title: Shinji Ikari

text: After Shinji is forced to fight Eva-03, controlled by the Angel Bardiel, with classmate Toji Suzahara trapped inside, he decides to quit Nerv. Angel Zeruel mutilates the other Evangelion units, defeating Rei and Asuka. Shinji, and after talking with his mentor and Misato's lover, Ryoji Kaji, Shinji returns to Nerv to protect the city. He merges with its unit and frees the Evangelion; however, he is trapped in its core for a month. Although Rei sacrifices herself in the battle against the Angel Armisael to save Shinji, she is revived through one of her clones. Asuka runs away and falls into a coma; Toji and Kensuke flee Tokyo-3, and Shinji becomes depressed. In the twenty-fourth episode, he meets Kaworu Nagisa, Asuka's substitute pilot, and they become friends. Kaworu turns out to be the final Angel, and Shinji is forced to kill him. During a process named Instrumentality, in which the souls of the entire humanity unite in a single collective consciousness, he confronts his traumas and why he acts the way he does; he believes himself worthless and undeserving of love. After talking with most of the "Evangelion" cast and seeing a version of himself in a world where he leads a normal life, Shinji becomes aware of his own potential and realizes the importance of his thoughts, and he is congratulated by the rest of the cast.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: The 1997 film "The End of Evangelion" continues Shinji's story, portraying his downward spiral into depression and loss of the will to live. Shinji visits a comatose Asuka in the hospital; when his pleas for attention go unanswered, he exposes Asuka's breasts and masturbates. He remains catatonic while all Nerv personnel, including Misato, are killed during an attack. Shinji then decides to pilot the Eva to save those who are still alive, as Asuka is now on the surface fighting the Mass Production Evas. He is, however, unable to reach her in time, and when Shinji learns about Asuka's defeat, the Evangelion moves on its own to let him reenter it. After seeing the mutilated corpse of Asuka's Unit-02, Shinji's intense emotion summons a spear named Lance of Longinus (which had been on the Moon) to Earth and the Eva becomes a tree of life. Shinji then has long dreamlike exchanges with Misato, Rei and Asuka about the pain of reality and his tensions with them. When he begs for Asuka's attention and she refuses him, arguing he only wants to use her as a crutch, Shinji begins Instrumentality and humanity's souls are reunited into one existence. After reevaluating his position, he decides that he wants to live in a world where other people exist and returns to Earth, allowing other humans to return. Shinji, having placed grave markers in memory of most of the other characters, wakes up some time later with Asuka lying next to him. He suddenly tries to strangle her, but stops and breaks down when Asuka regains consciousness and caresses his face.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: In "Rebuild of Evangelion", Shinji returns as the central protagonist; in "" (2007), first instalment of the saga, Shinji's role is similar to that of the anime series. He is assigned to be the pilot of Unit-01, and works with Rei to defeat the Angel Ramiel. In the second instalment, "" (2009), Shinji reluctantly continues his duties as the pilot of Unit-01. After the battle with Angel Bardiel (when his father forced his Unit-01 to critically injure Asuka), Shinji retires from his duties and leaves Nerv. When Angel Zeruel consumes Rei, Shinji returns and defeats the Angel; his decisions, however, trigger a catastrophic event named Third Impact. Through this, Shinji apparently saves Rei by fusing with the Evangelion.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: In the third film, "" (2012), set fourteen years later, Shinji awakens to a world completely changed by the Third Impact and is treated with hostility by Misato and others. They place a DSS Choker on him: an explosive device on his neck which will be activated if he comes close to starting another Impact. After learning from Misato that they are part of Wille (a new organization fighting Nerv), Shinji leaves when Rei appears. At the remnants of Nerv, he is approached by Kaworu Nagisa, an Eva-13 designed pilot who befriends him. He becomes despondent after Kaworu tells him that humanity holds him responsible for initiating the Third Impact. After Shinji realizes that he failed to save Rei and the new Rei is a clone, Nagisa convinces him to pilot Eva-13 with him. Confronting Asuka and Mari, Shinji begins a Fourth Impact; Eva-13 eats the Twelfth Angel, and ascends to divinity. Kaworu is killed by the DSS Choker he took from Shinji to stop the Fourth Impact. Devastated, Shinji loses his will to live. Asuka rescues him from his Entry Plug, berating him for acting "like a baby". The Rei clone appears and follows them, as they head along the ruins of Tokyo-3 to again be rescued by Wille.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: In "" (2021), the last installment of the saga, Shinji, still distraught over Kaworu's death, wanders without a will to live with Asuka and Rei. With the two companions, he reaches a protected citadel inhabited by survivors of the various Impacts and isolated from the outside world, the Village-3. Here Shinji meets his old classmates Toji, Kensuke, and Hikari Horaki, and, with the help of Asuka and Rei, he gradually regains the will to live. He then decides to leave with Asuka and the other members from the Wille for Antarctica, where Shinji on board the Eva-01 faces his father Gendo and his Eva-13. Not being able to defeat him with brute force, the boy decides to talk to him; at the end of the process, Gendo apologizes to Shinji and embraces him. Shinji finds himself in a reborn world, and on a beach he meets Mari Illustrious Makinami, saying goodbye to all the Evangelions. Shortly after, a visibly grown Shinji can be seen in a station; Mari comes to meet him, and the two of them walk together into a new world, holding hands.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: In Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's "Neon Genesis Evangelion" manga adaptation, Shinji's characterization differs. Sadamoto tried to portray him as more of a misfit, a young teenager more stubborn, rebellious, juvenile and apathetic than Hideaki Anno's insecure character. In the anime's fourth episode, "Hedgehog's Dilemma", Shinji runs away from home because he is overwhelmed by responsibility; in the manga, he runs away because he realizes that Misato is spying on him and documenting his every move. After the battle against Bardiel (in which his friend Toji dies following an order from Commander Ikari), Shinji tries to punch his father. He has a close relationship with Rei in the manga and Kaji is more of a mentor to him. Shinji's relationship with Kaworu is difficult; he accuses Kaworu of being cynical and strange. Shinji's backstory is modified, with the introduction of an unnamed aunt, uncle and cousins and memories of his childhood away from Gendo. A different Instrumentality is shown, with Shinji saving Asuka during her fight against the Mass Production Evangelions. At the end, he is seen leading a normal life in a reformed world; he sees Asuka while waiting for a train, although they only have a faint recollection of one another.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: Sadamoto decided to work on an "Evangelion" manga when he saw Shinji in the first episodes of the original series. He wondered "what the world looked like through Shinji's eyes". While in the anime Shinji's motto is "I must not run away", Sadamoto chose "being honest with themselves" as the main theme for the manga. This led Sadamoto to change Shinji's characterization and psychology. He wanted to reflect contemporary teenagers in the character and was influenced by the Gulf War, wondering how a 14-year-old would have behaved on a helicopter. Sadamoto also drew on his own experiences as an adolescent, saying that his characterization was "more like a flunk-out" than Anno's version. He conceived Shinji with a "clean image that a woman tends to project" in his mind, portraying him as a "cold, unambitious" character, "the type who would commit suicide, but can't bring himself to do it" and trying to design a character from the more stoic part of himself. "It was my intention to create a wistful character who had given up on life", he said. According to Anno's thought process, a twisted person puts on a "cool face" hiding the crazy portion, while Sadamoto perceived his approach as the opposite; Sadamoto described his characters as stoic and earnest but with a twisted outside, "just like a child". He also described his Shinji as a character that refuses to listen but "still makes the right decision".


title: Shinji Ikari

text: In a scene from the last episode of the animated series, an alternate universe is presented with a different story from the previous episodes; in this parallel reality, Shinji lives with both his parents and is a normal middle-school student. He is also a protagonist in "" and "", where he is portrayed in a different light than his anime counterpart: happier and more stable. The same characterization is found in "". Some spin-offs and video games have the option of pairing Shinji romantically with Asuka Langley Soryu, Rei Ayanami, Kaworu and other characters, including his classmate Hikari Horaki and original characters such as Mana Kirishima, an extrovert transfer student firstly introduced in the "" videogame, and Mayumi Yamagishi, an introverted girl presented in the "" videogame. In "Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Ikari Raising Project", he is presented as a childhood friend of Asuka and a distant cousin of Rei Ayanami. In "", Shinji is portrayed as a boy "frightened by the idea of growing up" but popular with the students of Tokyo-3's Municipal Nerv High School. In "Evangelion: Detective Shinji Ikari", Kaji and Kaworu are portrayed as private investigators whom Shinji asks for help and investigates a mysterious case.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: In "," set three years after "The End of Evangelion" with a different Instrumentality scenario, Shinji is 17 years old; he lets his hair grow and is a good friend of Rei and Asuka. He first pilots the Evangelion Unit-01 Type-F and, after the attack of Eva0.0 (Quatre) and the unification of his soul with Eva-01, pilots the mecha Super Evangelion and its upgrades. In addition to video games based on the original animated series, Shinji appears in media outside the "Evangelion" franchise, such as "Monster Strike", "Tales of Zestiria", "Puzzle & Dragons", and a crossover episode of "Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion", in which he is voiced by Ogata and pilots a 500 Type Eva transformable train. For "Shinkalion", Ogata voiced him as a more "level-headed" character. He is a playable character in the "Super Robot Wars" crossover video-game franchise, where he and other "Evangelion" characters work with characters from other mecha series. Shinji has crushes on other characters, such as Lynn Minmay (sparking jealousy in Asuka, who tries to recapture his attention). In other games, Eva Unit-01 goes berserk after fighting the fourth angel and he fights Kouji Kabuto and Mazinger Z. He later rejoins the battle against the Angels with Rei Ayanami.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: Shinji is a dependent and introverted boy with few friends, due to his reluctance and inability to communicate with other people. Due to this, Shinji is also frightened by contact with strangers. He tends to be apologetic and passive in his relationships. He also avoids choosing his clothes, wearing clothes provided by others. Unlike a stereotypical hero, particularly of the mecha genre, Shinji is more apathetic and reluctant than courageous. According to his voice actress, Megumi Ogata, "he didn't act like an anime character, but typically talked very quietly and sparingly, and it was like he was suddenly thrust into an anime world". Character designer Sadamoto conceived him as "the kind of character who would encase himself in a shell of his own making". Director Hideaki Anno similarly described him as a "cowardly young man" who has convinced himself that "he is a completely unnecessary person" after his father Gendo abandoned him. His childhood trauma leads him to doubt the value of his existence, to be disheartened, and to seek a "raison d'être"; he also wonders about why he pilots Eva-01 in the latter part of the series. The last two episodes also focus on Shinji's path and psyche; in a stream of consciousness, he admits being afraid of himself and of his father. Despite the tension between him and his father, however, Shinji yearns to trust him. According to writer Gerald Alva Miller, Shinji craves acceptance and is concerned about how others perceive him, but "he also remains incapable of accepting love from others". He also pilots Eva-01 for the approval of others, particularly Gendo, rather than out of heroism or idealism. According to a card game on the series, after being praised for the first time by his father, he realizes how much he needs him. Assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki noted that Shinji acts in opposition to the conventional impression of him: "He is not cowardly and indecisive; he is obstinate and doesn't pay any mind to other people." Anno described him as "both an introvert and righteous" boy who tends to categorize things, the kind of character who tends to hide something, "like a way to escape from that closure". Furthermore, according to Sadamoto, he is not as dark as perceived by fans; with the exception of "The End of Evangelion", in which he is portrayed as "pretty dark and introspective", he stated that he never got the impression of a dark character in the original series. According to Ogata, at the end of the film Shinji grows up, naturally closing his path from childhood to adulthood.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: Writer Paul M. Malone compared him to the German jurist and writer Daniel Paul Schreber, noting "a surprising degree of intertextuality" with his "Memoirs of My Nervous Illness", although he did not consider "Evangelion" to be based directly on his "Memoirs". Malone, following Japanese critic and writer Kotani Mari, described Shinji as an effeminate and androgynous character. According to Mari, Shinji becomes effeminate in the course of the story, and she described him as a "female savior". Other critics described him as a messianic figure and likened to Jesus Christ, who in Japanese is known by the epithet of , "God-man". He has also been described as a tragic hero and likened to Oedipus. Writer and animation critic Patrick Drazen similarly compared the dilemma faced by Shinji in the twenty-fourth episode against the Angel Tabris to Hamlet, the protagonist of Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: For the Japanese sociologist Tsutomu Hashimoto, Shinji could be seen as an heir of the Japanese society of the seventies and eighties, engaged in the search for freedom from social constraints and the figures of authoritarian family fathers; the sociologist cited the musician Yutaka Ozaki as a symbol of this search for freedom, since he tried to escape from the impositions of the school system and he eventually "returned" to the mother figure. Hashimoto compared Shinji's final choice, in which he rejects the Instrumentality Project desired by the authoritarian father Gendō, to the concept of liberalism, which prescribes respect for any individual identity. Other critics associated the character with the youth and climate of 1990s Japan, shaken by the Tokyo subway sarin attack operated by the Japanese sect Aum Shinrikyō, the Great Hanshin earthquake, and the bursting of the Japanese asset price bubble. After his arrival on Tokyo-3, Shinji repeats "I mustn't run away" in an attempt to face his responsibilities, and the sentence becomes a typical mantra of the character. In the twentieth episode he remembers escaping from the experimental site where his mother died, an event that generated in him the idea of "not running away", which an official pamphlet describes as "compulsive". Hiroki Azuma, a Japanese philosopher and cultural critic, speaking of his motto "I mustn't run away", described "Evangelion" as a story that depicts "anxiety without a cause", linking this feeling to the repercussions after the Aum Shinrikyō attack. Azuma also described Shinji and other characters in the series as "stereotypical characters" through which Anno succeeded to describe the nineties. Psychiatrist Kōji Mizobe indicated him as a dependent boy unable to communicate but also argued that the fundamental characteristic of Shinji is sociability, describing him as a "sympathetic person" who accepts and imitates others. Mizobe interpreted his synchronization with Asuka's movements on the ninth episode as proof of this ability. He also interpreted "Evangelion" as a story in which the main characters try to build their stable identity, saying that Shinji and Asuka's communication problems are the reason why even years after the first airing younger Japanese viewers identify themselves with the characters.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: Critics interpreted Shinji as an alter ego of the series director, Hideaki Anno, and as an "otaku". "IGN"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Ramsey Isler interpreted his feelings as a reflection of his mood; according to him, Anno "went through a serious bout of depression while making the show and like a true artist he poured all of that emotion and despair into his work". Isler also interpreted his characterization and his battles against the Angels as a metaphor for Anno's attempts "to defeat his own personal demons". Assistant director Tsurumaki also gave a similar interpretation, working on the series with the idea that Shinji's emotions are a reflection of Anno's feelings: "That's why in the scenario planning sessions I was always saying something like, 'Isn't that a little too hero-like for Shinji to say? Hideaki Anno isn't that much of a hero'". Tsurumaki also thought that Shinji could only be understood by "Japanese fans of this generation". Critics analyzed the conflictual relationship between him and his father, comparing him with the protagonists of the works by director Yoshiyuki Tomino, especially to Amuro Ray, the main character in "Mobile Suit Gundam". Artist Takashi Murakami interpreted Shinji's interior drama as "the endpoint of the postwar lineage of "otaku" favorites", such as "Godzilla", the series of the "Ultra" franchise, "Space Battleship Yamato" or "Gundam", in which hero-figures increasingly question and agonize over their missions to defend Earth and humanity. According to Toshio Okada, former president of Gainax and an acquaintance of Hideaki Anno, "Evangelion" and "Gundam" are completely different; for Okada, one thrust of the story of "Gundam" is "the main character's desire to be recognized by others", since in mecha anime the characters generally try to change the world, while in "Evangelion" "complicated the whole thing, raising issues", since no one can save the world. According to Italian researcher Fabio Bartoli, Shinji is a "perfect representative" of the "otaku" generation. He described him as "a young man with relationship difficulties, accustomed to spending a lot of time at home". Bartoli wrote that the last scene of the anime, in which the boy's glass prison shatters (ending his psychoanalytic session), may allude to the : the Japanese generation born in the 1970s, which is also known as . Writer Andrea Fontana agreed, seeing him as a representation of "otaku" and their inability to relate to others. Fontana also saw in Shinji's character "an exhortation" by Anno to "otaku", Japanese society, and young people "to break the crystal cage in which they locked themselves up, looking confidently at their neighbor".


title: Shinji Ikari

text: Shinji's personality traits have been linked to psychiatric conditions, such as depressive disorder, anxiety, social phobia, avoidant and borderline personality. Walter Veit of "Psychology Today" linked his passive attitude in the first episodes to Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist concept of bad faith and Albert Camus's "philosophical suicide". Gualtiero Cannarsi, editor of the Italian adaptation of the series, noticed that Shinji struggles to make friends and has a cold, reserved attitude in the third episode, "A Transfer". Like the porcupines of Arthur Schopenhauer's "Parerga and Paralipomena", Shinji is afraid to be hurt and withdraws from human contact; he suffers, in fact, for the porcupine's dilemma. Although his relationship with Misato Katsuragi follows Schopenhauer's concept, Cannarsi also noticed that in the fourth episode ("Hedgehog's Dilemma") the characters get closer without hurting each other. Schopenhauer originally named his concept after the porcupine, or Hystricidae ("Stachelschweine" in German), but staff chose an alternative translation for the title of the installment, since they wanted to portray Shinji as a hedgehog, an animal with smaller, blunter spines than a porcupine, suggesting more delicacy for the character.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: Critics noticed that, since he lost his mother traumatically, Shinji seeks a substitute in the women around him and in Eva-01, which contains her soul. Academic Susan J. Napier also interpreted the Angels as "father figures, whom Shinji must annihilate". Anime News Network reviewer Mike Crandol noticed that Shinji depends on Unit 01 in the first part of the series, becoming negatively affected by the symbiotic relationship. Crandol described his entry into Eva-01 as a Freudian "return to the womb" and his struggle to be free of the Eva as his "rite of passage" into manhood. Anno also described Shinji as a boy with a strong Oedipus complex for his father, Gendo. The Oedipal triangle is completed by their common interest in Rei Ayanami, a genetic clone of Yui Ikari. According to him, Shinji symbolically "kills" his father "and steals his mother from him".


title: Shinji Ikari

text: Yūichirō Oguro, editor of supplemental materials included in the Japanese edition of the series, interpreted "Neon Genesis Evangelion"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s plot as an Oedipal story. Eva-01 can be seen as a motherly breast and a source of ambivalence for the character. To manage this ambivalence, Shinji "split the breast" into good and bad. Oguro described berserk Unit 01 as a "bad breast"; on the other part, he interpreted Yui as a "good breast" that eventually saves Shinji during the battles with the Angels. In the twentieth episode, "Weaving a story 2: Oral Stage", Shinji is trapped in Eva-01, dissolving into its cockpit; in a stream of consciousness, he has visions linked with the Freudian oral stage, which include breastfeeding by Yui. With his mother's help, Shinji is symbolically reborn, finding the will to live and regaining his body. He also displays features linked with oralism, a personality of dependent, weak individuals who see other people as tools to satisfy them. According to Freudian theory, oral personalities were not adequately fed during weaning. For Oguro, Shinji resolves his oral fixation with the vision of his mother's breast, becoming a more self-conscious individual. In the last two episodes, he also sees the good and bad sides of other people; Anno himself compared him to a child and his ambivalent relationship with the mother during the oral stage. Shinji's Oedipus complex then resolves in the final episode, which ends with the captions "To my father, thank you" and "To my mother, goodbye", indicating his entry into adulthood. In the film "The End of Evangelion", he also chooses to live with other human beings, rejecting the Instrumentality and accepting other people.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: Shinji's character has been popular in Japan. The character's appreciation was also reflected in popularity polls, even years after the anime's first airing. After the series' first run, Shinji ranked second among "most popular male characters of the moment" in an "Animage" magazine Grand Prix poll. In the following two years' rankings, he rose to first place. In the 1997 Anime Grand Prix, Shinji received about 1,200 votes, more than double those of the second character. Megumi Ogata finished second in the voice-actor rankings for three years. Shinji also appeared in the magazine's monthly surveys, remaining in the top 20 in 1996, 1997 and 1998. In 1998, "Animage" ranked him 21st among the 100 most popular anime characters and 55th in 1999.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: In 1998, Shinji emerged in first place among the best "dark characters" in a survey by "Animedia" magazine, and the magazine itself praised its complexity. For several years he also appeared in the periodical's annual popularity rankings, usually among the top ten. He placed 77th in a 2002 TV Asahi poll ranking the most popular anime characters of all time, and 25th in a 2007 list of most popular male heroes. Shinji also topped "Newtype" magazine's popularity charts, finishing third and first in August and September 2009. He finished third in October and was the most popular "Evangelion" male character. In March 2010, "Newtype" cited him the "most popular male character of the nineties". In 2014, foreigners living in Japan were asked: "Which character do you aspire to look like?". Amid a wide variety of answers, Shinji finished seventh. In 2012, Fuji TV asked about 14,000 fans to name the "best anime hero"; Shinji finished twentieth. In 2016, he finished thirteenth in an Anime News Network poll of the "strongest pilots" in Japanese animation. In April 2021, after release of the final "Rebuild" film, he finished second most popular male character in a "Newtype" poll, fifth place in May, and first place in June.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: The character evoked mixed opinions, dividing anime critics. Some criticized Shinji's insecurities, his vulnerability, and his lack of temper and resoluteness. Pete Harcoff, a reviewer for the Anime Critic website, praised "Neon Genesis Evangelion" but criticized Shinji as ineffective and disappointing to watch. THEM Anime Reviews noticed the character's constant angst in the television series as a negative trait. Raphael See found "Evangelion" "a little cliche, or just plain irritating at times" and criticized Shinji's pessimism. "Japanator" listed him among "characters with no chance in reality", saying that "he really sucks as an Eva pilot and he has the spine of a jellyfish". Comic Book Resources also criticized Shinji as a stereotypical talented male protagonist with a harem.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: Other critics praised the character's realism. For Anime News Network's Nick Creamer, "every element of Shinji's emotional journey is conveyed with clear sympathy and brutal specificity". According to Susan J. Napier, Shinji "still wins the championship for most psychologically complex (or just plain neurotic) male character ever created". Critics also described him as one of the most relatable male anime characters. "IGN" editor Chris Mackenzie ranked him the 25th-best anime character of all time. In "Anime Invasion" magazine, Jen Contino praised Shinji's characterization and rated him the ninth-best anime character of all time.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: In 2013, Anime News Network editor Lynzee Lam ranked him in first place of seven "crybaby heroes" in Japanese animation for his motivation and psychological realism. WatchMojo ranked him first among the best reluctant anime heroes. "IGN"s Ramsey Isler called him the "greatest anime character" of all time, praising his originality and realistic characterization. Isler concluded, "He's a character that challenges the audience by not giving them a superficial, vicarious power fantasy like you'd get from so many other anime. He is pathetic, but that is what makes him great. That is what makes him a genuine work of art".


title: Shinji Ikari

text: Shinji's role in the "Rebuild of Evangelion" films was better received, with reviewers praising its more open character. Martin Theron of Anime News Network, reviewing "", praised Shinji's realism. Theron called the scene in "" where Shinji saves Rei the "Best Scene" in the website's "Best (and Most Notable) of 2011": "This is the first time in the entire franchise that he whole-heartedly goes after something because he "wants" it, rather than because he's expected to or has no choice." Examining the differences between "Evangelion: 2.0" film and the original animated series, Jitendar Canth posted on myReviewer.com: "To the relief of many, Shinji isn't as much of a whiner any more, and he shows that he has a backbone on more than one occasion in this film". Despite criticizing the , a number of reviewers praised Shinji's interactions with Kaworu. Nicoletta Christina Browne of THEM Anime Reviews criticized their relationship, finding it "rushed", artificial and unclear. Daniel Kurland (Comic Book Resources) also praised his role in the final installment, "Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time", writing: "Shinji deserves happiness, and it makes "Thrice Upon A Time" the more powerful conclusion that it finally allows Shinji to reach this point and not leave him in existential dread".


title: Shinji Ikari

text: Shinji-themed merchandise has been released, including clothing, action figures, collectible models, perfumes, and drinks. The character has been used for Japan Racing Association advertising campaigns and for a culinary company specializing in "miso" soups; "Shijimi from Lake Shinji" campaign also proved successful. Movic has also released a cassette drama featuring him as part of its "Animate" series featuring other popular works.


title: Shinji Ikari

text: With Shinji Ikari, according to Comic Book Resources, "Neon Genesis Evangelion" had a significant influence on Japanese animation, showing a more realistic, insecure and fragile protagonist than other past mecha series. "Guilty Crown" staff member Ryo Ōyama compared Shū Ōma, the series' main character, to Shinji, since: "They're both in their own world, and they don't come out from that world". According to Ōyama, Shū is "a 2011 version of Shinji", but Shinji has a "more passive", pessimistic attitude. Asa Butterfield similarly compared Shinji to Ender Wiggin in "Ender's Game", whom he played. According to Butterfield, both characters "withdraw from the world", face new experiences and fight against unknown enemies. His Japanese voice actress Ogata likened Makoto Naegi from the "Danganronpa" franchise, which she played, to Shinji, because they're both ordinary boys "put in terrible situations".


title: Shinji Ikari

text: Lain Iwakura from "Serial Experiments Lain", Simon from "Gurren Lagann", Daisuke Dojima from "Revisions", Kōji Aiba from "Infinite Ryvius", Cloud Strife from "Final Fantasy VII" and the main character of "Cyborg She" were also compared with him by anime critics. In the fourth episode of the dorama "Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu", a character named Shinji (former boyfriend of female protagonist Mikuri) appears. Shinji is also referenced by Steven Universe in the show of the same name, which parodies the series' final scene. The British group Fightstar included a track named "Shinji Ikari" on the deluxe-edition bonus disc of their album, "One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours", while Open Mike Eagle named a song from his album "Anime, Trauma and Divorce" "Headass (Idiot Shinji)". "" director Jordan Vogt-Roberts also named the character Gunpei Ikari after him.


title: Diminutive

text: A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formation device used to express such meanings. In many languages, such forms can be translated as "little" and diminutives can also be formed as multi-word constructions such as "Tiny Tim". Diminutives are often employed as nicknames and pet names when speaking to small children and when expressing extreme tenderness and intimacy to an adult. The opposite of the diminutive form is the augmentative. Beyond the "diminutive form" of a single word, a "diminutive" can be a multi-word name, such as "Tiny Tim" or "Little Dorrit".


title: Diminutive

text: In many languages, formation of diminutives by adding suffixes is a productive part of the language. For example, in Spanish can be a nickname for someone who is overweight, and by adding an suffix, it becomes which is more affectionate. A (example in Polish: → → ; example in Italian: → → ) is a diminutive form with two diminutive suffixes rather than one. While many languages apply a grammatical diminutive to nouns, a few – including Slovak, Dutch, Spanish, Latin, Polish, Bulgarian, Czech, Russian and Estonian – also use it for adjectives (in Polish: → → ) and even other parts of speech (Ukrainian → → — to sleep or Slovak → → — to sleep, → — to run). In English the alteration of meaning is often conveyed through clipping, making the words shorter and more colloquial. Diminutives formed by adding affixes in other languages are often longer and (as colloquial) not necessarily understood.


title: Diminutive

text: Diminutives in isolating languages may grammaticalize strategies other than suffixes or prefixes. In Mandarin Chinese, for example, other than the nominal prefix 小 "xiǎo" and nominal suffixes 儿/兒 "-r" and 子 "-zi", reduplication is a productive strategy, e.g., → and → . In formal Mandarin usage, the use of diminutives is relatively infrequent, as they tend to be considered to be rather colloquial than formal. Some Wu Chinese dialects use a tonal affix for nominal diminutives; that is, diminutives are formed by changing the tone of the word.


title: Diminutive

text: In some contexts, diminutives are also employed in a pejorative sense to denote that someone or something is weak or childish. For example, one of the last Western Roman emperors was Romulus Augustus, but his name was diminuted to "Romulus Augustulus" to express his powerlessness.


title: Orchid

text: Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.


title: Orchid

text: Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering plants. The Orchidaceae have about 28,000 currently accepted species, distributed in about 763 genera. The determination of which family is larger is still under debate, because verified data on the members of such enormous families are continually in flux. Regardless, the number of orchid species is nearly equal to the number of bony fishes, more than twice the number of bird species, and about four times the number of mammal species.


title: Orchid

text: The family encompasses about 6–11% of all species of seed plants. The largest genera are "Bulbophyllum" (2,000 species), "Epidendrum" (1,500 species), "Dendrobium" (1,400 species) and "Pleurothallis" (1,000 species). It also includes "Vanilla" (the genus of the vanilla plant), the type genus "Orchis", and many commonly cultivated plants such as "Phalaenopsis" and "Cattleya". Moreover, since the introduction of tropical species into cultivation in the 19th century, horticulturists have produced more than 100,000 hybrids and cultivars.


title: Orchid

text: Orchids are easily distinguished from other plants, as they share some very evident derived characteristics or synapomorphies. Among these are: bilateral symmetry of the flower (zygomorphism), many resupinate flowers, a nearly always highly modified petal (labellum), fused stamens and carpels, and extremely small seeds.


title: Orchid

text: All orchids are perennial herbs that lack any permanent woody structure. They can grow according to two patterns:


title: Orchid

text: Terrestrial orchids may be rhizomatous or form corms or tubers. The root caps of terrestrial orchids are smooth and white.


title: Orchid

text: Some sympodial terrestrial orchids, such as "Orchis" and "Ophrys", have two subterranean tuberous roots. One is used as a food reserve for wintry periods, and provides for the development of the other one, from which visible growth develops.


title: Orchid

text: Epiphytic orchids, those that grow upon a support, have modified aerial roots that can sometimes be a few meters long. In the older parts of the roots, a modified spongy epidermis, called a velamen, has the function of absorbing humidity. It is made of dead cells and can have a silvery-grey, white or brown appearance. In some orchids, the velamen includes spongy and fibrous bodies near the passage cells, called tilosomes.


title: Orchid

text: The cells of the root epidermis grow at a right angle to the axis of the root to allow them to get a firm grasp on their support. Nutrients for epiphytic orchids mainly come from mineral dust, organic detritus, animal droppings and other substances collecting among on their supporting surfaces.


title: Orchid

text: The base of the stem of sympodial epiphytes, or in some species essentially the entire stem, may be thickened to form a pseudobulb that contains nutrients and water for drier periods.


title: Orchid

text: The pseudobulb has a smooth surface with lengthwise grooves, and can have different shapes, often conical or oblong. Its size is very variable; in some small species of "Bulbophyllum", it is no longer than two millimeters, while in the largest orchid in the world, "Grammatophyllum speciosum" (giant orchid), it can reach three meters. Some "Dendrobium" species have long, canelike pseudobulbs with short, rounded leaves over the whole length; some other orchids have hidden or extremely small pseudobulbs, completely included inside the leaves.


title: Orchid

text: With ageing the pseudobulb sheds its leaves and becomes dormant. At this stage it is often called a backbulb. Backbulbs still hold nutrition for the plant, but then a pseudobulb usually takes over, exploiting the last reserves accumulated in the backbulb, which eventually dies off, too. A pseudobulb typically lives for about five years. Orchids without noticeable pseudobulbs are also said to have growths, an individual component of a sympodial plant.


title: Orchid

text: Like most monocots, orchids generally have simple leaves with parallel veins, although some Vanilloideae have reticulate venation. Leaves may be ovate, lanceolate, or orbiculate, and very variable in size on the individual plant. Their characteristics are often diagnostic. They are normally alternate on the stem, often folded lengthwise along the centre ("plicate"), and have no stipules. Orchid leaves often have siliceous bodies called stegmata in the vascular bundle sheaths (not present in the Orchidoideae) and are fibrous.


title: Orchid

text: The structure of the leaves corresponds to the specific habitat of the plant. Species that typically bask in sunlight, or grow on sites which can be occasionally very dry, have thick, leathery leaves and the laminae are covered by a waxy cuticle to retain their necessary water supply. Shade-loving species, on the other hand, have long, thin leaves.


title: Orchid

text: The leaves of most orchids are perennial, that is, they live for several years, while others, especially those with plicate leaves as in "Catasetum", shed them annually and develop new leaves together with new pseudobulbs.


title: Orchid

text: The leaves of some orchids are considered ornamental. The leaves of "Macodes sanderiana", a semiterrestrial or rock-hugging ("lithophyte") orchid, show a sparkling silver and gold veining on a light green background. The cordate leaves of "Psychopsis limminghei" are light brownish-green with maroon-puce markings, created by flower pigments. The attractive mottle of the leaves of lady's slippers from tropical and subtropical Asia ("Paphiopedilum"), is caused by uneven distribution of chlorophyll. Also, "Phalaenopsis schilleriana" is a pastel pink orchid with leaves spotted dark green and light green. The jewel orchid ("Ludisia discolor") is grown more for its colorful leaves than its white flowers.


title: Orchid

text: Some orchids, such as "Dendrophylax lindenii" (ghost orchid), "Aphyllorchis" and "Taeniophyllum" depend on their green roots for photosynthesis and lack normally developed leaves, as do all of the heterotrophic species.


title: Orchid

text: Orchids of the genus "Corallorhiza" (coralroot orchids) lack leaves altogether and instead wrap their roots around the roots of mature trees and use specialized fungi to harvest sugars.


title: Orchid

text: Orchid flowers have three sepals, three petals and a three-chambered ovary. The three sepals and two of the petals are often similar to each other but one petal is usually highly modified, forming a "lip" or labellum. In most orchid genera, as the flower develops, it undergoes a twisting through 180°, called resupination, so that the labellum lies below the column. The labellum functions to attract insects, and in resupinate flowers, also acts as a landing stage, or sometimes a trap.


title: Orchid

text: The reproductive parts of an orchid flower are unique in that the stamens and style are joined to form a single structure, the column. Instead of being released singly, thousands of pollen grains are contained in one or two bundles called pollinia that are attached to a sticky disc near the top of the column. Just below the pollinia is a second, larger sticky plate called the stigma.


title: Orchid

text: The complex mechanisms that orchids have evolved to achieve cross-pollination were investigated by Charles Darwin and described in "Fertilisation of Orchids" (1862). Orchids have developed highly specialized pollination systems, thus the chances of being pollinated are often scarce, so orchid flowers usually remain receptive for very long periods, rendering unpollinated flowers long-lasting in cultivation. Most orchids deliver pollen in a single mass. Each time pollination succeeds, thousands of ovules can be fertilized.


title: Orchid

text: Pollinators are often visually attracted by the shape and colours of the labellum. However, some "Bulbophyllum" species attract male fruit flies ("Bactrocera" and "Zeugodacus" spp.) solely via a floral chemical which simultaneously acts as a floral reward (e.g. methyl eugenol, raspberry ketone, or zingerone) to perform pollination. The flowers may produce attractive odours. Although absent in most species, nectar may be produced in a spur of the labellum (8 in the illustration above), or on the point of the sepals, or in the septa of the ovary, the most typical position amongst the Asparagales.


title: Orchid

text: In orchids that produce pollinia, pollination happens as some variant of the following sequence: when the pollinator enters into the flower, it touches a viscidium, which promptly sticks to its body, generally on the head or abdomen. While leaving the flower, it pulls the pollinium out of the anther, as it is connected to the viscidium by the caudicle or stipe. The caudicle then bends and the pollinium is moved forwards and downwards. When the pollinator enters another flower of the same species, the pollinium has taken such position that it will stick to the stigma of the second flower, just below the rostellum, pollinating it. In horticulture, artificial orchid pollination is achieved by removing the pollinia with a small instrument such as a toothpick from the pollen parent and transferring them to the seed parent.


title: Orchid

text: Some orchids mainly or totally rely on self-pollination, especially in colder regions where pollinators are particularly rare. The caudicles may dry up if the flower has not been visited by any pollinator, and the pollinia then fall directly on the stigma. Otherwise, the anther may rotate and then enter the stigma cavity of the flower (as in "Holcoglossum amesianum").


title: Orchid

text: The slipper orchid "Paphiopedilum parishii" reproduces by self-fertilization. This occurs when the anther changes from a solid to a liquid state and directly contacts the stigma surface without the aid of any pollinating agent or floral assembly.


title: Orchid

text: The labellum of the Cypripedioideae is poke bonnet-shaped, and has the function of trapping visiting insects. The only exit leads to the anthers that deposit pollen on the visitor.


title: Orchid

text: In some extremely specialized orchids, such as the Eurasian genus "Ophrys", the labellum is adapted to have a colour, shape, and odour which attracts male insects via mimicry of a receptive female. Pollination happens as the insect attempts to mate with flowers.


title: Orchid

text: Many neotropical orchids are pollinated by male orchid bees, which visit the flowers to gather volatile chemicals they require to synthesize pheromonal attractants. Males of such species as "Euglossa imperialis" or "Eulaema meriana" have been observed to leave their territories periodically to forage for aromatic compounds, such as cineole, to synthesize pheromone for attracting and mating with females. Each type of orchid places the pollinia on a different body part of a different species of bee, so as to enforce proper cross-pollination.


title: Orchid

text: A rare achlorophyllous saprophytic orchid growing entirely underground in Australia, "Rhizanthella slateri", is never exposed to light, and depends on ants and other terrestrial insects to pollinate it.


title: Orchid

text: "Catasetum", a genus discussed briefly by Darwin, actually launches its viscid pollinia with explosive force when an insect touches a seta, knocking the pollinator off the flower.


title: Orchid

text: After pollination, the sepals and petals fade and wilt, but they usually remain attached to the ovary.


title: Orchid

text: Some species, such as in the genera "Phalaenopsis", "Dendrobium", and "Vanda", produce offshoots or plantlets formed from one of the nodes along the stem, through the accumulation of growth hormones at that point. These shoots are known as keiki.


title: Orchid

text: The ovary typically develops into a capsule that is dehiscent by three or six longitudinal slits, while remaining closed at both ends.


title: Orchid

text: The seeds are generally almost microscopic and very numerous, in some species over a million per capsule. After ripening, they blow off like dust particles or spores. Most orchid species lack endosperm in their seed and must enter symbiotic relationships with various mycorrhizal basidiomyceteous fungi that provide them the necessary nutrients to germinate, so almost all orchid species are mycoheterotrophic during germination and reliant upon fungi to complete their lifecycles. Only a handful of orchid species have seed that can germinate without mycorrhiza, namely the species within the genus "Disa" with hydrochorous seeds.


title: Orchid

text: As the chance for a seed to meet a suitable fungus is very small, only a minute fraction of all the seeds released grow into adult plants. In cultivation, germination typically takes weeks.


title: Orchid

text: Horticultural techniques have been devised for germinating orchid seeds on an artificial nutrient medium, eliminating the requirement of the fungus for germination and greatly aiding the propagation of ornamental orchids. The usual medium for the sowing of orchids in artificial conditions is agar gel combined with a carbohydrate energy source. The carbohydrate source can be combinations of discrete sugars or can be derived from other sources such as banana, pineapple, peach, or even tomato puree or coconut water. After the preparation of the agar medium, it is poured into test tubes or jars which are then autoclaved (or cooked in a pressure cooker) to sterilize the medium. After cooking, the medium begins to gel as it cools.


title: Orchid

text: The taxonomy of this family is in constant flux, as new studies continue to clarify the relationships between species and groups of species, allowing more taxa at several ranks to be recognized. The Orchidaceae is currently placed in the order Asparagales by the APG III system of 2009.


title: Orchid

text: Five subfamilies are recognised. The cladogram below was made according to the APG system of 1998. It represents the view that most botanists had held up to that time. It was supported by morphological studies, but never received strong support in molecular phylogenetic studies.


title: Orchid

text: In 2015, a phylogenetic study showed strong statistical support for the following topology of the orchid tree, using 9 kb of plastid and nuclear DNA from 7 genes, a topology that was confirmed by a phylogenomic study in the same year.


title: Orchid

text: A study in the scientific journal "Nature" has hypothesised that the origin of orchids goes back much longer than originally expected. An extinct species of stingless bee, "Proplebeia dominicana", was found trapped in Miocene amber from about 15-20 million years ago. The bee was carrying pollen of a previously unknown orchid taxon, "Meliorchis caribea", on its wings. This find is the first evidence of fossilised orchids to date and shows insects were active pollinators of orchids then. This extinct orchid, "M. caribea", has been placed within the extant tribe Cranichideae, subtribe Goodyerinae (subfamily Orchidoideae). An even older orchid species, "Succinanthera baltica", was described from the Eocene Baltic amber by Poinar & Rasmussen (2017).


title: Orchid

text: Genetic sequencing indicates orchids may have arisen earlier, 76 to 84 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous. According to Mark W. Chase "et al." (2001), the overall biogeography and phylogenetic patterns of Orchidaceae show they are even older and may go back roughly 100 million years.


title: Orchid

text: Using the molecular clock method, it was possible to determine the age of the major branches of the orchid family. This also confirmed that the subfamily Vanilloideae is a branch at the basal dichotomy of the monandrous orchids, and must have evolved very early in the evolution of the family. Since this subfamily occurs worldwide in tropical and subtropical regions, from tropical America to tropical Asia, New Guinea and West Africa, and the continents began to split about 100 million years ago, significant biotic exchange must have occurred after this split (since the age of "Vanilla" is estimated at 60 to 70 million years).


title: Orchid

text: There are around 800 genera of orchids. The following are amongst the most notable genera of the orchid family:


title: Orchid

text: The type genus (i.e. the genus after which the family is named) is "Orchis". The genus name comes from the Ancient Greek (""), literally meaning "testicle", because of the shape of the twin tubers in some species of "Orchis". The term "orchid" was introduced in 1845 by John Lindley in "School Botany", as a shortened form of "Orchidaceae".


title: Orchid

text: In Middle English, the name "bollockwort" was used for some orchids, based on "bollock" meaning testicle and "wort" meaning plant.


title: Orchid

text: Orchid species hybridize readily in cultivation, leading to a large number of hybrids with complex naming. Hybridization is possible across genera, and therefore many cultivated orchids are placed into nothogenera. For instance, the nothogenus × "Brassocattleya" is used for all hybrids of species from the genera "Brassavola" and "Cattleya". Nothogenera based on at least three genera may have names based on a person's name with the suffix "-ara", for instance × "Colmanara" = "Miltonia" × "Odontoglossum" × "Oncidium". (The suffix is obligatory starting at four genera.)


title: Orchid

text: Cultivated hybrids in the orchid family are also special in that they are named by using grex nomenclature, rather than nothospecies. For instance, hybrids between "Brassavola nodosa" and "Brassavola acaulis" are placed in the grex "Brassavola" Guiseppi. The name of the grex ("Guiseppi" in this example) is written in a non-italic font without quotes.


title: Orchid

text: As a unique feature of the orchid family, a system of abbreviations exists that applies to names of genera and nothogenera. The system is maintained by the Royal Horticultural Society. These abbreviations consist of at least one character, but may be longer. As opposed to the usual one-letter abbreviations used for names of genera, orchid abbreviations uniquely determine the (notho)genus. They are widely used in cultivation. Examples are "Phal" for "Phalaenopsis", "V" for "Vanda" and "Cleis" for "Cleisostoma".


title: Orchid

text: Orchidaceae are cosmopolitan, occurring in almost every habitat apart from glaciers. The world's richest diversity of orchid genera and species is found in the tropics, but they are also found above the Arctic Circle, in southern Patagonia, and two species of "Nematoceras" on Macquarie Island at 54° south.


title: Orchid

text: A majority of orchids are perennial epiphytes, which grow anchored to trees or shrubs in the tropics and subtropics. Species such as "Angraecum sororium" are lithophytes, growing on rocks or very rocky soil. Other orchids (including the majority of temperate Orchidaceae) are terrestrial and can be found in habitat areas such as grasslands or forest.


title: Orchid

text: Some orchids, such as "Neottia" and "Corallorhiza", lack chlorophyll, so are unable to photosynthesise. Instead, these species obtain energy and nutrients by parasitising soil fungi through the formation of orchid mycorrhizae. The fungi involved include those that form ectomycorrhizas with trees and other woody plants, parasites such as "Armillaria", and saprotrophs. These orchids are known as myco-heterotrophs, but were formerly (incorrectly) described as saprophytes as it was believed they gained their nutrition by breaking down organic matter. While only a few species are achlorophyllous holoparasites, all orchids are myco-heterotrophic during germination and seedling growth, and even photosynthetic adult plants may continue to obtain carbon from their mycorrhizal fungi. The symbiosis is typically maintained throughout the lifetime of the orchid because they depend on the fungus for nutrients, sugars and minerals. However, some orchids have been found to switch fungal partners during extreme conditions.


title: Orchid

text: The scent of orchids is frequently analysed by perfumers (using headspace technology and gas-liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry) to identify potential fragrance chemicals.


title: Orchid

text: The other important use of orchids is their cultivation for the enjoyment of the flowers. Most cultivated orchids are tropical or subtropical, but quite a few that grow in colder climates can be found on the market. Temperate species available at nurseries include "Ophrys apifera" (bee orchid), "Gymnadenia conopsea" (fragrant orchid), "Anacamptis pyramidalis" (pyramidal orchid) and "Dactylorhiza fuchsii" (common spotted orchid).


title: Orchid

text: Orchids of all types have also often been sought by collectors of both species and hybrids. Many hundreds of societies and clubs worldwide have been established. These can be small, local clubs, or larger, national organisations such as the American Orchid Society. Both serve to encourage cultivation and collection of orchids, but some go further by concentrating on conservation or research.


title: Orchid

text: The term "botanical orchid" loosely denotes those small-flowered, tropical orchids belonging to several genera that do not fit into the "florist" orchid category. A few of these genera contain enormous numbers of species. Some, such as "Pleurothallis" and "Bulbophyllum", contain approximately 1700 and 2000 species, respectively, and are often extremely vegetatively diverse. The primary use of the term is among orchid hobbyists wishing to describe unusual species they grow, though it is also used to distinguish naturally occurring orchid species from horticulturally created hybrids.


title: Orchid

text: New orchids are registered with the International Orchid Register, maintained by the Royal Horticultural Society.


title: Orchid

text: The dried seed pods of one orchid genus, "Vanilla" (especially "Vanilla planifolia"), are commercially important as a flavouring in baking, for perfume manufacture and aromatherapy.


title: Orchid

text: The underground tubers of terrestrial orchids [mainly "Orchis mascula" (early purple orchid)] are ground to a powder and used for cooking, such as in the hot beverage "salep" or in the Turkish mastic ice cream "dondurma". The name "salep" has been claimed to come from the Arabic expression ', "fox testicles", but it appears more likely the name comes directly from the Arabic name '. The similarity in appearance to testes naturally accounts for "salep" being considered an aphrodisiac.


title: Orchid

text: Some saprophytic orchid species of the group "Gastrodia" produce potato-like tubers and were consumed as food by native peoples in Australia and can be successfully cultivated, notably "Gastrodia sesamoides". Wild stands of these plants can still be found in the same areas as early Aboriginal settlements, such as Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in Australia. Aboriginal peoples located the plants in habitat by observing where bandicoots had scratched in search of the tubers after detecting the plants underground by scent.


title: Orchid

text: Orchids have many associations with symbolic values. For example, the orchid is the City Flower of Shaoxing, China. "Cattleya mossiae" is the national Venezuelan flower, while "Cattleya trianae" is the national flower of Colombia. "Vanda" Miss Joaquim is the national flower of Singapore, "Guarianthe skinneri" is the national flower of Costa Rica and "Rhyncholaelia digbyana" is the national flower of Honduras. "Prosthechea cochleata" is the national flower of Belize, where it is known as the "black orchid". "Lycaste skinneri" has a white variety (alba) that is the national flower of Guatemala, commonly known as "Monja Blanca" (White Nun). Panama's national flower is the "Holy Ghost orchid" ("Peristeria elata"), or 'the flor del Espiritu Santo'. "Rhynchostylis" "retusa" is the state flower of the Indian state of Assam where it is known as "Kopou Phul."


title: Orchid

text: Orchids native to the Mediterranean are depicted on the "Ara Pacis" in Rome, until now the only known instance of orchids in ancient art, and the earliest in European art.


title: Orchid

text: Almost all orchids are included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meaning that international trade (including in their parts/derivatives) is regulated by the CITES permit system. A smaller number of orchids such as "Paphiopedilum" sp. are listed in CITES Appendix I meaning that commercial international trade in wild-sourced specimens is prohibited and all other trade is strictly controlled.


title: Orchid

text: In 2006 the Longtan Dam was constructed at the Hongshui River, near the Yachang Orchid Nature Reserve. In response to threats of inundation of wild orchids at lower altitudes (350-400 m above sea level), 1000 endangered orchid plants of 16 genera and 29 species were translocated to higher elevation (approximately 1000 m above sea level). After relocation the 5 year survival of low and wide elevation species did not significantly differ and the mortality due to transplant shock was at only 10%. From this it was concluded that assisted migration might be a viable conservation tool for orchid species endangered by climate change.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: Tell Me Why is an episodic adventure game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios. The game consists of three chapters released for Windows and Xbox One in late 2020. It follows a pair of twins, Tyler and Alyson, with the ability to communicate with each other through telepathy, who reunite after ten years in their hometown in rural Alaska and investigate the death of their mother. A recurring theme of the story is the fallacy of memory, as the narrative explores the twins' childhood trauma and how they may each remember pivotal moments differently.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: Since it was announced in November 2019, the game has been noted for being the first AAA video game to feature a transgender person as a main character. The developers consulted with expert groups for its themes, notably GLAAD, a non-governmental organization (NGO) monitoring media coverage of LGBT people, to ensure authentic and respectful portrayal of LGBT characters. A trans man was cast as the voice actor for Tyler Ronan, of the two main characters, who had transitioned during his time away from his sister.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: It received generally favorable reviews, with critics praising the complex characters, voice acting, narrative design and setting, as well as its competent handling of culturally sensitive subjects such as transgender topics. Criticisms included inconsistent storytelling and lack of engaging gameplay.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: Players control a pair of 21-year-old American twins, Tyler Ronan (voiced by August Aiden Black) and Alyson Ronan (voiced by Erica Lindbeck), as they revisit their childhood home following a traumatic event which resulted in the death of their mother Mary-Ann Ronan and a decade-long separation from each other. Besides their old home, which is maintained by Mary-Ann's friend Sam, the twins will also revisit parts of their fictional hometown of Delos Crossing in the U.S. state of Alaska and interact with its local residents. The twins share a supernatural bond that allow them to telepathically communicate with each other, and experience visions of past events which often manifests in vivid detail. The central gameplay mechanic of the game involves players guiding the twins as they experience recollections and visions of what had transpired in a series of scenarios spread across three episodes, and piece together the plot by watching them unfold, with each individual having different interpretations of what happened. The player will make decisions for the pair based on which version of the past events they want their avatar character to believe, which will impact the outcome of the game's narrative. Players can sometimes alternate between the perspectives of both siblings, whether in their interactions with the residents of Delos Crossing, or when going through the storybooks they played with as children. A majority of the game's puzzles are derived from decoding the metaphors compiled in the storybooks, which delve into the fairy tale life Mary-Ann imagined for herself and her struggles to manage her own reality.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: Tyler's identity as a trans man is occasionally discussed or referenced within the game's narrative. The game includes the culture of the Tlingit people, an indigenous community in the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America with several Tlingit characters such as Delos police chief Eddy Brown and Michael Abila, a colleague of Alyson as well as Tyler's potential love interest. It also includes Filipino Catholic Tessa Vecchi, who runs a convenience store alongside her husband. The player's decisions during their interactions with the aforementioned non-player characters will define the circumstances of these characters as well as their relationships with the twins. The twins' bond with each other may be tested, depending on whether their attitude and behavior validates the other twin's convictions or memories.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: The game opens with a flashback sequence showing Tyler's confession to the murder of his mother, Mary-Ann, in self-defense as a child in 2005. Ten years later, an adult Tyler leaves the juvenile detention center he was sentenced to and reunites with Alyson, who has been adopted by Eddy, the investigating officer of the incident. Intending to move on with their lives, the twins return to Delos Crossing to sell their childhood home, but finds the house in a state of disrepair despite the efforts of Mary-Ann's friend Sam, who had turned to alcoholism since her death. The twins recall memories of their childhood while exploring the house, particularly fairy tales about a runaway princess and her two goblin companions told by their mother, who compiled these stories into an illustrated journal called the "Book of Goblins". After learning about Tessa's discussions with Mary-Ann about Tyler's gender identity, the twins visit Tessa at her store, where they were told that Mary-Ann's behavior became increasingly erratic shortly before her death. The twins later speak to Eddy at the Delos police station, but he declines their request to see her file. Alyson later experiences a flashback where she stabbed Mary-Ann with a pair of scissors, and begins to suffer from post-traumatic stress.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: The next morning, the twins break into the police archive and uncover files about Mary-Ann. After discovering their break-in, Eddy admits he had visited Mary-Ann to warn her on Tessa's instigation. The twins confront Tessa, who justified her actions and claimed that Mary-Ann isolated herself from the wider community, and that her alleged mental instability and parental incompetence was endangering her children. The twins return to the house to find the adjacent barn ablaze and an arsonist fleeing from the scene. After putting out the fire, the twins realized that the arsonist had tried to access a compartment beneath the barn floor containing a locked box, inside which they find letters from someone instructing Mary-Ann to get an abortion. The twins later experience a recollection of Mary-Ann arguing with an unseen man on a boat, and that Alyson was the one who stabbed their mother. The twins briefly go their separate ways following a disagreement.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: Consumed with guilt and anxiety over Mary-Ann's death, Alyson's mental health deteriorates, leading to a severe panic attack. After she recovers, Alyson visits Sam to query him about their potential familial ties, but discovers instead that an old photograph in his possession reveals a hidden loft above the barn. The twins regroup to investigate the loft and find a room of complex puzzles, which they solve using the Book of Goblins. They discover that Mary-Ann's fairy tales were actually metaphors for her troubled past: born to an overbearing family, she fell pregnant and fled to Delos Crossing to raise her baby, who did not survive. The twins find a picture of their late half-sibling, along with a letter from Mary-Ann which is addressed to them. The twins realize that Mary-Ann had suffered a mental breakdown over her fear of social services taking away her surviving children. The twins deduce that the unknown man on the boat, and their biological father, was in fact Tom Vecchi, Tessa's husband. After the twins confront Tom, the player as Alyson must decide whether she believes that Mary-Ann planned to kill herself and her two children, or that she had planned to kill only herself when Tyler interrupted her as alleged by Tom. Depending on Alyson's choices, two main concluding scenarios are presented:


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: Many details of the epilogue are also determined by the player's previous choices: for example, whether they make peace with Eddy and/or Tessa, or whether the twins kept their telepathic bond and a close relationship all alter the ending.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: "Tell Me Why" was first announced during an Xbox London event on November 14, 2019. Director Florent Guillaume described the special bond between the game's twin protagonists as the “core mechanic” of the game. According to Lead Writer Morgan Lockhart, the story began as "one about family and how conflict can arise from contradictory memories of a past event". Lockhart said the story revolves around the twins and the small town they grew up in, and from there the writing team added further layers to define who the characters are. The developers' goal is to depict an "honest" narrative about "harsh American realities", and examines themes of poverty, mental health and prejudice as part of its focus on the truth behind the death of the twins' mother Mary-Ann Ronan. Other themes of conflict which are hinted at in the game include gun rights and conversion therapy.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: The developers worked with GLAAD aiming to make Tyler Ronan, a transgender character as a main character in a AAA video game, an "authentic representation of the trans experience". Nick Adams, GLAAD's Director of Transgender Media & Representation, was a consultant for the project and made recommendations for the appropriate casting decision behind Tyler. Voice actor August Aiden Black, who is a trans man, was cast as Tyler. Adams said the game strikes a balance between "not shying away" from Tyler's gender identity and showing the manner in which it affects him on a personal level, which mostly involve how others react to him. Clay Carmuche, Xbox Publishing's Narrative Director, suggests that the perspective of the storyteller as well as the subject of the story influences the topics that can be discussed and the nature of the stories that can be told. He noted that the story of the game can be told without any acknowledgement of Tyler’s gender, but insisted that it is more interesting to explore something that is unfamiliar.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: The developers stated that in response from criticism over the variable timing of episode releases for "Life Is Strange", that they will commit to a release schedule for the three episodes over mid-2020. Initially, only subtitles were offered in non-English languages as the dubbed voice recordings in French, German, Spanish (Mexico), and Portuguese (Brazil) were delayed due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The dubbings were later released on October 31, 2020.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: The game is unavailable to purchase in some countries, including Turkey, Russia, China, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Peru, among others. A Microsoft spokesperson said that local game availability varies and the decision is based on a broad set of factors. It was available to be pre-ordered until the day of its release, August 27. On March 10, 2021, Chapter 1 of the game was made available for free on all platforms. From June 1 to 30, corresponding with Pride Month 2021, the full game was made available for free.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: The game received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregator Metacritic. The game's depiction of trans identity was subject to debate, with mixed opinions.


title: Tell Me Why (video game)

text: Todd Martens from "Los Angeles Times" said the game attracted media attention when it was announced due to the developers' decision to feature Tyler as one of its lead characters, as well as their release of an extensive FAQ that sought to explain how it handled the portrayal of Tyler. Martens suggested that while the FAQ may be interpreted as trying to stay in control of a social media narrative, it also represented relatively uncommon minority representation resulting in an "extremely close reading" otherwise.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: The East Asian cultural sphere, also known as the Sinosphere, the Sinic world, the Sinitic world, the Chinese cultural sphere, the Chinese character sphere encompasses multiple countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia that were historically influenced by Chinese culture. According to academic consensus, the East Asian cultural sphere is made up of four entities: Greater China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Other definitions sometimes include Mongolia and Singapore, because of limited historical Chinese influences or increasing modern-day Chinese diaspora. The East Asian cultural sphere is not to be confused with the Sinophone world, which includes countries where the Chinese-speaking population is dominant.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Imperial China was a regional power and exerted influence on tributary states and neighboring states, among which were Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. These interactions brought ideological and cultural influences rooted in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. During classical history, the four cultures shared a common imperial system under respective emperors. Chinese inventions influenced, and were in turn influenced by, innovations of the other cultures in governance, philosophy, science, and the arts. Written Classical Chinese became the regional "lingua franca" for literary, cultural, scientific and economic exchange, and Chinese characters ("Hanzi") became locally adapted in Japan as "Kanji", Korea as "Hanja", and Vietnam as "Chữ Hán".


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: In late classical history, the literary importance of classical Chinese diminished as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam each adopted their own literary device. Japan developed the "Katakana" and "Hiragana" scripts, Korea developed "Hangul", and Vietnam developed "Chữ Nôm" (which is now rarely used; the modern Vietnamese alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet). Classical literature written in Chinese characters nonetheless remains an important legacy of Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese cultures. In the 21st century, ideological and cultural influences of Confucianism and Buddhism remain visible in high culture and social doctrines.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Ancient China has been regarded as one of the centers of civilization, with the emergent cultures that arose from the migration of original Han settlers from the Yellow River generally regarded as the starting point of the East Asian world. Today its population is approximately 1.402 billion.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Japanese historian (1919–1998), professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, originally coined the term , conceiving of a Chinese or East-Asian cultural sphere distinct from the cultures of the west. According to Nishijima, this cultural sphere—which includes China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam—shared the philosophy of Confucianism, the religion of Buddhism, and similar political and social structures stemming from a background of historical scholars in Classical Chinese.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Sometimes used as a synonym for the East-Asian cultural sphere, the term ' derives from ' ('China, Chinese') and "", in the sense of a sphere of influence (i.e., an area influenced by a country). (cf. "Sinophone".)


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: As cognates of each other, the "CJKV" languages—Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese—translate the English term "sphere" as:


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Victor H. Mair discussed the origins of these "culture sphere" terms. The Chinese () dates back to a 1941 translation for the German term , ('culture circle, field'), which the Austrian ethnologists Fritz Graebner and Wilhelm Schmidt proposed. Japanese historian coined the expressions and , which China later re-borrowed as loanwords. Nishijima devised these Sinitic "cultural spheres" within his .


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Chinese–English dictionaries provide similar translations of this keyword () as "the intellectual or literary circles" (Liang Shiqiu 1975) and "literary, educational circles" (Lin Yutang 1972).


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: The Sinosphere may be taken to be synonymous to Ancient China and its descendant civilizations as well as the "Far Eastern civilizations" (the Mainland and the Japanese ones). In the 1930s in "A Study of History", the Sinosphere along with the Western, Islamic, Eastern Orthodox, Indic, etc. civilizations is presented as among the major "units of study."


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: British historian Arnold J. Toynbee listed the Far Eastern civilization as one of the main civilizations outlined in his book, "A Study of History". He included Japan and Korea in his definition of "Far Eastern civilization" and proposed that they grew out of the "Sinic civilization" that originated in the Yellow River basin. Toynbee compared the relationship between the Sinic and Far Eastern civilization with that of the Hellenic and Western civilizations, which had an "apparentation-affiliation."


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: American Sinologist and historian Edwin O. Reischauer also grouped China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam into a cultural sphere that he called the "Sinic world", a group of centralized states that share a Confucian ethical philosophy. Reischauer states that this culture originated in Northern China, comparing the relationship between Northern China and East Asia to that of Greco-Roman civilization and Europe. The elites of East Asia were tied together through a common written language based on Chinese characters, much in the way that Latin had functioned in Europe.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington considered the Sinic world as one of many civilizations in his book "The Clash of Civilizations". He notes that "all scholars recognize the existence of either a single distinct Chinese civilization dating back to at least 1500 B.C. and perhaps a thousand years earlier, or of two Chinese civilizations one succeeding the other in the early centuries of the Christian epoch." Huntington's Sinic civilization includes China, North Korea, South Korea, Vietnam and Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Of the many civilizations that Huntington discusses, the Sinic world is the only one that is based on a cultural, rather than religious, identity. Huntington's theory was that in a post-Cold War world, humanity "[identifies] with cultural groups: tribes, ethnic groups, religious communities [and] at the broadest level, civilizations." Yet, Huntington considered Japan as a distinct civilization.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: The cuisine of East Asia shares many of the same ingredients and techniques. Chopsticks are used as an eating utensil in all of the core East Asian countries. The use of soy sauce, which is made from fermenting soybeans, is also widespread in the region.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Rice is the staple food in all of East Asia and is a major focus of food security. People who have no rice are often seen as having no food. Moreover, in East Asian countries such as Japan (御飯; "gohan") and Korea (밥; "bap"), the word for 'cooked rice' can embody the meaning of food in general.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Popular terms associated with East Asian cuisine include boba, kimchi, sushi, hot pot, tea, dim sum, ramen, as well as phở, sashimi, udon, bánh mì among others.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: East-Asian literary culture is based on the use of Literary Chinese, which became the medium of scholarship and government across the region. Although each of these countries developed vernacular writing systems and used them for popular literature, they continued to use Chinese for all formal writing until it was swept away by rising nationalism around the end of the 19th century.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Throughout East Asia, Literary Chinese was the language of administration and scholarship. Although Vietnam, Korea, and Japan each developed writing systems for their languages, these were limited to popular literature. Chinese remained the medium of formal writing until it was displaced by vernacular writing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Though they did not use Chinese for spoken communication, each country had its tradition of reading texts aloud, the so-called Sino-Xenic pronunciations, which provide clues to the pronunciation of Middle Chinese. Chinese words with these pronunciations were also borrowed extensively into the local vernaculars, and today comprise over half their vocabularies.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Books in Literary Chinese were widely distributed. By the 7th century and possibly earlier, woodblock printing had been developed in China. At first, it was used only to copy the Buddhist scriptures, but later secular works were also printed. By the 13th century, metal movable type was used by government printers in Korea but seems to have not been extensively used in China, Vietnam, or Japan. At the same time manuscript reproduction remained important until the late 19th century.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Japan's textual scholarship had Chinese origin which made Japan one of the birthplaces of modern Sinology.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: "The Art of War", "Tao Te Ching", "I Ching" and "Analects" are classic Chinese texts that have been influential in East Asian history.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: The countries of China, Korea, Vietnam and Japan have been influenced by Taoism. Developed from Eastern philosophy, known as "Tao", the religion was created in China from the teachings of Lao Tse. It follows the search for the "tao", a concept that is equivalent to a path or course and represents the cosmic force that creates the universe and all things.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: According to this belief, the wisdom of the "Tao" is the only source of the universe and must be a natural path of life events that everyone should follow. Thus, the adherents of Taoism follow the search for Tao, which means path and represents the strength of the universe.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: The most important text in Taoism, the Tao Te Ching (Book of the Way and Virtue, c. 300 BC), declares that the Tao is the "source" of the universe, thus considered a creative principle, but not as a deity. Nature manifests itself spontaneously, without a higher intention, it is up to the human being to integrate, through "non-action" ("wuwei") and spontaneity ("ziran"), to its flow and rhythms, to achieve happiness and a long life.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Taoism is a combination of teachings from various sources, manifesting itself as a system that can be philosophical, religious or ethical. This tradition can also be presented as a worldview and a way of life.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: The countries of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam share a history of Mahayana Buddhism. It spread from India via the Silk Road through north-west India and modern day Pakistan, Xinjiang, eastward through Southeast Asia, Vietnam, then north through Guangzhou and Fujian. From China, it proliferated to Korea and Japan, especially during the Six Dynasties. It could have also re-spread from China south to Vietnam. East Asia is now home to the largest Buddhist population in the world at around 200–400 million, with the top five countries including China, Thailand, Myanmar, Japan, Vietnam—three of which falling within the East-Asian Cultural Sphere.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Buddhist philosophy is guided by the teachings of the Buddha, which lead the individual to full happiness through meditative practices, mindfulness, and reflection on their daily actions. The belief is that physical and spiritual awareness leads to a state of enlightenment called nirvana, which according to Buddha is the highest state of meditation. In this state the individual finds peace and tranquility above the oscillations of thoughts and emotions, and is rid of the inherent suffering of the physical world.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: The countries of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam share a Confucian philosophical worldview. Confucianism is a humanistic philosophy that believes that human beings are teachable, improvable and perfectible through personal and communal endeavor especially including self-cultivation and self-creation. Confucianism focuses on the cultivation of virtue and maintenance of ethics, the most basic of which are:


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Mid-Imperial Chinese philosophy is primarily defined by the development of Neo-Confucianism. During the Tang dynasty, Buddhism from Nepal also became a prominent philosophical and religious discipline. Neo-Confucianism has its origins in the Tang dynasty; the Confucianist scholar Han Yu is seen as a forebear of the Neo-Confucianists of the Song dynasty. The Song dynasty philosopher Zhou Dunyi is seen as the first true "pioneer" of Neo-Confucianism, using Daoist metaphysics as a framework for his ethical philosophy.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Elsewhere in East Asia, Japanese philosophy began to develop as indigenous Shinto beliefs fused with Buddhism, Confucianism and other schools of Chinese philosophy. Similar to Japan, in Korean philosophy elements of Shamanism were integrated into the Neo-Confucianism imported from China. In Vietnam, neo-Confucianism along with Taoism and Buddhism were also developed into Vietnam's own Tam giáo, which together with Vietnamese folk religion contributed to perfecting Vietnamese philosophy.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Though not commonly identified with that of East Asia, the following religions have been influential in its history:


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Various languages are thought to have originated in East Asia and have various degrees of influence on each other. These include:


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Core languages of the East Asian Cultural Sphere are predominantly Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, and their respective variants. These are well-documented to have historically used Chinese characters, with Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese each having roughly 60% of their vocabulary derived from Chinese. There is a small set of minor languages that are comparable to the core East Asian languages such as Zhuang and Hmong-Mien. They are often overlooked since neither have their own country or heavily export their culture, but Zhuang has been written in Hanzi inspired characters called Sawndip for over 1000 years. Hmong, while having supposedly lacked a writing system until modern history, is also suggested to have a similar percentage of Chinese loans to the core CJKV languages as well.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Despite other languages having been influenced by the Sinosphere such as Thai with its Thai numeral system and Mongolian with its historical use of Hanzi, the amount of Chinese vocabulary overall is not nearly as expansive in these languages as the core CJKV, or even Zhuang and Hmong.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Various hypotheses seek to unify various subsets of the above languages, including the Sino-Austronesian, Altaic, and Austric language groupings. An overview of these various language groups is discussed in Jared Diamond's "Germs, Guns, and Steel", and various other places.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: East Asia is quite diverse in writing systems, from the Brahmic, inspired abugidas of SEA, the logographic hanzi of China, the syllabaries of Japan, and various alphabets and abjads used in Korea (Hangul), Vietnam (Latin), etc.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Hanzi ( or ) is considered the common culture that unifies the languages and cultures of many East Asian nations. Historically, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam have used Chinese characters. Today, they are mainly used in China, Japan, and South Korea albeit in different forms.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore uses simplified characters, whereas Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau use Traditional Chinese.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Korea used to write in hanja but has invented an alphabetic system called hangul (also inspired by Chinese and phags-pa during the Mongol Empire) that is nowadays the majority script. However, hanja is a required subject in South Korea. Most names are also written in hanja. Hanja is also studied and used in academia, newspapers, and law; areas where a lot of scholarly terms and Sino-Korean loanwords are used and necessary to distinguish between otherwise ambiguous homonyms.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Vietnam used to write in chữ Hán or Classical Chinese. Since the 8th century they began inventing many of their own chữ Nôm. Since French colonization, they have switched to using a modified version of the Latin alphabet called chữ Quốc ngữ. However, Chinese characters still hold a special place in the cultures as their history and literature have been greatly influenced by Chinese characters. In Vietnam (and North Korea), chữ Hán can be seen in temples, cemeteries, and monuments today, as well as serving as decorative motifs in art and design. And there are movements to restore Hán Nôm in Vietnam. (Also see History of writing in Vietnam.)


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Zhuang people are similar to the Vietnamese in that they used to write in Sawgun (Chinese characters) and have invented many of their characters called Sawndip (Immature characters or native characters). Sawndip is still used informally and in traditional settings, but in 1957, the People's Republic of China introduced an alphabetical script for the language, which is what it officially promotes.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Before European imperialism, East Asia has always been one of the largest economies in the world, whose output had mostly been driven by China and the Silk Road. During the Industrial Revolution, East Asia modernized and became an area of economic power starting with the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century when Japan rapidly transformed itself into the only industrial power outside the North Atlantic area. Japan's early industrial economy reached its height in World War II (1939-1945) when it expanded its empire and became a major world power.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: The business cultures within the Sinosphere in some ways are heavily influenced by Chinese culture. Important in China is the social concept of "guanxi" (), which has influenced the societies of Korea, Vietnam and Japan as well. Japan often features hierarchically organized companies, and Japanese work environments place a high value on interpersonal relationships. Korean businesses, adhering to Confucian values, are structured around a patriarchal family governed by "filial piety" () between management and a company's employees.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Following Japanese defeat, economic collapse after the war, and US military occupation, Japan's economy recovered in the 1950s with the post-war economic miracle in which rapid growth propelled the country to become the world's second-largest economy by the 1980s.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Since the Korean War and again under US military occupation, South Korea has experienced its postwar economic miracle called the Miracle on the Han River, with the rise of global tech industry leaders like Samsung, LG, etc. As of 2019 its economy is the 4th largest in Asia and the 11th largest in the world.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Hong Kong became one of the Four Asian Tiger economies, developing strong textile and manufacturing economies. South Korea followed a similar route, developing the textile industry. Following in the footsteps of Hong Kong and Korea, Taiwan and Singapore quickly industrialized through government policies. By 1997, all four of the Asian Tiger economies had joined Japan as economically developed nations.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: As of 2019, South Korean and Japanese growth have stagnated (see also Lost Decade), and present growth in East Asia has now shifted to China and to the Tiger Cub Economies of Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Since the Chinese economic reform, China has become the 2nd and 1st-largest economy in the world respectively by nominal GDP and GDP (PPP). The Pearl River Delta is one of the top startup regions (comparable with Beijing and Shanghai) in East Asia.


title: East Asian cultural sphere

text: Up until the early 2010s, Vietnamese trade was heavily dependent on China, and many Chinese-Vietnamese speak both Cantonese and Vietnamese, which share many linguistic similarities. Vietnam, one of Next Eleven countries , is regarded as a rising economic power in Southeast Asia.


title: Shoal

text: In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It often refers to those submerged ridges, banks, or bars that rise near enough to the surface of a body of water as to constitute a danger to navigation. Shoals are also known as sandbanks, sandbars, or gravelbars. Two or more shoals that are either separated by shared troughs or interconnected by past or present sedimentary and hydrographic processes are referred to as a shoal complex.


title: Shoal

text: The term "shoal" is also used in a number of ways that can be either similar or quite different from how it is used in geologic, geomorphic, and oceanographic literature. Sometimes, this term refers to either any relatively shallow place in a stream, lake, sea, or other body of water; a rocky area on the seafloor within an area mapped for navigation purposes; or a growth of vegetation on the bottom of a deep lake that occurs at any depth or is used as a verb for the process of proceeding from a greater to a lesser depth of water.


title: Shoal

text: Shoals are characteristically long and narrow (linear) ridges. They can develop where a stream, river, or ocean current promotes deposition of sediment and granular material, resulting in localized shallowing (shoaling) of the water. Marine shoals also develop either by the in-place drowning of barrier islands as the result of episodic sea level rise or by the erosion and submergence of inactive delta lobes.


title: Shoal

text: Shoals can appear as a coastal landform in the sea, where they are classified as a type of ocean bank, or as fluvial landforms in rivers, streams, and lakes.


title: Shoal

text: The term "bar" can apply to landform features spanning a considerable range in size, from a length of a few meters in a small stream to marine depositions stretching for hundreds of kilometers along a coastline, often called barrier islands.


title: Shoal

text: They are typically composed of sand, although they could be of any granular matter that the moving water has access to and is capable of shifting around (for example, soil, silt, gravel, cobble, shingle, or even boulders). The grain size of the material comprising a bar is related to the size of the waves or the strength of the currents moving the material, but the availability of material to be worked by waves and currents is also important.


title: Shoal

text: Wave shoaling is the process when surface waves move towards shallow water, such as a beach, they slow down, their wave height increases and the distance between waves decreases. This behavior is called "shoaling", and the waves are said to shoal. The waves may or may not build to the point where they break, depending on how large they were to begin with, and how steep the slope of the beach is. In particular, waves shoal as they pass over submerged sandbanks or reefs. This can be treacherous for boats and ships.


title: Shoal

text: Shoaling can also refract waves, so the waves change direction. For example, if waves pass over a sloping bank which is shallower at one end than the other, then the shoaling effect will result in the waves slowing more at the shallow end. Thus, the wave fronts will refract, changing direction like light passing through a prism. Refraction also occurs as waves move towards a beach if the waves come in at an angle to the beach, or if the beach slopes more gradually at one end than the other.


title: Shoal

text: Sandbars, also known as a trough bars, form where the waves are breaking, because the breaking waves set up a shoreward current with a compensating counter-current along the bottom. Sometimes this occurs seaward of a trough (marine landform).


title: Shoal

text: Sand carried by the offshore moving bottom current is deposited where the current reaches the wave break. Other longshore bars may lie further offshore, representing the break point of even larger waves, or the break point at low tide.


title: Shoal

text: A harbor or river bar is a sedimentary deposit formed at a harbor entrance or river mouth by the deposition of freshwater sediment or by the action of waves on the sea floor or on up-current beaches.


title: Shoal

text: Where beaches are suitably mobile, or the river's suspended or bed loads are large enough, deposition can build up a sandbar that completely blocks a river mouth and dams the river. It can be a seasonally natural process of aquatic ecology, causing the formation of estuaries and wetlands in the lower course of the river. This situation will persist until the bar is eroded by the sea, or the dammed river develops sufficient head to break through the bar.


title: Shoal

text: In a nautical sense, a "bar" is a shoal, similar to a reef: a shallow formation of (usually) sand that is a navigation or grounding hazard, with a depth of water of or less. It therefore applies to a silt accumulation that shallows the entrance to or course of a river, or creek. A bar can form a dangerous obstacle to shipping, preventing access to the river or harbor in poor weather conditions or at some states of the tide.


title: Shoal

text: In addition to longshore bars discussed above that are relatively small features of a beach, the term "shoal" can be applied to larger geological units that form off a coastline as part of the process of coastal erosion, such as spits and baymouth bars that form across the front of embayments and rias. A tombolo is a bar that forms an isthmus between an island or offshore rock and a mainland shore.


title: Shoal

text: In places of reentrance along a coastline (such as inlets, coves, rias, and bays), sediments carried by a longshore current will fall out where the current dissipates, forming a spit. An area of water isolated behind a large bar is called a lagoon. Over time, lagoons may silt up, becoming salt marshes.


title: Shoal

text: In some cases, shoals may be precursors to beach expansion and dunes formation, providing a source of windblown sediment to augment such beach or dunes landforms.


title: Shoal

text: Since prehistoric times, humans have chosen some shoals as a site of habitation. In some early cases, the locations provided easy access to exploit marine resources. In modern times, these sites are sometimes chosen for the water amenity or view, but many such locations are prone to storm damage.