Lo Lieh (Chinese: 羅烈; 29 June 1939 in Pematang Siantar Indonesia – 2 November 2002) was a Hong Kong actor in martial arts films. His real name is Wang Lap Tat. After his parents sent him back to China he attended acting school in Hong Kong. He began his martial arts training in 1962 and joined the Shaw Brothers Studio in the same year ^{[1] [2]} and went on to become one of the most famous actors in Hong Kong kung fu films in the late 1960s and 1970s. He died of a heart attack in Shenzhen November 2nd, 2002. ^[3]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Lo Lieh - Fan Website
• Lo Lieh
• Filmography
• Lo Lieh at the Internet Movie Database

v t e Cinema of Hong Kong Actors Directors Cinematographers Ocean Shores Producers Shaw Brothers Studio Films A–Z Action films Writers Films by year: 1909–1929 1930s 1940s 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

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Lo
—  Deelgemeente  —
Coordinates: 50°58′49″N 02°44′54″E / 50.98028°N 2.74833°E / 50.98028; 2.74833Coordinates: 50°58′49″N 02°44′54″E / 50.98028°N 2.74833°E / 50.98028; 2.74833
Country	Belgium
Province	West Flanders
Municipality	Lo-Reninge
Area
• Total	15.69 km2 (6.06 sq mi)
Population (2002)
• Total	1,173
• Density	75/km2 (190/sq mi)
	Source: NIS
Postal code	8647

Lo is a town in Lo-Reninge, a municipality of Belgium. It is notable as the location of Caesarsboom, an ancient European Yew designated a national monument of Belgium.^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Lo @ City Review

This West Flanders location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Gordon Liu (劉家輝; Lau Kar-Fai; pinyin: Liu Jiahui, formerly spelled Liu Chia-Hui, birth name Xian Jinxi; born August 22, 1955) is a Chinese martial arts film actor. He became famous for playing the lead in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and its sequels. He also played Pai Mei in Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004), and Johnny Mo in Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003), the head general of the Crazy 88, O-Ren Ishii's (Lucy Liu) personal army. Some fans call him the "Master Killer" after the alternate title to The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. He is also known to Indian fans as "Hojo", from Warner Bros' first Bollywood movie, Chandni Chowk to China.

Early life[link]

Liu was born in Guangdong Province, China. He trained at Lau Cham's martial arts school of Hung Gar discipline, which descended from Wong Fei Hung's grand student (father to Lau Kar Leung). Liu is often wrongly cited as being the adopted son of Lau Cham, and adoptive brother of famed directors / actors Lau Kar-leung (Liu Chia-Liang) and Lau Kar-wing (Liu Chia-Yung). In fact, he was not adopted by the Lau brothers' family, he is actually just Lau Cham's godson.^[1] In his youth, he skipped school to train in Chinese martial arts without his parents' knowledge. Lau Cham's wife assisted in his training and due to the friendship and respect he felt for his sifu and his wife, he took on the name Lau Kar Fai. As he grew up, he found a job as a shipping clerk to make ends meet. His interests had always been towards martial arts and he was eventually offered a role by Lau Kar Leung. His name prior to being adopted was Xian Jinxi (冼錦熙).^[2]

Career[link]

Liu’s first break was with Chang's Film Company (a Shaw Brothers subsidiary operating in Taiwan) acting small parts for such films as 5 Shaolin Masters, Shaolin Martial Arts, and 4 Assassins. He starred in Challenge of the Masters (1976), as the folk hero Wong Fei Hung, and was featured in Executioners From Shaolin (1977) before starring in his signature role as Shaolin hero San Te in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.

The tale of the imperialistic struggle against — while not a new one — was significant for the intense focus placed on the inner workings of Shaolin Temple itself. San Te, Liu’s character, overcomes the temple's thirty-five chambers as he unwittingly undergoes the rigorous training regime imposed by the temple’s Head Abbott on the pretext of “earning” a right to study martial arts there.

The “zero-to-hero” tale turned Liu into an international icon in spite of a frame far slighter than that of the folk hero himself (known as “Iron Arms” for the muscularity of his physique) and paved the way for a very healthy working schedule into the mid-1990s, even as younger, more agile martial artists eventually emerged. By the late 1980s he had begun accepting smaller roles such as in Lau Kar-leung's Tiger on the Beat.

Liu has also been active in television, and was contracted to Hong Kong's TVB company for many years, continuing playing roles as a martial arts master. Though still performing some martial arts roles, he is at home as well in comedic, self-deprecatory or emotional characters. His second-most common role in TVB has been playing a Hong Kong Police Force officer^{[citation needed]}.

Quentin Tarantino has long been a fan of Liu, and had one day hoped to find him a role in one of his movies. This eventually came to pass with the roles of Johnny Mo and Master Pai Mei in both Kill Bill films (incidentally, in one version of the script for the second film, Liu's lips would be speaking Cantonese while his voice, dubbed by Tarantino, would be in English — imitating a bad dub job). His roles in Kill Bill raised Liu's profile again and a renewed interest was shown by Chinese producers; since Kill Bill, Gordon has returned to doing movies while continuing to do television for Hong Kong's TVB station.

In 2008, Liu added a Bollywood film to his profile. Collaborating with Indian actor Akshay Kumar who is a top-billed Bollywood actor and also a martial arts performer in a film titled Chandni Chowk To China (CC2C). He played the role of the villain, Hojo, a smuggler and a well-trained martial artist. Before this, he appeared as himself (along with his mentor Lau Kar Leung) in Dragonland, 2009, the very first Italian documentary about Martial Cinema History, a homevideo 3 hours kung-fu marathon written and directed by specialist Lorenzo De Luca. Gordon attended as special guest star at the premiere in Rome, meeting his Italian fans for the first time. In August 2011, while in To Kwa Wan performing with his band, it was reported that Liu suffered a stroke, inevitably hitting his head. It was revealed that he had partial right sided paralysis and a speech impairement as a consequence of the incident. His camp has not released additional information, and Liu had cancelled all public engagements as of March 2012.^[3]

Filmography[link]

See also[link]

• List of Shaw Brothers films
• Shaw Brothers Studio

References[link]

External links[link]

• Gordon Liu at the Internet Movie Database
• Gordon Liu Biography at HKCinema

Bruce Li is one of the stage names of Ho Chung Tao (Chinese: 何宗道; pinyin: Hé Zōngdào), a Taiwanese martial artist and Bruce Lee imitator who starred in martial arts movies from the Bruceploitation movement.^[1]

Career[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2011)

He went to play a stuntman in Taiwan and Hong Kong under the name of James Ho.

At the death of Bruce Lee, Ho Chung Tao's real career began. Hong Kong studios noticed that Ho resembled the kung fu star. They first employed him in Conspiracy before the producers of Game of Death asked him to finish their movie in Lee's role. Ho declined the offer.

After this, Ho was employed by producer-actor Jimmy Shaw who gave him the name of Bruce Li.

"The producer gave me the name Bruce Li, L-I. But, I don't like it, because I can act like him, but I can't be him."

While Ho was finishing his military service, he appeared in Good Bye Bruce Lee. He would star in other documentaries in 1976 with The Young Bruce Lee and Bruce Lee: The Man, the Myth.

As Li, his career improved dramatically. Some Taiwanese and Hong Kong producers decided to directly credit him as "Bruce Lee", even going so far as to use the real Bruce Lee's picture on posters. Li even appeared in Bruce Lee vs Supermen where he stars as Kato, assistant of the Green Hornet, a role originally played by the real Bruce Lee.

The producers really wanted to show Li as the "official" successor of Bruce Lee. In the 1976 movie Exit the Dragon Enter the Tiger, Li meets Lee who points to him as the one who shall replace him. Li was dubbed the "Tiger" to Lee's "Dragon". Li appeared in Return of the Tiger, starring Angela Mao. In it, Bruce Li fights Paul Smith.

Ho carried on by playing in two unofficial sequels to Bruce Lee's classic Fist of Fury.

In 1978, Ho reprised his role as Bruce Lee in Bruce Lee the True Story (also known as Bruce Lee: The Man & Myth), a biography film. Li choreographed the combat sequences himself. Being very successful, fans recognize it as one of the best biopics of Bruce Lee.

Ho kept shooting martial arts movies until the 1980s. He also directed movies, including The Chinese Stuntman (1981).

Bruceploitation was jumping the shark and Li knew it. He had trouble separating himself from his Bruce Lee roles and had many rivals in the genre. In 1985, Ho ended his career after his wife's death. He returned to Taiwan to become a physical education instructor at Taipei's Ping Chung University. He also has taught martial arts for comedian apprentices. Since then he has appeared only very briefly in martial arts cinema or Bruce Lee documentaries.

Li is considered one of the best Bruce Lee imitators, along with Bruce Le of Hong Kong and Dragon Lee of South Korea.

Notes[link]

• Additional stage names that Ho Chung Tao used include: Shao-Lung Lee, Hsiao-Lung Lei, Lee Roy Lung, Lee Shiao-Lung, Bruce Ho Chung Tao, Ho Tsung Tao, and Ho Chung Dao.
• Bruce Li appeared in the documentary Top Fighter that had a big segment about him and his movies. During the interview with Li, he stated that he was unhappy that the studios wanted to turn him into a Bruce Lee marketing gimmick, saying "I could act like him but I could never be him."

Filmography[link]

• Bruce Against Iron Hand (197?)
• Bruce Lee: A Dragon Story (1974) (aka Super Dragon)
• Iron Man (1975)
• Goodbye, Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death (1975)
• Bruce Lee Against Supermen (1975)
• Fist of Fury II (1976) (aka Chinese Connection 2)
• Exit the Dragon, Enter the Tiger (1976)
• Enter the Panther (1976)
• Bruce Lee's Secret (1976) (aka Bruce Lee's Deadly Kung Fu, Story of the Dragon)
• The Real Bruce Lee (1977)
• The Ming Patriots (1977)
• Bruce Li in New Guinea (1977)
• Bruce Lee the Invincible (1977)
• The Dragon Lives (1977)
• Bruce Lee, We Miss You (1977)
• Soul Brothers of Kung Fu (1978)
• The Image of Bruce Lee (1978) (aka Storming Attacks)
• Fists of Bruce Lee (1978)
• Edge of Fury (1978)
• Dynamo (1978)
• Deadly Strike (1978)
• Bruce Li's Magnum Fist (1978)
• Bruce Lee vs. the Iron Dragon (1978)
• Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth (1978) (aka Bruce Lee: True Story)
• Return of the Tiger (1979)
• The Lama Avenger (1979) (aka "The Three Avengers")
• Blind Fist of Bruce (1979)
• The Iron Dragon Strikes Back (1981)
• Fist of Fury III (1980)
• The Chinese Stuntman (1981)
• Powerforce (1982)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bruce Li at the Internet Movie Database
• Clones of Bruce Lee – The Ultimate Guide To Bruce Lee Exploitation Cinema

People's Republic of China 中华人民共和国 Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó
Flag National Emblem
Anthem:  "March of the Volunteers" 《义勇军进行曲》 (Pinyin: "Yìyǒngjūn Jìnxíngqǔ")
Capital		Beijing 39°55′N 116°23′E / 39.917°N 116.383°E / 39.917; 116.383
Largest city		Shanghai[1][2]
Official language(s)		Standard Chinese[3]
Recognised regional languages		Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur, Zhuang, and various others
Official written language		Vernacular Chinese
Official script		Simplified Chinese[3]
Ethnic groups		91.51% Han;[4] 55 recognised minorities List of ethnic groups 1.30% Zhuang 0.86% Manchu 0.79% Uyghur 0.79% Hui 0.72% Miao 0.65% Yi 0.62% Tujia 0.47% Mongol 0.44% Tibetan 0.26% Buyei 0.15% Korean 1.05% other
Demonym		Chinese
Government		Nominally Marxist–Leninist single-party state[5][a]
-	President[b]	Hu Jintao
-	Congress Chairman	Wu Bangguo
-	Premier	Wen Jiabao
-	Conference Chairman	Jia Qinglin
Legislature		National People's Congress
Establishment
-	Unification of China under the Qin Dynasty	221 BC
-	Republic established	1 January 1912
-	People's Republic proclaimed	1 October 1949
Area
-	Total	9,640,821 km2 [c] or 9,671,018 km² [c](3rd/4th) 3,704,427 sq mi
-	Water (%)	2.8[d]
Population
-	2010 census	1,339,724,852[4] (1st)
-	Density	139.6/km2 (53rd) 363.3/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$11.299 trillion[6] (2nd)
-	Per capita	$8,382[6] (91st)
GDP (nominal)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$7.298 trillion[6] (2nd)
-	Per capita	$5,413[6] (90th)
Gini (2007)		41.5[7]
HDI (2011)		0.687[8] (medium) (101st)
Currency		Renminbi (yuan) (¥) (CNY)
Time zone		China Standard Time (UTC+8)
Date formats		yyyy-mm-dd or yyyy年m月d日 (CE; CE-1949)
Drives on the		right, except for Hong Kong & Macau
ISO 3166 code		CN
Internet TLD		.cn[c] .中國[9] .中国
Calling code		+86[c]
a. ^ Simple characterizations of the political structure since the 1980s are no longer possible.[10] b. ^ As paramount leader, Hu Jintao holds four concurrent positions: General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission for both state and party.[11] c. ^ 9,598,086 km2 (3,705,842 sq mi) excludes all disputed territories. 9,640,821 km2 (3,722,342 sq mi) Includes Chinese-administered area (Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract, both territories claimed by India), Taiwan is not included.[12] d. ^ Information for mainland China only. Hong Kong, Macau, and territories under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China (Taiwan) are excluded.

China (ⁱ/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area,^[13] and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.^[14]

The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China.^[15] It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau).^[16] Its capital city is Beijing.^[17] The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.

China's landscape is vast and diverse, with forest steppes and the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts occupying the arid north and northwest near Mongolia and Central Asia, and subtropical forests being prevalent in the wetter south near Southeast Asia. The terrain of western China is rugged and elevated, with the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separating China from South and Central Asia. The world's apex, Mt. Everest (8,848 m), lies on the China–Nepal border, while the world's second-highest point, K2 (8,611 m), is situated on China's border with Pakistan. The country's lowest and the world's third-lowest point, Lake Ayding (−154 m), is located in the Turpan Depression. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third- and sixth-longest in the world, have their sources in the Tibetan Plateau and continue to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometres (9,000 mi) long—the 11th-longest in the world—and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East and South China Seas.

The nation of China has had numerous historical incarnations. The ancient Chinese civilization—one of the world's earliest—flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain.^[18] China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, known as dynasties, beginning with the semi-mythological Xia of the Yellow River basin (approx. 2000 BC) and ending with the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Since 221 BC, when the Qin Dynasty first conquered several states to form a Chinese empire, the country has expanded, fractured and been reformed numerous times. The Republic of China, founded in 1911 after the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949. In 1945, the ROC acquired Taiwan from Japan following World War II.

In the 1946–1949 phase of the Chinese Civil War, the Chinese Communist Party defeated the nationalist Kuomintang in mainland China and established the People's Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949. The Kuomintang relocated the ROC government to Taiwan, establishing its capital in Taipei. The ROC's jurisdiction is now limited to Taiwan and several outlying islands, including Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. Since 1949, the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (now widely known as "Taiwan") have remained in dispute over the sovereignty of China and the political status of Taiwan, mutually claiming each other's territory and competing for international diplomatic recognition. In 1971, the PRC gained admission to the United Nations and took the Chinese seat as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the BCIM and the G-20. As of September 2011, all but 23 countries have recognized the PRC as the sole legitimate government of China.

Since the introduction of market-based economic reforms in 1978, China has become the world's fastest-growing major economy.^[19] As of 2012, it is the world's second-largest economy, after the United States, by both nominal GDP and purchasing power parity (PPP),^[20] and is also the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. In per capita terms, China ranked 90th by nominal GDP and 91st by GDP (PPP) in 2011, according to the IMF. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army, with the second-largest defense budget. In 2003, China became the third nation in the world, after the former Soviet Union and the United States, to independently launch a successful manned space mission. China has been characterized as a potential superpower by a number of academics,^[21] military analysts,^[22] and public policy and economics analysts.^[23]

Etymology[link]

China
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese:	中国
Traditional Chinese:	中國
Literal meaning:	Middle Kingdom[24][25]
Transliterations Gan - Romanization: Tung-koe̍t Kejia - Romanization: Dung24 Gued2 Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōngguó - Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo - Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄍㄨㄛˊ Min - Hokkien POJ: Tiong-kok - Min Dong BUC: Dṳ̆ng-guók Wu - Romanization: Tson平 koh入 Yue - Jyutping: Zung1 gwok3 - Yale Romanization: Jūnggwok
People's Republic of China
Alternative Chinese name
Simplified Chinese:	中华人民共和国
Traditional Chinese:	中華人民共和國
Transliterations Gan - Romanization: Chungfa Ninmin Khungfokoet Hakka - Romanization: Dung24 fa11 ngin11 min11 kiung55 fo11 gued2 Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó Min - Hokkien POJ: Tiong-hôa jîn-bîn kiōng-hô-kok - Min Dong BUC: Dṳ̆ng-huà Ìng-mìng Gê̤ṳng-huò-guók Wu - Romanization: Tson平 gho平 zin平 min平 gon去 ghu平 koh入 Yue - Jyutping: Zung1 waa4 jan4 man4 gung6 wo4 gwok3 - Yale Romanization: Jūngwàh Yàhnmàhn Guhngwòhgwok
Mongolian name
Mongolian:
Tibetan name
Tibetan:	ཀྲུང་ཧྭ་མི་དམངས་སྤྱི མཐུན་རྒྱལ་ཁབ
Transliterations - Wylie: krung hwa mi dmangs spyi mthun rgyal khab - Zangwen Pinyin: Zhunghua Mimang Jitun Gyalkab
Uyghur name
Uyghur:	جۇڭخۇا خەلق جۇمھۇرىيىت
Transliterations - Latin Yëziqi: Jungxua Xelq Jumhuriyiti - Yengi Yezik̡: Junghua Həlk̡ Jumh̡uriyiti - SASM/GNC: Junghua Hälk̂ Jumĥuriyiti - Siril Yëziqi: Җуңхуа Хәлқ Җумһурийити
Zhuang name
Zhuang:	Cunghvaz Yinzminz Gunghozgoz

This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

The word "China" is derived from Cin (چین), a Persian name for China popularized in medieval Europe by the account of the 13th-century Venetian explorer Marco Polo.^[26][27] The first recorded use in English dates from 1555.^[28] The Persian word is, in turn, derived from the Sanskrit word Cīna (चीन),^[29] which was used as a name for China as early as AD 150.^[30] There are various scholarly theories regarding the origin of this word. The traditional theory, proposed in the 17th century by Martino Martini, is that "China" is derived from "Qin" (秦), the westernmost of the Chinese kingdoms during the Zhou Dynasty, or from the succeeding Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC).^[31] The word Cīna is used in two Hindu scriptures – the Mahābhārata of the 5th century BC and the Laws of Manu of the 2nd century BC – to refer to a country located in the Tibetan-Burman borderlands east of India.^[32][33]

In China, common names for the country include Zhōngguó (Chinese: 中国; literally "the Central State(s)") and Zhōnghuá (Chinese: 中华), although the country's official name has been changed numerous times by successive dynasties and modern governments. The term Zhongguo appeared in various ancient texts, such as the Classic of History of the 6th century BC,^[34] and in pre-imperial times it was often used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia from the barbarians. The term, which can be either singular or plural, referred to the group of states in the central plain. It was only in the nineteenth century that the term emerged as the formal name of the country. The Chinese were not unique in regarding their country as "central", since other civilizations had the same view.^[35]

History[link]

Prehistory[link]

Archaeological evidence suggests that early hominids inhabited China between 250,000 and 2.24 million years ago.^[36] A cave in Zhoukoudian (near present-day Beijing) exhibits fossils dated at between 300,000 and 780,000 BC.^[37][38][39] The fossils are of Peking Man, an example of Homo erectus who used fire. There are also remains of Homo sapiens dating back to 18,000–11,000 BC found at the Peking Man site.^[40]

Early dynastic rule[link]

Jade deer ornament dating from the Shang Dynasty.

Chinese tradition names the first dynasty Xia, but it was considered mythical until scientific excavations found early Bronze Age sites at Erlitou in Henan Province in 1959.^[41] Archaeologists have since uncovered urban sites, bronze implements, and tombs in locations cited as Xia's in ancient historical texts, but it is impossible to verify that these remains are of the Xia without written records from the period.

Some of the thousands of life-size Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty, ca. 210 BC.

The Great Wall of China was built by several dynasties over two thousand years to protect the sedentary agricultural regions of the Chinese interior from incursions by nomadic pastoralists of the northern steppes.

The first Chinese dynasty that left historical records, the loosely feudal Shang (Yin), settled along the Yellow River in eastern China from the 17th to the 11th century BC. The oracle bone script of the Shang Dynasty represent the oldest forms of Chinese writing found and the direct ancestor of modern Chinese characters used throughout East Asia. The Shang were invaded from the west by the Zhou, who ruled from the 12th to the 5th century BC, until their centralized authority was slowly eroded by feudal warlords. Many independent states eventually emerged out of the weakened Zhou state, and continually waged war with each other in the Spring and Autumn Period, only occasionally deferring to the Zhou king. By the time of the Warring States Period, there were seven powerful sovereign states, each with its own king, ministry and army.

Imperial China[link]

The first unified Chinese state was established by Qin Shi Huang of the Qin state in 221 BC. Qin Shi Huang proclaimed himself the "First Emperor" (始皇帝), and imposed many reforms throughout China, notably the forced standardization of the Chinese language, measurements, length of cart axles, and currency. The Qin Dynasty lasted only fifteen years, falling soon after Qin Shi Huang's death, as its harsh legalist and authoritarian policies led to widespread rebellion.^[42][43]

The subsequent Han Dynasty ruled China between 206 BC and 220 AD, and created a lasting Han cultural identity among its populace that extends to the present day.^[42][43] The Han Dynasty expanded the empire's territory considerably with military campaigns reaching Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia and Central Asia, and also helped establish the Silk Road in Central Asia. China was for a large part of the last two millennia the world's largest economy.^[44] However, in the later part of the Qing Dynasty, China's economic development began to slow and Europe's rapid development during and after the Industrial Revolution enabled it to surpass China.