4 percent). Ethnic groups: Khmer (90 percent), Vietnamese (5 percent). Literacy: 74 percent. (Source: World Factbook.) See INDOCHINA; KILLING FIELDS; VIETNAM.
Typically family name first, personal name second. Middle names rare.
Not spoken by all Chinese, it is dialect mainly spoken in the environs of Canton, now known as Guangzhou, near the South China Sea. The dialect of many of the early Chinese immigrants to the United States in the 1840s to 1870s. Also the principal dialect of Hong Kong. Still widely spoken in U.S. Chinatowns. See MANDARIN.
Class system in India, and, broadly, a metaphor for class in other contexts (e.g., academia’s ‘caste system”). The four major castes in Hinduism are the Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (kings and warriors), Vaishyas (merchants and traders) and Shudras (laborers), though there are thousands of sub-castes. Discrimination based on castes is technically illegal in India, but the social hierarchies of the system are still recognized, particularly in the villages, and the Diaspora. Once fashionable to describe American classes (“Boston Brahmin”). These hierarchies are a corruption of an ancient system of classification that grouped people and families by their inherited trades. The lowest castes, once known as “untouchables,” are now commonly referred to as Dalits. See HINDI; HINDU; HINDUISM; INDIA; SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORA; UNTOUCHABLES.
Caution, not a synonym for American. Term for white, or relatively light-skinned, people originally from Europe and adjacent regions of Africa and Asia. Named after Caucasus mountain range between Russia and Georgia. The paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould traced the term to Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840), a German naturalist, who concluded that the Georgian people of the Caucasus region were the most beautiful and therefore most likely the first human beings created by God. See also ALL-AMERICAN; ARYAN; ASIA; ASIATIC; CHARLIE CHAN; EXOTIC; FU MANCHU; IRAN; RACE, biological basis for; RACE, sociological construct of; YELLOW PERIL; YELLOW SKIN.
Caution. Stereotype. Created by Earl Derr Biggers, a mystery novelist, in 1925. Charlie Chan became the protagonist in many popular Hollywood films from 1926 to 1981. Chan was played by white actors, including Warner Oland, who also played the evil Dr. Fu Manchu. While a skilled detective, Chan spoke “inscrutable” dialogue that often began, “Confucius say…” In “Behind That Curtain,” Chan said, “I fear I am victim of crude philosophy from Orient. Man — what is he? Merely one link in great chain binding past with future. All times I remember I am link.” See also CAUCASIAN; CHINA DOLL; CONFUCIANISM; DIALECT; DRAGON LADY; EXOTIC; FU MANCHU; INSCRUTABLE; ORIENTAL; PROVERBS, Chinese fondness for; STEREOTYPES; YELLOW PERIL.
A vast topic and one of the world’s oldest civilizations, at more than 4,000 years. Second-largest world economy after that of the United States. With Japan and India, China is part of one-quarter of the global economy. About the size of the United States in land mass, with four times the number of people. Communist Party rule since 1949; normalized relations with the United States since 1