title: Forbidden City

text: The north-eastern section of the Inner Court is taken up by the Palace of Tranquil Longevity () (O), a complex built by the Qianlong Emperor in anticipation of his retirement. It mirrors the set-up of the Forbidden City proper and features an "outer court", an "inner court", and gardens and temples. The entrance to the Palace of Tranquil Longevity is marked by a glazed-tile Nine Dragons Screen.


title: Forbidden City

text: To the west and to the east of the three main halls of the Inner Court are the Western Palaces (Xiliugong) and the Eastern Palaces (Dongliugong). These palaces were the residences of the imperial consorts. Six Palaces lay to the West and six to the East of the three main halls, hence the name. The architecture of the 12 Palaces, connected by passageways, is more or less the same. The Western and Eastern Palaces each have a layout of three palaces on either side of an alley that runs from north to south. Every Palace has its own courtyards, main halls, and side-halls. The main halls stand in the middle and the side-halls are in the east and west. The front courtyard and its main hall was used for receptions, while the back courtyard and its main hall served as living quarters.


title: Forbidden City

text: A consort with the rank of Concubine and above was given a residence in the main sections of a Palace and was the manager of that Palace, an honor in itself. Lower ranking consorts (Noble Ladies and below) lived in the side-hall of the Palaces and were supervised by the higher ranking consort.


title: Forbidden City

text: The 12 Palaces were the place where many of the Qing emperors were born and grew up, and they formed the daily life of the imperial family.


title: Forbidden City

text: During the late Qing era, Empress Dowager Cixi resided in one of the Western Palaces and became known as the "Western empress". Her co-regent Empress Dowager Ci'an lived in one of the Eastern Palaces and was thus known as the "Eastern empress".


title: Forbidden City

text: To the west of the Hall of Mental Cultivation (N) in the western area of the Inner Court is Cining Palace (Palace of Compassion and Tranquility) and Shoukang Palace (Palace of Longevity and Good Health). The palaces were the residences of widowed consorts of previous emperors. In accordance with feudal manners, emperors should not live with the wives of late emperors, so they lived in this separate area of the Inner Court. The Cining palace is bigger and older than Shoukang Palace which is located to the west of Cining Palace. To the south of Cining Palace is Cining garden.


title: Forbidden City

text: Religion was an important part of life for the imperial court. In the Qing dynasty, the Palace of Earthly Harmony became a place of Manchu Shamanist ceremony. At the same time, the native Chinese Taoist religion continued to have an important role throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. There were two Taoist shrines, one in the imperial garden and another in the central area of the Inner Court.


title: Forbidden City

text: Another prevalent form of religion in the Qing dynasty palace was Buddhism. A number of temples and shrines were scattered throughout the Inner Court, including that of Tibetan Buddhism or Lamaism. Buddhist iconography also proliferated in the interior decorations of many buildings. Of these, the Pavilion of the Rain of Flowers is one of the most important. It housed a large number of Buddhist statues, icons, and mandalas, placed in ritualistic arrangements.


title: Forbidden City

text: The Forbidden City is surrounded on three sides by imperial gardens. To the north is Jingshan Park, also known as Prospect Hill, an artificial hill created from the soil excavated to build the moat and from nearby lakes.


title: Forbidden City

text: To the west lies Zhongnanhai, a former royal garden centred on two connected lakes, which now serves as the central headquarters for the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council of the People's Republic of China. To the north-west lies Beihai Park, also centred on a lake connected to the southern two, and a popular royal park.


title: Forbidden City

text: To the south of the Forbidden City were two important shrines – the Imperial Shrine of Family or the Imperial Ancestral Temple () and the Imperial Shrine of State or Beijing Shejitan (), where the Emperor would venerate the spirits of his ancestors and the spirit of the nation, respectively. Today, these are the Beijing Labouring People's Cultural Hall and Zhongshan Park (commemorating Sun Yat-sen) respectively.


title: Forbidden City

text: To the south, two nearly identical gatehouses stand along the main axis. They are the Upright Gate () and the more famous Tiananmen Gate, which is decorated with a portrait of Mao Zedong in the centre and two placards to the left and right: "Long Live the People's Republic of China" () and "Long live the Great Unity of the World's Peoples" (). The Tiananmen Gate connects the Forbidden City precinct with the modern, symbolic centre of the Chinese state, Tiananmen Square.


title: Forbidden City

text: While development is now tightly controlled in the vicinity of the Forbidden City, throughout the past century uncontrolled and sometimes politically motivated demolition and reconstruction has changed the character of the areas surrounding the Forbidden City. Since 2000, the Beijing municipal government has worked to evict governmental and military institutions occupying some historical buildings, and has established a park around the remaining parts of the Imperial City wall. In 2004, an ordinance relating to building height and planning restriction was renewed to establish the Imperial City area and the northern city area as a buffer zone for the Forbidden City. In 2005, the Imperial City and Beihai (as an extension item to the Summer Palace) were included in the shortlist for the next World Heritage Site in Beijing.


title: Forbidden City

text: The design of the Forbidden City, from its overall layout to the smallest detail, was meticulously planned to reflect philosophical and religious principles, and above all to symbolize the majesty of Imperial power. Some noted examples of symbolic designs include:


title: Forbidden City

text: The collections of the Palace Museum are based on the Qing imperial collection, including paintings, ceramics, seals, steles, sculptures, inscribed wares, bronze wares, enamel objects, etc. According to latest audit, it has 1,862,690 pieces of art. In addition, the imperial libraries housed a large collection of rare books and historical documents, including government documents of the Ming and Qing dynasties, which has since been transferred to the First Historical Archives.


title: Forbidden City

text: From 1933, the threat of Japanese invasion forced the evacuation of the most important parts of the Museum's collection. After the end of World War II, this collection was returned to Nanjing. However, with the Communists' victory imminent in the Chinese Civil War, the Nationalist government decided to ship the pick of this collection to Taiwan. Of the 13,491 boxes of evacuated artefacts, 2,972 boxes are now housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. More than 8,000 boxes were returned to Beijing, but 2,221 boxes remain today in storage under the charge of the Nanjing Museum.


title: Forbidden City

text: The Palace Museum holds 340,000 pieces of ceramics and porcelain. These include imperial collections from the Tang dynasty and the Song dynasty. It has close to 50,000 paintings, within which more than 400 date from before the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), which is the largest in China. Its bronze collection dates from the early Shang dynasty. Of the almost 10,000 pieces held, about 1,600 are inscribed items from the pre-Qin period (to 221 BC). A significant part of the collection is ceremonial bronzeware from the imperial court. The Palace Museum has one of the largest collections of mechanical timepieces of the 18th and 19th centuries in the world, with more than 1,000 pieces. The collection contains both Chinese- and foreign-made pieces. Chinese pieces came from the palace's own workshops. Foreign pieces came from countries including Britain, France, Switzerland, the United States and Japan. Of these, the largest portion come from Britain.Jade has a unique place in Chinese culture. The Museum's collection includes some 30,000 pieces. The pre-Yuan dynasty part of the collection includes several pieces famed throughout history. The earliest pieces date from the Neolithic period. In addition to works of art, a large proportion of the Museum's collection consists of the artifacts of the imperial court. This includes items used by the imperial family and the palace in daily life. This comprehensive collection preserves the daily life and ceremonial protocols of the imperial era.


title: Forbidden City

text: The Forbidden City has been influential in the subsequent development of Chinese architecture, as well as providing inspiration for many artistic works.


title: Forbidden City

text: The Forbidden City has served as the scene to many works of fiction. In recent years, it has been depicted in films and television series. Some notable examples include:


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Jim Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor. He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role as John Bayley in the feature film "Iris" (2001), as well as winning a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe for his leading role as Lord Longford in the television film "Longford" (2006). Broadbent received four BAFTA Film Award nominations and won for his performance in "Moulin Rouge!" (2001). He was also nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: A graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972, Broadbent first came to prominence in the 1980s, chiefly appearing in television comedy including playing Roy Slater in the BBC sitcom "Only Fools and Horses". He appeared in the Terry Gilliam films "Time Bandits" (1981) and "Brazil" (1985) before a breakthrough role in Mike Leigh's independent comedy drama "Life Is Sweet" (1990). His notable film roles since include "The Borrowers" (1997), "Bridget Jones's Diary" (2001), "The Gathering Storm" (2002), "Hot Fuzz" (2007), "Another Year" (2010), "The Iron Lady" (2011), "Arthur Christmas" (2011), "Cloud Atlas" (2012) and "Brooklyn" (2015). He played Horace Slughorn in the "Harry Potter" film series, Archmaester Ebrose in the seventh season of the television series "Game of Thrones" and Samuel Gruber in the "Paddington" film series.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Broadbent was born on 24 May 1949 in Holton cum Beckering, in Lincolnshire, the second son of Doreen "Dee" Broadbent (née Findlay), a sculptor, and Roy Laverick Broadbent, an artist, sculptor, interior designer and furniture maker. Broadbent's parents were both amateur actors who co-founded the Holton Players acting troupe at Holton. The two have been described by the BBC as conscientious objectors who "worked the land" rather than participate in World War II. In Wickenby, a former Methodist Chapel was purchased in 1970 by Holton Players, who converted it into a 100-seat theatre, named Broadbent Theatre in memory of Roy Broadbent, who designed the conversion.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Broadbent was educated at Leighton Park School, a Quaker school in Reading, and briefly attended art college before transferring to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He graduated in 1972. His early stage work included appearances as Patrick Barlow's assistant in the mock "National Theatre of Brent".


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Broadbent's early stagework included a number of productions for The National Theatre of Brent as the downtrodden assistant Wallace to Patrick Barlow's self-important actor-manager character Desmond Olivier Dingle. Broadbent and Barlow played many male and female character roles in comically less-than-epic tellings of historical and religious stories, such as "The Complete Guide to Sex", "The Greatest Story Ever Told", "Revolution!!", and "All The World's A Globe". These were hits at the Edinburgh Fringe, in London, and on tour. Later stage work included the original productions of "Kafka's Dick" (1986) and "Our Country's Good" (1988) at the Royal Court Theatre and work for the Royal National Theatre including "The Government Inspector". Work on the stage with Mike Leigh includes "Goosepimples" and "Ecstasy". He had worked with Stephen Frears in "The Hit" (1984) and Terry Gilliam in "Time Bandits" (1981) and "Brazil" (1985).


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Broadbent also appeared in 1983, 1985 and 1991 as DCI Roy Slater, an associate character in the enormously popular sitcom "Only Fools and Horses". The character appeared in three episodes over an eight-year period. He had originally been offered the lead role of Del Boy in the series, but he turned it down due to other commitments. He has also played a role in the "Inspector Morse" series. Other comic roles include the lead role in the sitcom "The Peter Principle" and occasional guest appearances in "Not The Nine O'Clock News" and "Victoria Wood As Seen on TV". He portrayed Don Speekingleesh in "The Queen of Spain's Beard" in the first series of "The Black Adder" in 1983. He also played the role of Prince Albert in "Blackadder's Christmas Carol", first broadcast in 1988. He joined Rowan Atkinson in his "Spider-Man" spoof "Spider-Plant Man", as a disgruntled "Batman", envious of Spider-Plant Man's success.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Broadbent's film breakthrough would be in Mike Leigh's independent British comedy drama "Life Is Sweet" (1990). Throughout the 1990s he established himself as a character actor in films including Mike Newell's period romance "Enchanted April" (1991), Neil Jordan's thriller "The Crying Game" (1992), Woody Allen's 1920s showbiz comedy "Bullets over Broadway" (1994), and Richard Loncraine's film adaptation of "Richard III" (1995). He also appeared in broad fantasy comedy "The Borrowers" (1997) with John Goodman, and the musical comedy "Little Voice" (1998) with Michael Caine. Broadbent ended the decade by taking a leading role in another Mike Leigh film, "Topsy-Turvy" (1999), playing dramatist Sir William S. Gilbert. He played "The Shy Doctor" in the 1999 Comic Relief parody "Doctor Who" sketch, "Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death".


title: Jim Broadbent

text: In 2001, Broadbent starred in three of the year's most successful films: Richard Curtis' "Bridget Jones's Diary", Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge!", and Richard Eyre's "Iris", for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. In 2002, he appeared in Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" and in the film adaptation of Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby. In 2005, Broadbent appeared in the film adaptation of C.S. Lewis' classic children's fantasy novel "" as Professor Kirke. That same year Broadbent voiced Madame Gasket in the animated films "Robots", and "Valiant". In the same year he played Brian the snail in the remake of "The Magic Roundabout".


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Broadbent played the lead role of the TV film "Wide-Eyed and Legless". Based on a true story, the drama tells of Deric Longden's wife, Diana, and her fight against a mysterious wasting illness which turned out to be myalgic encephalomyelitis. It began as a type of flu but it grew progressively worse. She was subject to blackouts and became so debilitated that she could barely get out of her wheelchair. It led to years of pain and paralysis that ended in her death. Broadbent portrayed the title role in the Channel 4 drama "Longford" in October 2006, earning a BAFTA TV Award, a Golden Globe, and a 2007 Emmy nomination for his performance as Frank Pakenham (1905–2001), Earl of Longford, which was centred on Longford's ultimately unsuccessful campaign for the parole of Myra Hindley from her life imprisonment for the Moors Murders.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Broadbent appeared as Inspector Frank Butterman in "Hot Fuzz" in 2007; and also in the original radio production of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", playing the character Vroomfondel. Forty years later, he took the role of Marvin in the Hexagonal Phase radio series. He was also a regular in Stephen Fry's radio comedy show "Saturday Night Fry", which aired on BBC Radio 4 in 1988. In 2008, he starred as pro-Newtonian physicist Sir Oliver Lodge in the fact-based single drama "Einstein and Eddington" for the BBC.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Broadbent also appeared in the fourth film in the Indiana Jones series, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008) directed by Steven Spielberg; and in "The Young Victoria" (2009) alongside Emily Blunt as King William IV. Broadbent joined a long list of British actors by appearing in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", as well as the final movie in the series "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" as Horace Slughorn


title: Jim Broadbent

text: In 2009, he portrayed Sam Longson, chairman of Derby County football club in the 1960s and 1970s, in the film "The Damned United"; the starring character in the film was football manager Brian Clough, played by Michael Sheen. In 2010, he provided the voice for the character Major Mouse in a series of radio advertisements and one produced for television for an energy company, E.ON, for their eonenergyfit.com website campaign. He also starred as the older Logan Mountstuart in the TV adaptation of William Boyd's novel "Any Human Heart". He had a lead role in "Exile", a BBC One drama, starring John Simm and written by Danny Brocklehurst.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: In 2010, Broadbent reunited with director Mike Leigh, in "Another Year" with Ruth Sheen, and Lesley Manville. The film premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in competition for the Palme d'Or. According to review aggregation website, Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of critics have given the film a positive review, with the critical consensus reading, "Characterized by strong performances and the director's trademark feel for the nuances of everyday life, Another Year marks another solid entry in Mike Leigh's career of kitchen-sink English drama."


title: Jim Broadbent

text: In 2012, he played Denis Thatcher opposite Meryl Streep as the former Prime Minister in "The Iron Lady". Broadbent nominated her for a BAFTA Award for her performance. That same year he also starred in "Cloud Atlas".


title: Jim Broadbent

text: In 2014, he starred in Roger Mitchell's critically acclaimed drama film, "Le Week-End" alongside Lindsay Duncan. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 148 reviews, with an average score of 7.4/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Topped with bittersweet humor but possessing surprisingly thorny depths, Le Week-End offers a sophisticated, well-acted portrait of late-life struggles and long-term marriage."


title: Jim Broadbent

text: In 2015, Broadbent starred in the Oscar nominated film "Brooklyn" alongside Saoirse Ronan, Domhnaal Gleeson, and Julie Walters. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 256 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Brooklyn buttresses outstanding performances from Saoirse Ronan and Emory Cohen with a rich period drama that tugs at the heartstrings as deftly as it satisfies the mind." The film was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture. Later that year, he also appeared in a role in Alan Bennett's comedy film "The Lady in the Van" (2015) alongside Maggie Smith, and Alex Jennings.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: In 2015, Broadbent along with Daniel Rigby, Antonia Thomas, Fearne Cotton and Jane Horrocks are revealed to be the new cast with Broadbent as a Voice Trumpet in the reboot of classic British children's television series "Teletubbies". Since 2016, Broadbent narrates Kevin the Carrot Christmas adverts for the UK branch of Aldi. In the 2020 advert, Broadbent portrayed Santa Claus, who was revealed to be the narrator.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Broadbent has also appeared in the critically acclaimed British comedy films, "Paddington" (2014), and "Paddington 2" (2018) alongside Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, and Ben Whishaw.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: In 2016, he was cast in the seventh season of the HBO series "Game of Thrones". In 2017 he starred in the ensemble thriller "The Sense of an Ending" alongside Charlotte Rampling, Michelle Dockery, and Emily Mortimer. The film premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival to positive reviews. According to the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes, the film is, "Anchored by a strong starring performance by Jim Broadbent", while the film "proves consistently gripping". On 28 May 2018, he played Gloucester in the BBC Two production of "King Lear" acting alongside Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, and Florence Pugh.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: In 2018, he played Hans Christian Andersen in the premiere of Martin McDonagh's play "A Very Very Very Dark Matter" at the Bridge Theatre in London.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: In 2020, Broadbent starred in the limited series "Black Narcissus" based on the classic Powell and Pressburger film. The series premiered on 23 November 2020 on FX. The series also stars Gemma Arterton, Alessandro Nivola and Diana Rigg.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Broadbent starred in Roger Michell's comedy drama film "The Duke" opposite Helen Mirren. The film had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on 4 September 2020 and was pushed to be released in cinemas in the UK on 25 February 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Broadbent has been married to painter and former theatre designer Anastasia Lewis since 1987. He has no children, but Lewis has two sons from a previous relationship.


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Broadbent received his Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Richard Eyre's "Iris" (2001) starring alongside Judi Dench. That same year he won his British Academy Film Award for his performance in Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge!" (2001). In 2007, he received a British Academy Television Award for his work in Tom Hooper's television film, "Longford" (2007). He has received two Golden Globe Awards for his performances in "Iris" (2001) and "Longford" (2007). He also received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performance as Desmond Morton in the BBC/HBO production "The Gathering Storm" (2002) and as Lord Longford in "Longford" (2007).


title: Jim Broadbent

text: Broadbent was offered an OBE in 2002, but he declined it, stating that there were more deserving recipients than actors and that the British Empire was not something he wanted to "celebrate". Broadbent was made an Honorary Associate of London Film School.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Balmoral Castle () is a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and a residence of the British royal family. It is near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and west of Aberdeen.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The estate and its original castle were bought from the Farquharson family in 1852 by Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. Soon afterwards the house was found to be too small and the current Balmoral Castle was commissioned. The architect was William Smith of Aberdeen, and his designs were amended by Prince Albert. Balmoral remains the private property of the monarch and is not part of the Crown Estate. It was the summer residence of Queen Elizabeth II, who died there on 8 September 2022.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The castle is an example of Scottish baronial architecture, and is classified by Historic Environment Scotland as a category A listed building. The new castle was completed in 1856 and the old castle demolished shortly thereafter.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The Balmoral Estate has been added to by successive members of the royal family, and now covers an area of approximately . It is a working estate, including grouse moors, forestry and farmland, as well as managed herds of deer, Highland cattle, sheep and ponies.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Balmoral is pronounced or sometimes locally . It was first recorded as 'Bouchmorale' in 1451, and it was pronounced by local Scottish Gaelic speakers. The first element in the name is thought to be the Gaelic "both", meaning "a hut", but the second part is uncertain. Adam Watson and Elizabeth Allan wrote in "The Place Names of Upper Deeside" that the second part meant "big spot (of ground)". Alexander MacBain suggested this was originally the Pictish "*mor-ial", "big clearing" (c.f. Welsh "mawr-ial"). Alternatively, the second part could be a saint's name.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: King Robert II of Scotland (1316–1390) had a hunting lodge in the area. Historical records also indicate that a house at Balmoral was built by Sir William Drummond in 1390. The estate was later tenanted by Alexander Gordon, second son of the 1st Earl of Huntly. A tower house was built on the estate by the Gordons.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: In 1662, the estate passed to Charles Farquharson of Inverey, brother of John Farquharson, the "Black Colonel". The Farquharsons were Jacobite sympathisers and James Farquharson of Balmoral was involved in both the 1715 and 1745 rebellions. He was wounded at the Battle of Falkirk in 1746. The Farquharson estates were forfeit, and passed to the Farquharsons of Auchendryne. In 1798, James Duff, 2nd Earl Fife, acquired Balmoral and leased the castle. Sir Robert Gordon, a younger brother of the 4th Earl of Aberdeen, acquired the lease in 1830. He made major alterations to the original castle at Balmoral, including baronial-style extensions that were designed by John Smith of Aberdeen.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert first visited Scotland in 1842, five years after she acceded to the throne and two years after their marriage. During this first visit they stayed at Edinburgh, and at Taymouth Castle in Perthshire, the home of the Marquess of Breadalbane. They returned in 1844 to stay at Blair Castle and, in 1847 when they rented Ardverikie House by Loch Laggan. Frequent rain during the last trip led Sir James Clark, the queen's doctor, to recommend Deeside instead, for its healthier climate.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Sir Robert Gordon died in 1847 and his lease on Balmoral reverted to Lord Aberdeen. In February 1848 an arrangement was made that Prince Albert would acquire the remaining part of the lease on Balmoral, together with its furniture and staff, without having seen the property first.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The royal couple arrived for their first visit on 8 September 1848. Victoria found the house "small but pretty", and recorded in her diary that: "All seemed to breathe freedom and peace, and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils". The surrounding hilly landscape reminded them of Thuringia, Albert's homeland in Germany.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Quickly, the house was confirmed to be too small and, in 1848, John and William Smith were commissioned to design new offices, cottages, and other ancillary buildings. Improvements to the woodlands, gardens and estate buildings were also being made, with the assistance of the landscape gardener James Beattie, and possibly the painter James Giles.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Major additions to the old house were considered in 1849, but by then negotiations were underway to purchase the estate from the trustees of the deceased Earl Fife. After seeing a corrugated iron cottage at the Great Exhibition of 1851, Prince Albert ordered a prefabricated iron building for Balmoral from E. T. Bellhouse & Co., to serve as a temporary ballroom and dining room. It was in use by 1 October 1851, and would serve as a ballroom until 1856.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The sale was completed in June 1852, the price being £32,000 () and Prince Albert formally took possession that autumn. The neighbouring estate of Birkhall was bought at the same time, and the lease on Abergeldie Castle secured as well. To mark the occasion, the "Purchase Cairn" was erected in the hills overlooking the castle, the first of many cairns on the estate.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The growing family of Victoria and Albert, the need for additional staff, and the quarters required for visiting friends and official visitors such as cabinet members, however, meant that extension of the existing structure would not be sufficient and that a larger house needed to be built. In early 1852, this was commissioned from William Smith. The son of John Smith (who designed the 1830 alterations of the original castle), William Smith was the city architect of Aberdeen from 1852. On learning of the commission, William Burn sought an interview with the prince, apparently to complain that Smith previously had plagiarised his work, however, Burn was unsuccessful in depriving Smith of the appointment. William Smith's designs were amended by Prince Albert, who took a close interest in details such as turrets and windows.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Construction began in mid-1853, on a site some northwest of the original building that was considered to have a better vista. Another consideration was that whilst construction was ongoing, the family would still be able to use the old house. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone on 28 September 1853, during her annual autumn visit. By the autumn of 1855, the royal apartments were ready for occupancy, although the tower was still under construction and the servants had to be lodged in the old house. By coincidence, shortly after their arrival at the estate that autumn, news circulated about the fall of Sevastopol, ending the Crimean War, resulting in wild celebrations by royalty and locals alike. While visiting the estate shortly thereafter, Prince Frederick of Prussia asked for the hand of Princess Victoria.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The new house was completed in 1856, and the old castle subsequently was demolished. By autumn 1857, a new bridge across the Dee, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel linking Crathie and Balmoral was finished.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Balmoral Castle is built from granite quarried at Invergelder on the estate. It consists of two main blocks, each arranged around a courtyard. The southwestern block contains the main rooms, while the northeastern contains the service wings. At the southeast is an clock tower topped with turrets, one of which has a balustrade similar to a feature at Castle Fraser. Being similar in style to the demolished castle of the 1830s, the architecture of the new house is considered to be somewhat dated for its time when contrasted with the richer forms of Scots baronial being developed by William Burn and others during the 1850s. As an exercise in Scots baronial, it is sometimes described as being too ordered, pedantic, and even Germanic as a consequence of Prince Albert's influence on the design.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: However, the purchase of a Scottish estate by Victoria and Albert and their adoption of a Scottish architectural style were influential for the ongoing revival of Highland culture. They decorated Balmoral with tartans and attended highland games at Braemar. Queen Victoria expressed an affinity for Scotland, even professing herself to be a Jacobite. Added to the work of Sir Walter Scott, this became a major factor in promoting the adoption of Highland culture by Lowland Scots. Historian Michael Lynch comments that "the Scottishness of Balmoral helped to give the monarchy a truly British dimension for the first time".


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Even before the completion of the new house, the pattern of the life of the royal couple in the Highlands was soon established. Victoria took long walks of up to four hours daily and Albert spent many days hunting deer and game. In 1849, diarist Charles Greville described their life at Balmoral as resembling that of gentry rather than royalty. Victoria began a policy of commissioning artists to record Balmoral, its surroundings, and its staff. Over the years, numerous painters were employed at Balmoral, including Edwin and Charles Landseer, and Carl Haag.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: During the 1850s, new plantations were established near the house and exotic conifers were planted on the grounds. Prince Albert had an active role in these improvements, overseeing the design of parterres, the diversion of the main road north of the river via a new bridge, and plans for farm buildings. These buildings included a model dairy that he developed in 1861, the year of his death. The dairy was completed by Victoria. Subsequently, she also built several monuments to her husband on the estate. These include a pyramid-shaped cairn built a year after Albert's death, on top of "Craig Lurachain". A large statue of Albert with a dog and a gun by William Theed, was inaugurated on 15 October 1867, the twenty-eighth anniversary of their engagement.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Following Albert's death, Victoria spent increasing periods at Balmoral, staying for as long as four months a year during early summer and autumn. She placed numerous mementos of Albert on display.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Few further changes were made to the grounds, with the exception of some alterations to mountain paths, the erection of various cairns and monuments, and the addition of some cottages ("Karim Cottage" and "Baile na Coille") built for senior staff. It was during this period that Victoria began to depend on her servant, John Brown. He was a local ghillie from Crathie, who became one of her closest companions during her long mourning.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: In 1887, Balmoral Castle was the birthplace of Victoria Eugenie, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was born to Princess Beatrice, the fifth daughter of Victoria and Albert. Victoria Eugenie became queen of Spain when she married King Alfonso XIII in 1906.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: In September 1896, Victoria welcomed Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and Empress Alexandra, a granddaughter of Victoria, to Balmoral. Four years later Victoria made her last visit to the estate, three months before her death on 22 January 1901.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: After Victoria's death, the royal family continued to use Balmoral during annual autumn visits. George V had substantial improvements made during the 1910s and 1920s, including formal gardens to the south of the castle.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: During the Second World War, royal visits to Balmoral ceased. In addition, due to the conflict with Germany, "Danzig Shiel", a lodge built by Victoria in Ballochbuie, was renamed "Garbh Allt Shiel" and the "King of Prussia's Fountain" was removed from the grounds.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: In the 1950s, Prince Philip added herbaceous borders and a water garden. During the 1980s, new staff buildings were built close to the castle.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Queen Elizabeth II had been at the castle since July 2022 for her annual summer holiday and had been receiving medical care there.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: In a break with tradition, Balmoral Castle, rather than Buckingham Palace, was the site of the appointment of British Prime Minister Liz Truss on 6 September 2022, due to concerns regarding the Queen's mobility issues.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The Queen died at Balmoral at 15:10 BST on 8 September 2022 at the age of 96. She was the first monarch to die at Balmoral, and this was the first time a monarch had died in Scotland since James V died in 1542 at Falkland Palace.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The Queen's coffin laid in repose in the ballroom of the castle for three days, to allow the Royal Family, estate staff and neighbours to pay their respects. On 11 September, the coffin was transported to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh for the start of the state funeral proceedings.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Though called a castle, Balmoral's primary function is that of a country house. It is a "typical and rather ordinary" country house from the Victorian period. The tower and "pepper pot turrets" are characteristic features of the residence's Scottish baronial style. The seven-storey tower is an architectural feature borrowed from medieval defensive tower houses. The "pepper pot" turrets were influenced by the style of 16th-century French châteaux. Other features of the Scottish baronial style are the crow-stepped gables, dormer windows, and battlemented porte-cochère.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Balmoral is private property and, unlike the monarch's official residences, is not the property of the Crown. It was originally purchased privately by Prince Albert, for Queen Victoria, meaning that no revenues from the estate go to Parliament or the public purse, as would otherwise be the case for property owned outright by the monarch by the Civil List Act 1760. Along with Sandringham House in Norfolk, ownership of Balmoral was inherited by Edward VIII on his accession in 1936. When he abdicated later the same year, however, he retained ownership of them. A financial settlement was devised, under which Balmoral and Sandringham were purchased by Edward's brother and successor to the Crown, George VI.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Once Elizabeth became queen, ownership of the Balmoral estate passed onto her, and then after her death to her eldest son King Charles III, but the estate is managed by trustees under Deeds of Nomination and Appointment.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Balmoral Estate is within the Cairngorms National Park and is partly within the Deeside and Lochnagar National Scenic Area. The estate contains a wide variety of landscapes, from the Dee river valley to open mountains. There are seven Munros (hills in Scotland over ) within the estate, the highest being Lochnagar at . This mountain was the setting for a children's story, "The Old Man of Lochnagar", told originally by Prince Charles to his younger brothers, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. The story was published in 1980, with royalties accruing to The Prince's Trust. The estate also incorporates the Delnadamph Lodge estate, bought by Elizabeth II in 1978.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The estate extends to Loch Muick in the southeast where an old boat house and the Royal Bothy (hunting lodge) now named "Glas-allt-Shiel", built by Victoria, are located.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The working estate includes grouse moors, forestry, and farmland, as well as managed herds of deer, Highland cattle, and ponies. It also offers access to the public for fishing (paid) and hiking during certain seasons.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Approximately of the estate are covered by trees, with almost used for forestry that yields nearly 10,000 tonnes of wood per year. "Ballochbuie Forest", one of the largest remaining areas of old Caledonian pine growth in Scotland, consists of approximately . It is managed with only minimal or no intervention. The principal mammal on the estate is the red deer with a population of 2,000 to 2,500 head.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The areas of Lochnagar and Ballochbuie were designated in 1998 by the Secretary of State for Scotland as Special Protection Areas (SPA) under the European Union (EU) Birds Directive.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Bird species inhabiting the moorlands include red grouse, black grouse, ptarmigan, and the capercaillie. Ballochbuie is also protected as a Special Area of Conservation by the EU Habitats Directive, as "one of the largest remaining continuous areas of native Caledonian Forest". In addition, there are four sites of special scientific interest on the estate.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The royal family employs approximately 50 full-time and 50–100 part-time staff to maintain the working estate.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: There are approximately 150 buildings on the estate, including Birkhall, formerly home to Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Craigowan Lodge is regularly used by the family and friends of the royal family and has also been used while Balmoral Castle was being prepared for a royal visit. Six smaller buildings on the estate are let as holiday cottages.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: In 1931, the castle gardens were opened to the public for the first time and they were open daily between April and the end of July, after which the royal family would have arrived for their annual stay. The ballroom is the only room in the castle that may be viewed by the public.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Craigowan Lodge is a seven-bedroom stone house approximately from the main castle in Balmoral. More rustic than the castle, the lodge was often the home of Prince Charles and Princess Diana when they visited. In May 1981 Charles and Diana posed for a photo at the lodge before their July 1981 wedding.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: In the obituary of Prince Michael Andreevich Romanov, the highest-ranking member of the Russian imperial family at the time of his death in 2008, it was noted that his family spent most of World War II at Craigowan Lodge.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: The lodge has been in the news periodically since 2005 because Elizabeth II and Prince Philip often spent the first few days of their summer holiday there. During each weekend of the summer, the castle is a lucrative source of income from visiting tourists. Sometimes, the Queen arrived at Balmoral before the tourist visiting season was over.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: Parts of the films "Mrs Brown" (1997) and "The Queen" (2006) were based on events at Balmoral. In both films, substitute locations were used: Blairquhan Castle in "The Queen" and Duns Castle in "Mrs Brown". In the Netflix series "The Crown", Ardverikie House was used as a stand-in. In the sci-fi film "The Day After Tomorrow" (2004), three helicopters of the Royal Air Force crash in Scotland during an attempt to evacuate the Royal Family from Balmoral Castle.


title: Balmoral Castle

text: An illustration of the castle features on the reverse of £100 notes issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland.


title: Hello Kitty

text: , also known by her full name , is a fictional character created by Yuko Shimizu, currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi, and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as an anthropomorphized white cat with a red bow and no visible mouth. According to her backstory, she lives in a London suburb with her family, and is close to her twin sister Mimmy, who is depicted with a yellow bow.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Hello Kitty was created in 1974 and the first item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in 1975. Originally Hello Kitty was only marketed towards pre-teenage girls, but beginning in the 1990s, the brand found commercial success among teenage and adult consumers as well. Hello Kitty's popularity also grew with the emergence of "kawaii" (cute) culture. The brand went into decline in Japan after the 1990s, but continued to grow in the international market. By 2010 the character was worth a year and "The New York Times" called her a "global marketing phenomenon". By 2014, when Hello Kitty was 40 years old, she was worth about a year.


title: Hello Kitty

text: UNICEF has appointed Hello Kitty children's ambassador and the Japanese government appointed her ambassador of tourism. There are Sanrio theme parks based on Hello Kitty: Harmonyland in Hiji, Ōita, Japan and Sanrio Puroland in Tama New Town, Tokyo, Japan. The Hello Kitty media franchise has grown to include a number of animated series targeted towards children, as well as several manga comics, anime films, video games, books, music albums and other media productions. A variety of products have featured the character over the years, like school supplies, clothing, accessories and toys, along with other items. As of 2008 there were over 50,000 different Hello Kitty branded products.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In 1962, Shintaro Tsuji, founder of Sanrio, began selling rubber sandals with flowers painted on them. Tsuji noted the profits gained by adding a cute design to the shoes and hired cartoonists to design cute characters for his merchandise. Hello Kitty was designed by Yuko Shimizu and was added to the lineup of early Sanrio characters in 1974.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Hello Kitty was initially known only as "the white kitten with no name" (名前のない白い子猫). Shimizu got the name "Kitty" from Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass"; during a scene early in the book, Alice plays with a cat she calls "Kitty". Sanrio's motto is "social communication," and Tsuji wanted the brand name to reflect that by including a greeting. He first considered "Hi Kitty" before finally settling on "Hello Kitty," her current name. Sanrio decided to make Hello Kitty British because foreign countries, in particular Britain, were trendy in Japan at the time of Hello Kitty's creation. Sanrio already had several characters set in the US, and it wanted Hello Kitty to be different.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In 1976 Setsuko Yonekubo temporarily took over as lead designer for Hello Kitty, after Shimizu left Sanrio. In 1980 Yuko Yamaguchi became lead designer and has remained in charge since. Yamaguchi has said that fashion, movies, and TV inspire her in creating new designs. New series involving Hello Kitty with different themed designs are released regularly, following current trends.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Spokespeople for Sanrio have said that Hello Kitty has no mouth, as they want people to "project their feelings onto the character" and "be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty." Another explanation Sanrio has given for Hello Kitty's lack of a mouth is that she "speaks from the heart. She's Sanrio's ambassador to the world and isn't bound to any particular language." However, Yuko Yamaguchi has also said that "Kitty has a mouth" that is "hidden in the fur". Representatives for Sanrio have said that they see Hello Kitty as a symbol of friendship, which they hope she will foster between people across the world. There has been speculation that Hello Kitty has her origins in Maneki Neko, a traditional Japanese cat figurine. The name "Hello Kitty" is a back-translation of "Maneki Neko", meaning "beckoning cat" in English. Despite this, no definitive statement supports that speculation.


title: Hello Kitty

text: The character's first appearance on an item was in March 1975 on a vinyl coin purse sold in Japan, where she was pictured sitting between a bottle of milk and a goldfish bowl. She first appeared in the United States in 1976 when Sanrio opened a Gift Gate store in San Jose, California.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Hello Kitty sold well immediately after her 1975 launch, and Sanrio's sales increased sevenfold. Due to Japan's growing economy, many Japanese children could afford to buy Hello Kitty products. Her popularity also grew with the emergence of "kawaii" culture, which embraces cuteness.


title: Hello Kitty

text: UNICEF named Hello Kitty as children's ambassador to the United States in 1983, children's ambassador in Japan in 1994, and gave her the title of "UNICEF Special Friend of Children" in 2004, a title unique to her.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Originally, Hello Kitty was only marketed towards a child and preteen audience. In the 1990s, the target market for Hello Kitty was broadened to include teenagers and adults as a retro brand. Marketing to those who could not get Hello Kitty merchandise as children, and those who fondly remember items they had, Sanrio began selling Hello Kitty branded products such as purses and laptops. The 1994–1996 "Face" series was the first to be designed specifically for mature consumers.


title: Hello Kitty

text: The Hello Kitty brand rose to greater prominence internationally during the late 1990s. At that time, several celebrities, such as Mariah Carey, had adopted Hello Kitty as a fashion statement. New products featuring the character were made available in a large variety of American department stores.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Hello Kitty's popularity in Japan peaked in the late 1990s when she was the country's top-grossing character. In 2002, Hello Kitty lost her place as the top-grossing character in Japan in the Character Databank popularity chart. In a 2010 survey, she was in third place behind Anpanman and Pikachu from "Pokémon". In 2010, "The New York Times" attributed the character's relative decline in Japan to her biography not being "compelling enough to draw many fans." The newspaper later wrote that analysts called the characterization "weak," and that Hello Kitty not having a mouth has dampened her success as an animated TV character. According to Character Databank, Hello Kitty was the third highest-grossing character in Japan as of 2013. In 2019 and 2020, Character Databank ranked her fifth, and as of 2021 she was out of the top five.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Overseas, her global popularity has increased over the years. According to Sanrio, Hello Kitty was appearing on 12,000 new products each year as of 1999. Beginning in 2007, following trends in Japan, Sanrio began using darker designs for Hello Kitty with more black and less pink and pulled away from "kawaii" styles. By 2008, Hello Kitty was responsible for half of Sanrio's $1 billion net income, and there were over 50,000 different Hello Kitty branded products in more than 60 countries. By 2010 the character was worth a year and "The New York Times" called her a "global marketing phenomenon". Worldwide annual sales reached in 2013.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In July 2008, the Dutch artist Dick Bruna, creator of Miffy, alleged that Hello Kitty is a copy of Miffy, being rendered in a similar style. He stated disapprovingly in an interview for the British newspaper "The Daily Telegraph": "That" [...] "is a copy [of Miffy], I think. I don't like that at all. I always think, 'No, don't do that. Try to make something that you think of yourself'." Mercis, the firm that managed copyrights for Bruna, took Sanrio to court over their Hello Kitty-associated character Cathy, a rabbit which made her first appearance in 1976 and which Mercis argued infringed the copyright for Miffy. A court in Amsterdam ruled in favour of Mercis in November 2010 and ordered Sanrio to stop the production and sale of merchandise featuring Cathy in the Benelux countries. However, in June 2011, the two companies announced that they had reached a settlement agreement to end their legal dispute. Sanrio stopped using the Cathy character, and the two firms jointly donated €150,000 for reconstruction after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.


title: Hello Kitty

text: As of 2014, 90% of the profits from Hello Kitty came from licensing of products for the international market. She has been particularly popular in other Asian countries for decades, such as in China, where her cultural impact is comparable to that of Barbie in the Western world. In 2008, Japan named Hello Kitty the ambassador of Japanese tourism in both China and Hong Kong, marking the first time Japan's tourism ministry had appointed a fictional character to the role. Dr. Sharon Kinsella, a lecturer at Oxford University on Japanese sociology, called the selection of Hello Kitty "a bit farcical ... as if a dumbed-down cultural icon ... can somehow do something significant to alter the gnarly and difficult state of China-Japan relations."


title: Hello Kitty

text: In the United States, Hello Kitty is recognized by more than 80% of young adults in the 18–23 age group, . In 2014 a four-day convention, Hello Kitty Con in Los Angeles, attracted over 25,000 visitors. The convention was held in celebration of Hello Kitty's 40th anniversary. Sanrio's Puroland Tokyo theme park also held a celebration spanning several days in November 2014.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Hello Kitty is a "gijinka", an anthropomorphism or personification of a Japanese Bobtail cat. Official character profiles list her full name as , born in the suburbs of London, England, on November 1. Her height is described as five apples and her weight as three apples. She is portrayed as a bright and kind-hearted girl, very close to her twin sister Mimmy. She is good at baking cookies and loves her mama's homemade apple pie. She likes to play the piano and collect cute things, and her favorite subjects in school are English, music, and art.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Hello Kitty is portrayed with a large family with the surname "White". Her twin sister Mimmy is described as "shy and very girly," interested in sewing and dreaming of marriage. While Hello Kitty wears a red bow on her left ear, Mimmy wears a yellow one on her right. Their papa George is described as dependable, humorous but also absent-minded. Their mama Mary is portrayed as a good cook who loves doing housework. Grandpa Anthony likes to tell stories and grandma Margaret likes sewing.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Aside from the core Hello Kitty characters, several spinoff characters have been created: Hello Kitty's boyfriend Dear Daniel in 1999, Charmmy Kitty, Hello Kitty's pet cat, and Sugar, her pet hamster, both in 2004, and her superhero alter-ego Ichigoman in 2011.


title: Hello Kitty

text: SFGATE said in 2004 that in light of the level of success of Hello Kitty, her fictional biography "seems almost too modest – or irrelevant" and "doesn't seem to have played much of a part" in the success.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In 2014 an anthropologist was told by Sanrio that Kitty White was not simply a cat (i.e. "depicted on all fours"), describing her as a little English girl called Kitty White, from outside London. Following reports that interpreted this to mean she was human, a Sanrio PR representative said that the organization had "never said she was a human", explaining anthropomorphization by comparing the character to Mickey Mouse: "No one would mistake the Disney character for a human–but at the same time he's not quite a mouse. Just like Hello Kitty isn't a human, she's not quite a cat either." Sanrio stated further, "Hello Kitty was done in the motif of a cat. It's going too far to say that Hello Kitty is not a cat."


title: Hello Kitty

text: There have been several different animated series starring Hello Kitty. The first was "Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater", an animated television series with 13 22-minute episodes that premiered in 1987. The next, an OVA titled "Hello Kitty and Friends", spanned 30 entries originally released in Japan between 1989 and 1994. "Hello Kitty's Paradise" came out in 1999 and was 16 episodes long. "Hello Kitty's Stump Village" came out in 2005, and "The Adventures of Hello Kitty & Friends" came out in 2008 and has aired 52 episodes. A crossover series under the name "Kiss Hello Kitty" (that paired animated versions of the members of the rock band KISS with Hello Kitty) was announced in March 2013. Produced by Gene Simmons, this show was supposed to air on The Hub Network (now Discovery Family), but it never came to fruition.


title: Hello Kitty

text: "" was a long-running live-action children's program that aired on TXN from January 1999 to March 2011. It was the longest-running weekly kids' television program in the network's history. In January 2011, the show's creators mutually agreed to end the series after twelve seasons, with the final episode being broadcast on 29 March 2011.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In August 2018, Sanrio began streaming a CGI animated series on YouTube. It features Hello Kitty talking to the camera about her life in the style of vlogging YouTubers.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Sanrio began streaming the newest 2D animated Hello Kitty series "Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures" on YouTube on 26 October 2020.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Hello Kitty had two manga comics serialized in "Ribon", a shōjo manga magazine - "Hello Kitty Doki" (ran from May 2007 to April 2008) and "Hello Kitty Peace" (released in June 2008).


title: Hello Kitty

text: In March 2016, Sanrio launched a webcomic featuring Hello Kitty as a strawberry-themed superhero called Ichigoman ("ichigo" meaning strawberry). The webcomic is created by Toshiki Inoue and Shakua Sinkai and updates once a month. Ichigoman first appeared in 2011 in an exhibition with Yuko Yamaguchi's art.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Hello Kitty has her own branded album, "Hello World", featuring Hello Kitty-inspired songs performed by a collection of artists including Keke Palmer, Cori Yarckin, and Ainjel Emme under Hello Kitty's Lakeshore Records record label. Hello Kitty was also chosen by AH Software to be the basis of the new Vocaloid to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sanrio.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Musician Yoshiki unveiled the Hello Kitty theme song "Hello Hello" in November 2014 at the first Hello Kitty Con. Yoshiki, who was the first celebrity to have his own Hello Kitty doll, "Yoshikitty," was approached by Yamaguchi to compose the song seven years prior.


title: Hello Kitty

text: There are numerous "Hello Kitty" games starting with the release of the first title for Famicom in 1992; however, the majority of these games were never released outside of Japan. Hello Kitty also has made cameo appearances in games featuring other Sanrio characters, such as the Keroppi game, "Kero Kero Keroppi no Bōken Nikki: Nemureru Mori no Keroleen". Special-edition consoles such as the Hello Kitty Dreamcast, Hello Kitty Game Boy Pocket, and Hello Kitty Crystal Xbox have also been released exclusively in Japan.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Hello Kitty appeared as a guest character in Sega's "Sonic Dash" in 2016, as part of Sega's partnership with Sanrio. Hello Kitty and My Melody (another Sanrio character) appeared together in "Super Mario Maker" as unlockable Mystery Mushroom costumes. Hello Kitty appears as a playable character via downloadable content in "Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania".


title: Hello Kitty

text: Three "Hello Kitty" anime films were released in Japan. "Hello Kitty: Cinderella" released in 1987, "Hello Kitty no Oyayubi Hime" released in 1990, and "Hello Kitty no Mahō no Mori no Ohime-sama" released in 1991.


title: Hello Kitty

text: On 3 July 2015, Sanrio announced a full-length Hello Kitty theatrical feature initially planned for 2019. In early 2019, it was revealed that New Line Cinema will be teaming up alongside Sanrio and Flynn Picture Company for an “English language film based on the venerable kid brand.” In 2021, it was reported that Jennifer Coyle and Leo Matsuda have been hired to direct the film with Lindsey Beer set to pen the script.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Originally aimed at the pre-adolescent female market, the Hello Kitty product range has expanded from dolls, stickers, greeting cards, clothes, backpacks, lunch boxes, piggy banks, pencils, erasers, accessories, school supplies and stationery to purses, toasters, televisions, other home appliances, massagers, motor oil and computer equipment. These products range from mass market items to high-end consumer products and rare collectibles. , more than 50,000 Hello Kitty product lines were available in over 130 countries.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Sanrio and various corporate partners have released Hello Kitty-branded products, including the Hello Kitty Stratocaster electric guitar (since 2005, with Fender, under its Squier sub-brand, in the US) and an Airbus A330-200 commercial passenger jet airliner, dubbed the Hello Kitty Jet (2005–2009, with EVA Airways in Taiwan). In late 2011 and early 2012, EVA Air revived their "Hello Kitty Jets" with their three new A330-300s. However, due to high demand, the airline added two more alongside their existing A330-200s in mid-2012. A year later, EVA Air introduced one of their 777-300ERs as another Hello Kitty Jet, which featured other Sanrio characters as well as Hello Kitty.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In 2009, Hello Kitty entered the wine market with a collection of four wines available for purchase online, continuing the expansion of product lines targeted at older audiences.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In Spring 2005, Simmons Jewelry Co. and Sanrio announced a partnership. "Kimora Lee Simmons for Hello Kitty" was launched exclusively at Neiman Marcus, with prices ranging from $300 to $5000. Designed by Kimora Lee Simmons and launched as the first in a series of collections, the jewelry was hand-made and consisted of diamonds, gemstones, semi-precious stones, 18 karat gold, sterling silver, enamel, and ceramic.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In Fall 2008, Simmons Jewelry Co. and Sanrio introduced a collection of fine jewelry and watches named "Hello Kitty® by Simmons Jewelry Co." The collection launched with Zales Corporation to further expand the reach of the brand, developing accessories for a wide variety of Hello Kitty fans. Meant to attract a youthful audience, the Hello Kitty-themed designs consisted of colorful gemstones set in sterling silver.


title: Hello Kitty

text: There is a themed restaurant named Hello Kitty Sweets in Taipei, Taiwan, which opened in 2008. The restaurant's decor and many of its dishes are patterned after the Hello Kitty characters. Another restaurant called the Hello Kitty Diner opened in the Chatswood area of Sydney, Australia, and a Hello Kitty dim sum restaurant opened in Kowloon, Hong Kong.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Hello Kitty cafés have opened around the world, including in Seoul and other locations in South Korea; Bangkok, Thailand; Adelaide, Australia; Irvine, California; and the Santa Anita Mall in California.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In 2008, a Hello Kitty-themed maternity hospital opened in Yuanlin, Taiwan. Hello Kitty is featured on the receiving blankets, room decor, bed linens, birth certificate covers, and nurses' uniforms. The hospital's owner explained that he hoped that the theme would help ease the stress of childbirth.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In 2014, Sanrio partnership with Dufan to introduced Hello Kitty Adventure a cinema based attraction takes guest in journey travelling around the world including many Indonesia Famous Heritage. At the end of the attraction, there is a few photo op that guest can take a picture with many Hello Kitty characters.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Hello Kitty is included as part of the Sanrio livery at the Japanese theme parks Harmonyland and Sanrio Puroland, and the former Sanrio Hello Kitty Town in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In January 2018, Puma collaborated with Hello Kitty to create the new Puma X Hello Kitty For All Time collection, which features the company's signature sneakers for both children and adults.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In Fall 2018, Converse collaborated with Sanrio to create Hello Kitty x Converse. This collection includes three of Converse's most popular silhouettes, with the shoes ranging from kids' sizes to size 13 US mens. The collection also includes hoodies, pullovers, t-shirts, and bags.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In 2020, Dr. Martens collaborated with Hello Kitty for the second time, the first being in 2010. This collaboration includes the classic platform boot, oxford, and a platform sandal with Hello Kitty design on the shoes. They also included a Hello Kitty x Dr. Martens Heart Shaped Satchel with this collection.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In 2020, Skechers collaborated with Hello Kitty releasing their 'The Skechers Energy' shoe that is a chunky-soled style with the brand’s spell out logo next to Hello Kitty’s face. The 'S' logo has Hello Kitty's signature red bow attached to it. There are several colorways like white, black, pink and red stripes.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In 2021, Forever 21 collaborated with Hello Kitty to drop a collection inspired by Hello Kitty & Friends, which included clothes, bodysuits, sweaters, t-shirts, jewelry, hats, phone cases, scrunchies, and more.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In 1994, artist Tom Sachs was invited to create a scene for Barneys New York Christmas displays and titled it "Hello Kitty Nativity". In the scene, the Virgin Mary was replaced by Madonna with an open Chanel bra, the three Kings were all Bart Simpson, the stable was marked by a McDonald's logo, and the Christ Child was replaced by Hello Kitty. This contemporary revision of the nativity scene demonstrated Sachs' interest in the phenomena of consumerism, branding, and the cultural fetishization of products. Many audiences instead took offense to the artwork, which received backlash from Catholic organizations for its misuse of Christian symbolism.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In 2009, Tom Sachs' "Bronze Collection" was shown at the Public art space in Manhattan's Lever House, as well as in the Baldwin Gallery in Aspen, Colorado, and the Trocadéro in Paris. The collection featured white bronze casts of a foam core Hello Kitty sculpture – a style distinctive to the artist. As of April 2010, the "Wind-Up Hello Kitty" sculpture is still on display at Lever House. Although Sachs did not seek permission to use the character in his work, a brand marketing manager for Sanrio was quoted as saying "You know, there was Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhol, and then Michael Jackson and Jeff Koons. When you're an icon, that's what happens." In 2013 "The Wall Street Journal" said Sanrio's attitude to copyright was "laissez-faire" compared to companies like Disney, and that they have let artists use Hello Kitty's likeness without interfering.


title: Hello Kitty

text: Hello Kitty was mentioned in the parody song "Another Tattoo (parody of Nothin' On You by B.o.B and Bruno Mars)" from "Weird Al" Yankovic's 2011 album Alpocalypse. Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne wrote and recorded a song called "Hello Kitty" for her fifth studio album, "Avril Lavigne", released in 2013.


title: Hello Kitty

text: In 2015, a nine-foot tall pearlescent Hello Kitty sculpture by artist Sebastian Masuda was exhibited at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in New York City, as part of the Japan Society's exhibition: "Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection".


title: Hello Kitty

text: In 2022 Saturday Night Live aired a sketch parodying Hello Kitty's backstory (described by "The A.V. Club" as "incongruous, corporate-sanctioned") and Sanrio's handling of it. The sketch centers on managers at a fictional Hello Kitty store. They describe the character in contradictory terms as a "human little girl" who is in third grade and also 48 years old. "The Atlantic" described the sketch as both "a skewering of the ever-expanding Hello Kitty commercial universe" and as capturing the gaslighting and manipulation of truth of the time.


title: Hello Kitty

text: The Hello Kitty Stratocaster guitar, originally released in 2005, was initially aimed at pre-teen girls, but has since been used by notable guitarists including Krist Novoselic, Courtney Love, Dave Navarro, and Lisa Loeb. In 2022, vintage Hello Kitty Stratocasters were among the most popular musical instruments sold on the marketplace Reverb.com. While it originally retailed for $230, some sold for over $1,000.


title: War crime

text: A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostages, unnecessarily destroying civilian property, deception by perfidy, wartime sexual violence, pillaging, and for any individual that is part of the command structure who orders any attempt to committing mass killings including genocide or ethnic cleansing, the granting of no quarter despite surrender, the conscription of children in the military and flouting the legal distinctions of proportionality and military necessity.


title: War crime

text: The formal concept of war crimes emerged from the codification of the customary international law that applied to warfare between sovereign states, such as the Lieber Code (1863) of the Union Army in the American Civil War and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 for international war. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the war-crime trials of the leaders of the Axis powers established the Nuremberg principles of law, such as that international criminal law defines what is a war crime. In 1949, the Geneva Conventions legally defined new war crimes and established that states could exercise universal jurisdiction over war criminals. In the late 20th century and early 21st century, international courts extrapolated and defined additional categories of war crimes applicable to a civil war.


title: War crime

text: In 1474, the first trial for a war crime was that of Peter von Hagenbach, realised by an ad hoc tribunal of the Holy Roman Empire, for his command responsibility for the actions of his soldiers, because "he, as a knight, was deemed to have a duty to prevent" criminal behaviour by a military force. Despite having argued that he had obeyed superior orders, von Hagenbach was convicted, condemned to death, and beheaded.


title: War crime

text: The Hague Conventions were international treaties negotiated at the First and Second Peace Conferences at The Hague, Netherlands, in 1899 and 1907, respectively, and were, along with the Geneva Conventions, among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the nascent body of secular international law.


title: War crime

text: The Geneva Conventions are four related treaties adopted and continuously expanded from 1864 to 1949 that represent a legal basis and framework for the conduct of war under international law. Every single member state of the United Nations has currently ratified the conventions, which are universally accepted as customary international law, applicable to every situation of armed conflict in the world. However, the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions adopted in 1977 containing the most pertinent, detailed and comprehensive protections of international humanitarian law for persons and objects in modern warfare are still not ratified by several states continuously engaged in armed conflicts, namely the United States, Israel, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, and others. Accordingly, states retain different codes and values about wartime conduct. Some signatories have routinely violated the Geneva Conventions in a way that either uses the ambiguities of law or political maneuvering to sidestep the laws' formalities and principles.


title: War crime

text: Two Additional Protocols were adopted in 1977 with the third one added in 2005, completing and updating the Geneva Conventions:


title: War crime

text: Just after WWI the world governments started to try and systematically create a code for how War Crimes would be defined. Their first outline of a law was ""Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field""—also known as the “Lieber Code.” A small number of German military personnel of the First World War were tried in 1921 by the German Supreme Court for alleged war crimes.


title: War crime

text: The modern concept of war crime was further developed under the auspices of the Nuremberg Trials based on the definition in the London Charter that was published on August 8, 1945. (Also see Nuremberg Principles.) Along with war crimes the charter also defined crimes against peace and crimes against humanity, which are often committed during wars and in concert with war crimes.


title: War crime

text: Also known as the Tokyo Trial, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal or simply as the Tribunal, it was convened on May 3, 1946, to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of crimes: "Class A" (crimes against peace), "Class B" (war crimes), and "Class C" (crimes against humanity), committed during World War II.


title: War crime

text: On July 1, 2002, the International Criminal Court, a treaty-based court located in The Hague, came into being for the prosecution of war crimes committed on or after that date. Several nations, most notably the United States, China, Russia, and Israel, have criticized the court. The United States still participates as an observer. Article 12 of the Rome Statute provides jurisdiction over the citizens of non-contracting states if they are accused of committing crimes in the territory of one of the state parties.


title: War crime

text: War crimes are defined in the statute that established the International Criminal Court, which includes:


title: War crime

text: However the court only has jurisdiction over these crimes where they are ""part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes"".


title: War crime

text: To date, the present and former heads of state and heads of government that have been charged with war crimes include:


title: War crime

text: War crimes are serious violations of the rules of customary and treaty law concerning international humanitarian law that have become accepted as criminal offenses for which there is individual responsibility.


title: War crime

text: Colloquial definitions of "war crime" include violations of established protections of the "laws of war", but also include failures to adhere to norms of procedure and rules of battle, such as attacking those displaying a peaceful flag of truce, or using that same flag as a ruse to mount an attack on enemy troops. The use of chemical and biological weapons in warfare are also prohibited by numerous chemical arms control agreements and the Biological Weapons Convention. Wearing enemy uniforms or civilian clothes to infiltrate enemy lines for espionage or sabotage missions is a legitimate ruse of war, though fighting in combat or assassinating individuals behind enemy lines while so disguised is not, as it constitutes unlawful perfidy. Attacking enemy troops while they are being deployed by way of a parachute is not a war crime. However, Protocol I, Article 42 of the Geneva Conventions explicitly forbids attacking parachutists who eject from disabled aircraft and surrendering parachutists once landed. Article 30 of the 1907 Hague Convention "IV – The Laws and Customs of War on Land" explicitly forbids belligerents to punish enemy spies without previous trial.


title: War crime

text: The rule of war, also known as the Law of Armed Conflict, permit belligerents to engage in combat. A war crime occurs when superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering is inflicted upon an enemy.


title: War crime

text: War crimes also include such acts as mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians. War crimes are sometimes part of instances of mass murder and genocide though these crimes are more broadly covered under international humanitarian law described as crimes against humanity. In 2008, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1820, which noted that "rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide"; see also wartime sexual violence. In 2016, the International Criminal Court convicted someone of sexual violence for the first time; specifically, they added rape to a war crimes conviction of Congo Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo.


title: War crime

text: War crimes also included deliberate attacks on citizens and property of neutral states, such as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As the attack on Pearl Harbor happened while the U.S. and Japan were at peace and without a just cause for self-defense, the attack was declared by the Tokyo Trials to go beyond justification of military necessity and therefore constituted a war crime.


title: War crime

text: War crimes are significant in international humanitarian law because it is an area where international tribunals such as the Nuremberg Trials and Tokyo Trials have been convened. Recent examples are the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which were established by the UN Security Council acting under Chapter VIII of the UN Charter.


title: War crime

text: Under the Nuremberg Principles, "war crimes" are different from crimes against peace. Crimes against peace include planning, preparing, initiating, or waging a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances. Because the definition of a state of "war" may be debated, the term "war crime" itself has seen different usage under different systems of international and military law. It has some degree of application outside of what some may consider being a state of "war", but in areas where conflicts persist enough to constitute social instability.


title: War crime

text: The legalities of war have sometimes been accused of containing favoritism toward the winners ("Victor's justice"), as some controversies have not been ruled as war crimes. Some examples include the Allies' destruction of Axis cities during World War II, such as the firebombing of Dresden, the "Operation Meetinghouse" raid on Tokyo (the most destructive single bombing raid in history), and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In regard to the strategic bombing during World War II, there was no international treaty or instrument protecting a civilian population specifically from attack by aircraft, therefore the aerial attacks on civilians were not officially war crimes. The Allies at the trials in Nuremberg and Tokyo never prosecuted the Germans, including Luftwaffe commander-in-chief Hermann Göring, for the bombing raids on Warsaw, Rotterdam, and British cities during the Blitz as well as the indiscriminate attacks on Allied cities with V-1 flying bombs and V-2 rockets, nor the Japanese for the aerial attacks on crowded Chinese cities.


title: War crime

text: Controversy arose when the Allies re-designated German POWs (under the protection of the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War) as Disarmed Enemy Forces (allegedly unprotected by the 1929 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War), many of which were then used for forced labor such as clearing minefields. By December 1945, six months after the war had ended, it was estimated by French authorities that 2,000 German prisoners were still being killed or maimed each month in mine-clearing accidents. The wording of the 1949 Third Geneva Convention was intentionally altered from that of the 1929 convention so that soldiers who "fall into the power" following surrender or mass capitulation of an enemy are now protected as well as those taken prisoner in the course of fighting.


title: War crime

text: Under the law of armed conflict (LOAC), the death of non-combatants is not necessarily a violation; there are many things to take into account. Civilians "cannot" be made the object of an attack, but the death/injury of civilians while conducting an attack on a military objective are governed under principles such as of proportionality and military necessity and can be permissible. Military necessity "permits the destruction of life of ... persons whose destruction is incidentally unavoidable by the armed conflicts of the war; ... it does not permit the killing of innocent inhabitants for purposes of revenge or the satisfaction of a lust to kill. The destruction of property to be lawful must be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war."


title: War crime

text: For example, conducting an operation on an ammunition depot or a terrorist training camp would not be prohibited because a farmer is plowing a field in the area; the farmer is not the object of attack and the operations would adhere to proportionality and military necessity. On the other hand, an extraordinary military advantage would be necessary to justify an operation posing risks of collateral death or injury to thousands of civilians. In "grayer" cases the legal question of whether the expected incidental harm is excessive may be very subjective. For this reason, States have chosen to apply a "clearly excessive" standard for determining whether a criminal violation has occurred.


title: War crime

text: When there is no justification for military action, such as civilians being made the object of attack, a proportionality analysis is unnecessary to conclude that the attack is unlawful.


title: War crime

text: For aerial strikes, pilots generally have to rely on information supplied by external sources (headquarters, ground troops) that a specific position is in fact a military target. In the case of former Yugoslavia, NATO pilots hit a civilian object (the Chinese embassy in Belgrade) that was of no military significance, but the pilots had no idea of determining it aside from their orders. The committee ruled that "the aircrew involved in the attack should not be assigned any responsibility for the fact they were given the wrong target and that it is inappropriate to attempt to assign criminal responsibility for the incident to senior leaders because they were provided with wrong information by officials of another agency". The report also notes that "Much of the material submitted to the OTP consisted of reports that civilians had been killed, often inviting the conclusion to be drawn that crimes had therefore been committed. Collateral casualties to civilians and collateral damage to civilian objects can occur for a variety of reasons."


title: War crime

text: German General Lothar Rendulic was charged for ordering extensive destruction of civilian buildings and lands while retreating from a suspected enemy attack in what is called scorched earth policy for the military purpose of denying the use of ground for the enemy. The German troops retreating from Finnish Lapland believed Finland would be occupied by Soviet troops and destroyed many settlements while retreating to Norway under the command of Rendulic. He overestimated the perceived risk but argued that Hague IV authorized the destruction because it was necessary to war. He was acquitted of that charge.


title: War crime

text: Under the "Rendulic Rule" persons must assess the military necessity of an action based on the information available to them at that time; they cannot be judged based on information that subsequently comes to light.


title: Lingua franca

text: A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share a native language or dialect, particularly when it is a third language that is distinct from both of the speakers' native languages.


title: Lingua franca

text: Lingua francas have developed around the world throughout human history, sometimes for commercial reasons (so-called "trade languages" facilitated trade), but also for cultural, religious, diplomatic and administrative convenience, and as a means of exchanging information between scientists and other scholars of different nationalities. The term is taken from the medieval Mediterranean Lingua Franca, a Romance-based pidgin language used especially by traders in the Mediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th centuries. A world language – a language spoken internationally and by many people – is a language that may function as a global lingua franca.


title: Lingua franca

text: Any language regularly used for communication between people who do not share a native language is a lingua franca. Lingua franca is a functional term, independent of any linguistic history or language structure.


title: Lingua franca

text: Pidgins are therefore lingua francas; creoles and arguably mixed languages may similarly be used for communication between language groups. But lingua franca is equally applicable to a non-creole language native to one nation (often a colonial power) learned as a second language and used for communication between diverse language communities in a colony or former colony.


title: Lingua franca

text: Lingua francas are often pre-existing languages with native speakers, but they can also be pidgin or creole languages developed for that specific region or context. Pidgin languages are rapidly developed and simplified combinations of two or more established languages, while creoles are generally viewed as pidgins that have evolved into fully complex languages in the course of adaptation by subsequent generations. Pre-existing lingua francas such as French are used to facilitate intercommunication in large-scale trade or political matters, while pidgins and creoles often arise out of colonial situations and a specific need for communication between colonists and indigenous peoples. Pre-existing lingua francas are generally widespread, highly developed languages with many native speakers. Conversely, pidgin languages are very simplified means of communication, containing loose structuring, few grammatical rules, and possessing few or no native speakers. Creole languages are more developed than their ancestral pidgins, utilizing more complex structure, grammar, and vocabulary, as well as having substantial communities of native speakers.


title: Lingua franca

text: Whereas a vernacular language is the native language of a specific geographical community, a lingua franca is used beyond the boundaries of its original community, for trade, religious, political, or academic reasons. For example, English is a in the United Kingdom but it is used as a in the Philippines, alongside Filipino. Likewise, Arabic, French, Mandarin Chinese, and Russian serve similar purposes as industrial and educational lingua francas across regional and national boundaries.


title: Lingua franca

text: Even though they are used as bridge languages, international auxiliary languages such as Esperanto have not had a great degree of adoption, so they are not described as lingua francas.


title: Lingua franca

text: The term "lingua franca" derives from Mediterranean Lingua Franca (also known as "Sabir"), the pidgin language that people around the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean Sea used as the main language of commerce and diplomacy from late medieval times to the 18th century, most notably during the Renaissance era. During that period, a simplified version of mainly Italian in the eastern and Spanish in the western Mediterranean that incorporated many loan words from Greek, the Slavic languages, Arabic, and Turkish came to be widely used as the "lingua franca" of the region, although some scholars claim that the Mediterranean Lingua Franca was just poorly used Italian.


title: Lingua franca

text: In Lingua Franca (the specific language), is from the Italian for "a language." is related to Greek () and Arabic () as well as the equivalent Italian—in all three cases, the literal sense is "Frankish", leading to the direct translation: "language of the Franks". During the late Byzantine Empire, "Franks" was a term that applied to all Western Europeans. The overall phrase of "lingua franca" is also speculated to originate from "lisan al-Faranja" (Arabic: لسان الفرنجة), which also means the "language of the Franks".


title: Lingua franca

text: Through changes of the term in literature, "lingua franca" has come to be interpreted as a general term for pidgins, creoles, and some or all forms of vehicular languages. This transition in meaning has been attributed to the idea that pidgin languages only became widely known from the 16th century on due to European colonization of continents such as The Americas, Africa, and Asia. During this time, the need for a term to address these pidgin languages arose, hence the shift in the meaning of Lingua Franca from a single proper noun to a common noun encompassing a large class of pidgin languages.


title: Lingua franca

text: As recently as the late 20th century, some restricted the use of the generic term to mean only mixed languages that are used as vehicular languages, its original meaning.


title: Lingua franca

text: Douglas Harper's "Online Etymology Dictionary" states that the term "Lingua Franca" (as the name of the particular language) was first recorded in English during the 1670s, although an even earlier example of the use of it in English is attested from 1632, where it is also referred to as "Bastard Spanish".


title: Lingua franca

text: The term is well established in its naturalization to English and so major dictionaries do not italicize it as a "foreign" term.


title: Lingua franca

text: Its plurals in English are lingua francas and linguae francae, with the former being first-listed or only-listed in major dictionaries.


title: Lingua franca

text: Akkadian (died out during Classical antiquity) and then Aramaic remained the common languages of a large part of Western Asia from several earlier empires.


title: Lingua franca

text: Sanskrit historically served as a lingua franca throughout the majority of India and Greater India. The Sanskrit language's historic presence is attested across a wide geography beyond South Asia. Inscriptions and literary evidence suggests that Sanskrit language was already being adopted in Southeast Asia and Central Asia in the 1st millennium CE, through monks, religious pilgrims and merchants.


title: Lingua franca

text: Until the early 20th century, Classical Chinese served as both the written lingua franca and the diplomatic language in Far East Asia including China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Ryūkyū Kingdom, and Vietnam. In the early 20th century, vernacular written Chinese replaced Classical Chinese within China as both the written and spoken lingua franca for speakers of different Chinese dialects, and because of the declining power and cultural influence of China in East Asia, English has since replaced Classical Chinese as the lingua franca in East Asia.


title: Lingua franca

text: Koine Greek was the lingua franca of the Hellenistic culture. Koine Greek (Modern ; ), also known as Alexandrian dialect, common Attic, Hellenistic, or Biblical Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic period, the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire. It evolved from the spread of Greek following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC, and served as the lingua franca of much of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East during the following centuries.


title: Lingua franca

text: Old Tamil was once the lingua franca for most of Southern South India and Sri Lanka. John Guy states that Tamil was also the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India. The language and its dialects were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century AD. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until the 12th century AD. Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such as Kolar, Mysore, Mandya and Bangalore.


title: Lingua franca

text: Latin through the power of the Roman Republic became the dominant language in Italia and subsequently throughout the realms of Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin was the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition.


title: Lingua franca

text: Sogdian was used to facilitate trade between those who spoke different languages along the Silk Road, which is why native speakers of Sogdian were employed as translators in Tang China. The Sogdians also ended up circulating spiritual beliefs and texts, including those of Buddhism and Christianity, thanks to their ability to communicate to many people in the region through their native language.


title: Lingua franca

text: Old Church Slavonic, an Eastern South Slavic language, is the first Slavic literary language. Between 9th and 11th century, it was lingua franca of great part of the predominantly Slavic states and populations in Southeast and Eastern Europe, in liturgy and church organization, culture, literature, education and diplomacy, as Official language, and National language in the case of Bulgaria. It was the first national and also international Slavic literary language (autonym , ). The Glagolitic alphabet was originally used at both schools, though the Cyrillic script was developed early on at the Preslav Literary School, where it superseded Glagolitic as official in Bulgaria in 893. Old Church Slavonic spread to other South-Eastern, Central, and Eastern European Slavic territories, most notably Croatia, Serbia, Bohemia, Lesser Poland, and principalities of the Kievan Rus' while retaining characteristically South Slavic linguistic features. It spread also to not completely Slavic territories between the Carpathian Mountains, the Danube and the Black sea, corresponding to Wallachia and Moldavia. Nowadays, the Cyrillic script writing system is used for various languages across Eurasia and is used as the national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, North Asia, and East Asia.


title: Lingua franca

text: The Mediterranean Lingua Franca was largely based on Italian and Provençal. This language was spoken from the 11th to 19th centuries around the Mediterranean basin, particularly in the European commercial empires of Italian cities (Genoa, Venice, Florence, Milan, Pisa, Siena) and in trading ports located throughout the eastern Mediterranean rim.


title: Lingua franca

text: During the Renaissance, standard Italian was spoken as a language of culture in the main royal courts of Europe, and among intellectuals. This lasted from the 14th century to the end of the 16th, when French replaced Italian as the usual lingua franca in northern Europe. On the other hand, Italian musical terms, in particular dynamic and tempo notations, have continued in use to the present day, especially for classical music, in music revues and program notes as well as in printed scores. Italian is considered the language of Opera.


title: Lingua franca

text: English is often used by non-native English speakers who have different mother tongues to communicate with one another. In the European Union, the use of English as a lingua franca has led researchers to investigate whether a new dialect of English (Euro English) has emerged.


title: Lingua franca

text: When the United Kingdom became a colonial power, English served as the lingua franca of the colonies of the British Empire. In the post-colonial period, some of the newly created nations which had multiple indigenous languages opted to continue using English as one of their official languages. Examples of these nations include Ghana and South Africa.


title: Lingua franca

text: English is also taught in schools and used as a lingua franca in Singapore, a country that has four official languages.


title: Lingua franca

text: In Qatar, the medical community is primarily made up of workers from countries without English as a native language. In medical practices and hospitals, nurses typically communicate with other professionals in English as a lingua franca. This occurrence has led to interest in researching the consequences and affordances of the medical community communicating in a lingua franca.


title: Lingua franca

text: English is the lingua franca of Fiji, despite being the least commonly spoken of Fiji's three official languages as a native language, but spoken by almost everyone as a second language.


title: Lingua franca

text: The Spanish language spread mainly throughout the New World, becoming a lingua franca in the territories and colonies of the Spanish Empire, as well as in parts of Africa, Asia and Oceania. It became the language of global trade until Napoleonic Wars and the breakup of the Spanish Empire at the beginning of the 19th century. Spanish was used as a lingua franca throughout the former Spanish Colonial Empire, including territory in present-day U.S., but particularly in present-day Mexico, Spanish Caribbean, Central, South America and the Philippines, and still remains the lingua franca within Hispanic America. It is also widely understood, and spoken to different degrees, by many people in Brazil, especially in the South and Southeast, and by many in the Southwestern United States.


title: Lingua franca

text: At present it is the second most used language in international trade, and the third most used in politics, diplomacy and culture after English and French.


title: Lingua franca

text: It is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world and is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.


title: Lingua franca

text: Although not spoken as a first language by most African French speakers, French is a lingua franca in most Western and Central African countries and an official language of many, a remnant of French and Belgian colonialism. These African countries and others are members of the Francophonie. During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations (lingua franca). It retained this role until approximately the middle of the 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War. Stanley Meisler of the "Los Angeles Times" said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language.


title: Lingua franca

text: German is used as a lingua franca in Switzerland to some extent, however English is generally preferred to avoid favouring it over the three other official languages.


title: Lingua franca

text: Arabic was used as a lingua franca across the Islamic empires, whose sizes necessitated the need for a common language, and spread across the Arab and Muslim worlds. In Djibouti and parts of Eritrea, both of which are countries where multiple official languages are spoken, Arabic has emerged as a lingua franca in part thanks to the population of the region being predominantly Muslim and Arabic playing a crucial role in the religion of Islam. In addition, after having fled from Eritrea due to ongoing warfare and gone to some of the nearby Arab countries, Eritrean emigrants are contributing to Arabic becoming a lingua franca in the region by coming back to their homelands having picked up the Arabic language.