title: Chinese architecture

text: Wood was typically utilised as a primary building material. Also, Chinese culture holds that life connects with nature and that humans should interact with animated things. By contrast stone was associated with the homes of the dead. However, unlike other building materials, wooden structures are less durable. The Songyue Pagoda (built in 523) is China's oldest extant "pagoda"; its use of brick instead of wood allowed it to endure across the centuries. From the Tang dynasty (618–907) onwards, brick and stone architecture gradually became more common. The earliest examples of this transition can be seen in building projects such as the Zhaozhou Bridge completed in 605 or the Xumi Pagoda built in 636. Some stone and brick architecture was used in subterranean tomb architecture of earlier dynasties.


title: Chinese architecture

text: In the early 20th century no known fully wood-constructed Tang Dynasty buildings still existed; the oldest so far discovered was the 1931 find of Guanyin Pavilion at Dule Monastery, dated 984 during the Song Dynasty. Later architectural historians Liang Sicheng, Lin Huiyin, Mo Zongjiang,discovered that the Great East Hall of Foguang Temple on Mount Wutai in Shanxi dated to 857. The groundfloor of this monastic hall measures . The main hall of nearby Nanchan Temple on Mount Wutai was later dated to 782. Six Tang era wooden buildings had been found by the 21st century. The oldest intact fully wooden pagoda is the Pagoda of Fogong Temple of the Liao dynasty, located in Ying County of Shanxi. While the East Hall of Foguang Temple features seven types of bracket arms in its construction, the 11th-century Pagoda of Fogong Temple features fifty-four.


title: Chinese architecture

text: The earliest walls and platforms used rammed earth construction. Ancient sections of the Great Wall of China used brick and stone, although the brick and stone Great Wall seen today is a Ming dynastyrenovation.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Buildings for public use and for elites usually consisted of earth mixed with bricks or stones on raised platforms which allowed them to survive. The earliest of this sort of construction was during the Shang dynasty ( - 1046 BCE)


title: Chinese architecture

text: Although mostly only ruins of brick and rammed earth walls and towers from ancient China (i.e. before the 6th century AD) survive, information on ancient Chinese architecture (especially wooden architecture) can be discerned from clay models of buildings created as funerary items. This is similar to the paper joss houses burned in some modern Chinese funerals. The following models were made during the Han Dynasty (202 BC – AD 220):


title: Chinese architecture

text: During the Jin dynasty (266–420) and the Six Dynasties, miniature models of buildings or entire architectural ensembles were often made to decorate the tops of the so-called "soul vases" ("hunping"), found in many tombs of that period.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Beyond China's physically creative architecture techniques lies an "imaginary architecture". This imaginary architecture reflected three major principles that carry messages about the relations between inhabitants, society, and the cosmos, and that depict gender power imbalances.


title: Chinese architecture

text: The first design principle was that the Chinese house was the embodiment of Neo-Confucian values. These collaborative values were loyalty, respect, and service. They were depicted through representations of generations, gender, and age. Unlike western homes, the Chinese home was not a private space or a place separated from the state. It was a community in itself that sheltered a patrilineal kinship clan. It was quite common for houses to shelter "five generations under one roof." Social concepts reflected the Five Relationships between "ruler and subject, father and child, husband and wife, elder and younger brother and friends." The unequal relationship between the superior and subordinate in these relationships was emphasized. The relationship between husband and wife was patriarchal. The husband was required to treat the spouse with kindness, consideration, and understanding.


title: Chinese architecture

text: The Chinese house was a cosmic space. The house was designed as a shelter to foil evil influences by channeling cosmic energies ("qi") by respecting feng shui. Depending on the season, astral cycle, landscape, and the house's design, orientation, and architectural details, some amount of energy would be produced. However, cosmic energy could be used in both moral and immoral ways. The moral way is by adding feng shui to a local community temple. Feng shui could also be used competitively to raise the value of one's house at the expense of others. For example, if someone built part of their house against the norm, their house could be considered a threat, because it was recklessly throwing off cosmic energy. In one detailed account, a fight broke out over feng shui.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Feng shui was also incorporated inside the home. Symmetry, orientations, arrangements of objects, and cleanliness were important factors to direct cosmic energy. Even in poorer homes cleanliness and tidiness were highly desired to compensate for the lack of space. Sweeping was a daily task that was thought to be a purifying act. Chinese historian Sima Guang writes, "The servants of the inner and outer quarters and the concubines all rise at the first crow of the cock. After combing their hair, washing, and getting dressed, the male servants should sweep the halls and front courtyard; the doorman and older servants should sweep the middle courtyard, while the maids sweep the living quarters, arrange tables and chairs, and prepare for the toilet of the master and mistress." The task of cleaning further illustrates, the gender segregation of the Chinese household.


title: Chinese architecture

text: The house was a space of culture that depicted the Chinese view of humanity. The house was a domestic domain, separated from the undomesticated world. The separation was commonly realized through walls and gates. Gates were first a physical barrier and second a notice board.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Women were often hidden away within the inner walls to perform domestic duties, while men would freely interact with the outside.


title: Chinese architecture

text: While brides entered an unknown and potentially hostile environment, the husband "never had to leave his parents or his home, he knew which lineage and which landscape he belonged to from the time he began to understand the world." New brides were typically treated badly by senior household members. Junior brides might be treated like unpaid servants and forced to do unpleasant chores. Bray characterized marriage as the bride's descent into hell. "The analogy of the wedding process with death is made explicit: the bride describes herself as being prepared for death, and the wedding process as the crossing of the yellow river that is the boundary between this life and the next. Shes appeals for justice, citing the valuable and unrecognized contribution she has made to her family. Her language is bitter and unrestrained, and she even curses the matchmaker and her future husband's family. Such lamenting can take place only within her parents' household and must cease halfway on the road to her new home, when the invisible boundary has been crossed." Women were fully accepted into a new home only after bearing a child.


title: Chinese architecture

text: The confinement of women was also a method of controlling their sexual lives. Confinement was used to prevent impregnation by an outsider who might thereby claim a slice of the family's wealth. Bray claimed that wives were often represented as "gossiping troublemakers eager to stir up strife between otherwise devoted brothers, the root of family discord, requiring strict patriarchal control."


title: Chinese architecture

text: Husbands and wives did not stay in the same private room for long periods. During the day, men would go out or work in their studies, avoiding unnecessary contact with female relatives. Women were generally confined to the inner perimeter. When leaving the inner perimeter, they must cover their face with a veil or a sleeve. Conversely, men were not usually permitted to enter the inner perimeter, providing women some control over their daily experience.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Chinese architecture received significant influence from abroad, particularly during dynasties such as the Yuan and Qing, which were more outward-facing. The ruins of the Yuan capital of Khanbaliq under the Forbidden City were reported to be both distinct from previous styles and to influence later architecture. The arrival of many Muslim officials, architects and scholars from the Islamic world during the Yuan dynasty led to an influx of Islamic elements, especially in mosques.


title: Chinese architecture

text: The Zhenghai Mosque in Ningbo is an example of Islamic architecture that appeared in China during the Song dynasty. When Arabic traders settled in Ningbo, they spread Muslim culture and built a mosque. Later, mosques were built around Beijing. The mosques of Xi'an such as Xi'an Great Mosque and Daxuexi Alley Mosque reflected similar influences. Beijing's mosques follow essentially the norms of Chinese layout, design, and traditional wooden structure.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Many miniature "pagodas" exist in Northeast China. They were built by Buddhists during the Liao dynasty (907–1125), which supported Buddhism. They developed Buddhist architecture that used bricks. Many such pagodas spread from Hebei Province to Beijing and Inner Mongolia.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Chinese architecture influenced the architecture of East Asian countries. During the Tang dynasty, much Chinese culture was imported by neighboring nations. Chinese architecture had a major influence on the architectural styles of Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and Vietnam where the East Asian hip-and-gable roof design is ubiquitous.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Chinese architecture influenced the architecture of various Southeast Asian countries. Chinese architectural elements were adopted by Thai artisans after trade commenced with the Yuan and Ming dynasties. Temple and palace roof tops adopted Chinese-style. Chinese-style buildings can be found in Ayutthaya, a nod towards the many Chinese shipbuilders, sailors and traders who came to the country. In Indonesia, mosques bearing Chinese influence can be found. This influence is recent in comparison to other parts of Asia and is largely due to the Chinese Indonesian community.


title: Chinese architecture

text: In South Asia, Chinese architecture played a significant role in shaping Sri Lankan architecture, alongside influences from other parts of Southeast Asia. The Kandyan roof style, for example bears many similarities to the East Asian hip-and-gable roof technique.


title: Chinese architecture

text: The Chinese-origin guardian lion is also found in front of Buddhist temples, buildings and some Hindu temples (in Nepal) across Asia including Japan, Korea, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cambodia and Laos.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Shanxi preserves the oldest wooden structures in China from Tang dynasty, including the Foguang Temple and Nanchan Temple. Yungang Grottoes in Datong and numerous Buddhist temples in the sacred Mount Wutai exemplify Chinese religious architecture. Shanxi family compounds are representative of vernacular architecture in North China. In the mountainous areas of Shanxi, "yaodong" is a type of earth shelter that is commonly found.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Classical Lingnan architecture is used primarily in Guangdong and the eastern half of Guangxi. It is noted for its use of carvings and sculptures for decorations, green brick, balconies, "Cold alleys", "Narrow doors", and many other characteristics adaptive to the subtropical region.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Minnan architecture, or Hokkien architecture, refers to the architectural style of the Hoklo people, the Han Chinese group who are the dominant demographic of Southern Fujian and Taiwan. This style is noted for its use of swallowtail roofs (heavily decorated upward-curving roof ridges) and "cut porcelain carving" for decorations. The swallowtail roof is a signature of Hokkien architecture, commonly used for religious buildings like shrines and temples, but also in dwellings. Hokkien architecture is dominated by decorations from carvings of natural elements like plants and animals, or figures from Chinese mythology.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Teochew architectural is the architectural style of the Teochew people, who come from the Chaoshan region of Guangdong province. Teochew architecture is categorised by its "curly grass roofs" (with the ridges curving into a loop) and wood carvings, and share the "cut porcelain carving" tradition with the closely-related Hokkien people.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Hakka people are noted for building distinctive walled villages in order to protect themselves from clan wars.


title: Chinese architecture

text: The Gan Chinese-speaking province of Jiangxi makes use of bricks, wood, and stones as materials, primarily using wooden frames.


title: Chinese architecture

text: During the Sui period in the 7th century, structures were carved in the Hebei mountains. These structures had a quadrilateral ground plan with intent for a cubic interior. Pillars inside would be octagonal. Another feature included mullioned windows. Plus, there were anterooms, which were small Buddhist caves.


title: Chinese architecture

text: The Jin Chinese cultural area of Shanxi and northern Shaanxi is noted for carving homes into the sides of mountains. The soft rock of the Loess Plateau in this region makes an excellent insulating material.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Early Xinjiang architecture was influenced by Buddhist, Manichaean, Sogdian, Uyghur and Chinese cultural groups, most prominent examples including the cave temples of Bezeklik; religious and residential buildings at Jiahoe; and temples and shrines at Gaochang.


title: Chinese architecture

text: The first Muslims came to Xinjiang in the eighth or ninth centuries CE, yet only became a significant presence during the Yuan dynasty.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Islam came to Hami province in eastern Xinjiang at the end of the fourteenth century, and the province's first mosque was built in 1490, with ten generations of Muslim kings of Hami buried in the complex from the 1690s to 1932. The mausoleum complex of Hami was built in 1840 – the tomb of King Boxi'er is the complex's most prominent feature, having been constructed after the Muslim rebellion of 1867.


title: Chinese architecture

text: The mud-brick Emin Minaret (or Sugongta) in Turpan province is 44 metres (144 ft) tall is the tallest minaret in China. The tower is decorated with sixteen patterns on the exterior, with textured bricks carved into intricate, repetitive, geometric and floral mosaic patterns, such as stylized flowers and rhombuses. The minaret was started in 1777 during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–1796) and was completed only one year later.


title: Chinese architecture

text: Other regional styles include Hutong, found in northern China, Longtang and Shikumen of Haipai (Shanghainese) architecture.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The Khrushchev Thaw ( or simply "ottepel") is the period from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were relaxed due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization and peaceful coexistence with other nations. The term was coined after Ilya Ehrenburg's 1954 novel "The Thaw "("Оттепель"), sensational for its time.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The Thaw became possible after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. First Secretary Khrushchev denounced former General Secretary Stalin in the "Secret Speech" at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party, then ousted the Stalinists during his power struggle in the Kremlin. The Thaw was highlighted by Khrushchev's 1954 visit to Beijing, People's Republic of China, his 1955 visit to Belgrade, Yugoslavia (with whom relations had soured since the Tito–Stalin Split in 1948), and his subsequent meeting with Dwight Eisenhower later that year, culminating in Khrushchev's 1959 visit to the United States.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The Thaw initiated irreversible transformation of the entire Soviet society by opening up for some economic reforms and international trade, educational and cultural contacts, festivals, books by foreign authors, foreign movies, art shows, popular music, dances and new fashions, and massive involvement in international sport competitions. As the power struggle between pro-Khrushchevists and pro-Stalinists never stopped, it eventually weakened the Soviet Communist Party.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The Thaw allowed some freedom of information in the media, arts, and culture; international festivals; foreign films; uncensored books; and new forms of entertainment on the emerging national TV, ranging from massive parades and celebrations to popular music and variety shows, satire and comedies, and all-star shows like "Goluboy Ogonyok". Such political and cultural updates altogether had a significant influence on the public consciousness of several generations of people in the Soviet Union.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Leonid Brezhnev, who succeeded Khrushchev, put an end to the Thaw. The 1965 economic reform of Alexei Kosygin was de facto discontinued by the end of the 1960s, while the trial of the writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky in 1966—the first such public trial since Stalin's reign—and the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 identified reversal of the liberalization of the country.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev's Thaw had its genesis in the concealed power struggle among Stalin's lieutenants. Several major leaders among the Red Army commanders, such as Marshal Georgy Zhukov and his loyal officers, had some serious tensions with Stalin's secret service. On the surface, the Red Army and the Soviet leadership seemed united after their victory in World War II. However, the hidden ambitions of the top people around Stalin, as well as Stalin's own suspicions, had prompted Khrushchev that he could rely only on those few; they would stay with him through the entire political power struggle. That power struggle was surreptitiously prepared by Khrushchev while Stalin was alive, and came to surface after Stalin's death in March 1953. By that time, Khrushchev's people were planted everywhere in the Soviet hierarchy, which allowed Khrushchev to execute, or remove his main opponents, and then introduce some changes in the rigid Soviet ideology and hierarchy.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Stalin's leadership had reached new extremes in ruling people at all levels, such as the deportations of nationalities, the Leningrad Affair, the Doctors' plot, and official criticisms of writers and other intellectuals. At the same time, millions of soldiers and officers had seen Europe after World War II, and had become aware of different ways of life which existed outside the Soviet Union. Upon Stalin's orders many were arrested and punished again, including the attacks on the popular Marshal Georgy Zhukov and other top generals, who had exceeded the limits on taking trophies when they looted the defeated nation of Germany. The loot was confiscated by Stalin's security apparatus, and Marshal Zhukov was demoted, humiliated and exiled; he became a staunch anti-Stalinist. Zhukov waited until the death of Stalin, which allowed Khrushchev to bring Zhukov back for a new political battle.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The temporary union between Nikita Khrushchev and Marshal Georgy Zhukov was founded on their similar backgrounds, interests and weaknesses: both were peasants, both were ambitious, both were abused by Stalin, both feared the Stalinists, and both wanted to change these things. Khrushchev and Zhukov needed one another to eliminate their mutual enemies in the Soviet political elite.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: In 1953, Zhukov helped Khrushchev to eliminate Lavrenty Beria, then a First Vice-Premier, who was promptly executed in Moscow, as well as several other figures of Stalin's circle. Soon Khrushchev ordered the release of millions of political prisoners from the Gulag camps. Under Khrushchev's rule the number of prisoners in the Soviet Union was decreased, according to some writers, from 13 million to 5 million people.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev also promoted and groomed Leonid Brezhnev, whom he brought to the Kremlin and introduced to Stalin in 1952. Then Khrushchev promoted Brezhnev to Presidium (Politburo) and made him the Head of Political Directorate of the Red Army and Navy, and moved him up to several other powerful positions. Brezhnev in return helped Khrushchev by tipping the balance of power during several critical confrontations with the conservative hard-liners, including the ouster of pro-Stalinists headed by Molotov and Malenkov.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev denounced Stalin in his speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", delivered at the closed session of the 20th Party Congress, behind closed doors, after midnight on 25 February 1956. In this speech, Khrushchev described the damage done by Joseph Stalin's cult of personality, and the repressions, known as the Great Purge that killed millions and traumatized many people in the Soviet Union. After the delivery of the speech, it was officially disseminated in a shorter form among members of the Soviet Communist Party across the USSR starting 5 March 1956.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Together with his ally Anastas Mikoyan and a small but prominent group of Gulag returnees, Khrushchev also initiated a wave of rehabilitations. This action officially restored the reputations of many millions of innocent victims, who were killed or imprisoned in the Great Purge under Stalin. Further, tentative moves were made through official and unofficial channels to relax restrictions on freedom of speech that had been held over from the rule of Stalin.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev's 1956 speech was the strongest effort ever in the USSR to bring political change, at that time, after several decades of fear of Stalin's rule, that took countless innocent lives. Khrushchev's speech was published internationally within a few months, and his initiatives to open and liberalize the USSR had surprised the world. Khrushchev's speech had angered many of his powerful enemies, thus igniting another round of ruthless power struggle within the Soviet Communist Party.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev's denouncement of Stalin came as a shock to the Soviet people. Many in Georgia, Stalin's homeland, especially the young generation, bred on the panegyrics and permanent praise of the "genius" of Stalin, perceived it as a national insult. In March 1956, a series of spontaneous rallies to mark the third anniversary of Stalin's death quickly evolved into an uncontrollable mass demonstration and political demands such as the change of the central government in Moscow and calls for the independence of Georgia from the Soviet Union appeared, leading to the Soviet army intervention and bloodshed in the streets of Tbilisi.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was suppressed by a massive invasion of Soviet tanks and Red Army troops in Budapest. The street fighting against the invading Red Army caused thousands of casualties among Hungarian civilians and militia, as well as hundreds of the Soviet military personnel killed. The attack by the Soviet Red Army also caused massive emigration from Hungary, as hundreds of thousands of Hungarians had fled as refugees.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: At the same time, the Polish October emerged as the political and social climax in Poland. Such democratic changes in the internal life of Poland were also perceived with fear and anger in Moscow, where the rulers did not want to lose control, fearing the political threat to Soviet security and power in Eastern Europe.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: A faction of the Soviet communist party was enraged by Khrushchev's speech in 1956, and rejected Khrushchev's de-Stalinization and liberalization of Soviet society. One year after Khrushchev's secret speech, the Stalinists attempted to oust Khrushchev from the leadership position in the Soviet Communist Party.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev's enemies considered him hypocritical as well as ideologically wrong, given Khrushchev's involvement in Stalin's Great Purges, and other similar events as one of Stalin's favorites. They believed that Khrushchev's policy of peaceful coexistence would leave the Soviet Union open to attack. Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Georgy Malenkov, and Dmitri Shepilov, who joined at the last minute after Kaganovich convinced him the group had a majority, attempted to depose Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Party in May 1957.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: However, Khrushchev had used Marshal Georgy Zhukov again. Khrushchev was saved by several strong appearances in his supportespecially powerful was support from both Zhukov and Mikoyan. At the extraordinary session of the Central Committee held in late June 1957, Khrushchev labeled his opponents the Anti-Party Group and won a vote which reaffirmed his position as First Secretary. He then expelled Molotov, Kaganovich, and Malenkov from the Secretariat and ultimately from the Communist Party itself.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev's attempts in reforming the Soviet industrial infrastructure led to his clashes with professionals in most branches of the Soviet economy. His reform of administrative organization caused him more problems. In a politically motivated move to weaken the central state bureaucracy in 1957, Khrushchev replaced the industrial ministries in Moscow with regional Councils of People's Economy, sovnarkhozes, making himself many new enemies among the ranks in Soviet government.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev's power, although indisputable, had never been comparable to that of Stalin's, and eventually began to fade. Many of the new officials who came into the Soviet hierarchy, such as Mikhail Gorbachev, were younger, better educated, and more independent thinkers.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: In 1956, Khrushchev introduced the concept of a minimum wage. The idea was met with much criticism with communist hardliners, they claimed that the minimum wage was so small, that most people were still underpaid in reality. The next step was a contemplated financial reform. However, Khrushchev stopped short of real monetary reform, and made a simple redenomination of the rouble at 10:1 in 1961.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: In 1961, Khrushchev finalized his battle against Stalin: the body of the dictator was removed from Lenin's Mausoleum on the Red Square and then buried outside the walls of the Kremlin. The removal of Stalin's body out of Lenin's Mausoleum was arguably among the most provocative moves made by Khrushchev during the Thaw. The removal of Stalin's body consolidated pro-Stalinists against Khrushchev, and alienated even his loyal apprentices, such as Leonid Brezhnev.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: After the early 1950s, Soviet society enjoyed a series of cultural and sports events and entertainment of unprecedented scale, such as the first Spartakiad, as well as several innovative film comedies, such as "Carnival Night", and several popular music festivals. Some classical musicians, filmmakers and ballet stars were allowed to make appearances outside the Soviet Union in order to better represent its culture and society to the world.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The first Soviet academics to visit the United States in an official capacity following World War II were biochemist Andrey Kursanov and historian Boris Rybakov, who attended the Columbia University Bicentennial in New York City as representatives of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. Earlier attempts by American institutions, such as Princeton in 1946, to invite Soviet scholars to the United States had been frustrated. The decision to allow Kursanov and Rybakov to attend marked the beginning of a new period of academic exchange between the Soviet Union and the United States: Columbia University repaid the visit in 1955, when it sent its own representatives to the bicentennial of Moscow State University, and by 1958 the universities had established an exchange program for students and faculty.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: In 1956, an agreement was achieved between the Soviet and US Governments to resume the publication and distribution in the Soviet Union of the US-produced magazine "Amerika", and to launch its counterpart, the "USSR" magazine in the US.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: In the summer of 1956, just a few months after Khrushchev's secret speech, Moscow became the center of the first Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR. The event was made pompous in the Soviet style: Moscow hosted large sports teams and groups of fans in national costumes who came from all Union republics. Khrushchev used the event to accentuate his new political and social goals, and to show himself as a new leader who was completely different from Stalin.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: In July 1957, the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Moscow. It was the first World Festival of Youth and Students held in the Soviet Union, which was opening its doors for the first time to the world. The festival attracted 34,000 people from 130 countries.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: In 1958, the first International Tchaikovsky Competition was held in Moscow. The winner was American pianist Van Cliburn, who gave sensational performances of Russian music. Khrushchev personally approved giving the top award to the American musician.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev's Thaw opened the Soviet society to a degree that allowed some foreign movies, books, art and music. Some previously banned writers and composers, such as Anna Akhmatova and Mikhail Zoshchenko, among others, were brought back to public life, as the official Soviet censorship policies had changed. Books by some internationally recognized authors, such as Ernest Hemingway, were published in millions of copies to satisfy the interest of readers in the USSR.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: In 1962, Khrushchev personally approved the publication of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", which became a sensation, and made history as the first uncensored publication about Gulag labor camps.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: There was still a lot of agitation against religion that had temporarily halted during the war effort and the years after toward the end of Stalin's rule.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Censorship of the arts relaxed throughout the Soviet Union. During this time of liberalization, Russian composers, performers, and listeners of music experienced a newfound openness in musical expression which led to the foundation of an unofficial music scene from the mid 1950s to the 1970s.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Despite these liberalizing reforms in music, many argue that Khrushchev's legislation of the arts was based, not enough on freedom of expression of the Soviet people per se, and too much on his own personal tastes. Following the emergence of some unconventional, avant-garde music as a result of his reforms, on 8 March 1963, Khrushchev delivered a speech which began to reverse some of his de-Stalinization reforms, in which he stated: "We flatly reject this cacophonous music. Our people can't use this garbage as a tool for their ideology." and "Society has a right to condemn works which are contrary to the interests of the people." Although the Thaw was considered a time of openness and liberalization, Khrushchev continued to place restrictions on these newfound freedoms.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Nonetheless, despite Khrushchev's inconsistent liberalization of musical expression, his speeches were not so much "restrictions" as "exhortations". Artists, and especially musicians, were provided access to resources that had previously been censored or altogether inaccessible prior to Khrushchev's reforms. The composers of this time, for example, were able to access scores by composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and Pierre Boulez, gaining inspiration from and imitating previously concealed musical scores.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: As Soviet composers gained access to new scores and were given a taste of freedom of expression during the late 1950s, two separate groups began to emerge. One group wrote predominantly "official" music which was "sanctioned, nourished, and supported by the Composers' Union". The second group wrote "unofficial", "left", "avant-garde", or "underground" music, marked by a general state of opposition against the Soviet Union. Although both groups are widely considered to be interdependent, many regard the unofficial music scene as more independent and politically influential than the former in the context of the Thaw.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The unofficial music that emerged during the Thaw was marked by the attempt, whether successful or unsuccessful, to reinterpret and reinvigorate the "battle of form and content" of the classical music of the period. Although the term "unofficial" implies a level of illegality involved in the production of this music, composers, performers, and listeners of "unofficial" music actually used "official" means of production. Rather, the music was considered unofficial within a context that counteracted, contradicted, and redefined the socialist realist requirements from within their official means and spaces.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Unofficial music emerged in two distinct phases. The first phase of unofficial music was marked by performances of "escapist" pieces. From a composer's perspective, these works were escapist in the sense that their sound and structure withdrew from the demands of socialist realism. Additionally, pieces developed during this phase of unofficial music allowed the listeners the ability to escape the familiar sounds that Soviet officials officially sanctioned. The second phase of unofficial music emerged during the late 1960s, when the plots of the music became more apparent, and composers wrote in a more mimetic style, writing in contrast to their earlier compositions of the first phase.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Throughout the musical Thaw, the generation of "young composers" who had matured their musical tastes with broader access to music that had previously been censored was the prime focus of the unofficial music scene. The Thaw allowed these composers the freedom to access old and new scores, especially those originating in the Western avant-garde. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, young composers such as Andrei Volkonsky and Edison Denisov, among others, developed abstract musical practices that created sounds that were new to the common listener's ear. Socialist realist music was widely considered "boring", and the unofficial concerts that the young composers presented allowed the listeners "a means of circumventing, reinterpreting, and undercutting the dominant socialist realist aesthetic codes".


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Despite the seemingly rebellious nature of the unofficial music of the Thaw, historians debate whether the unofficial music that emerged during this time should truly be considered as resistance to the Soviet system. While a number of participants in unofficial concerts "claimed them to be a liberating activity, connoting resistance, opposition, or protest of some sort", some critics claim that rather than taking an active role in opposing Soviet power, composers of unofficial music simply "withdrew" from the demands of the socialist realist music and chose to ignore the norms of the system. Although Westerners tend to categorize unofficial composers as "dissidents" against the Soviet system, many of these composers were afraid to take action against the system in fear that it might have a negative impact on their professional advancement. Many composers favored a less direct, yet significant method of opposing the system through their lack of musical compliance.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Regardless of the intentions of the composers, the effect of their music on audiences throughout the Soviet Union and abroad "helped audiences imagine alternative possibilities to those suggested by Soviet authorities, principally through the ubiquitous stylistic tropes of socialist realism". Although the music of the younger generation of unofficial Soviet composers experienced little widespread success in the West, its success within the Soviet Union was apparent throughout the Thaw (Schwarz 423). Even after Khrushchev's fall from power in October 1964, the freedoms that composers, performers, and listeners felt through unofficial concerts lasted into the 1970s.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: However, despite the powerful role that unofficial music played in the Soviet Union during the Thaw, much of the music that was composed during that time continued to be controlled. As a result of this, a great deal of this unofficial music remains undocumented. Consequently, much of what we know now about unofficial music in the Thaw can be sourced only through interviews with those composers, performers, and listeners who witnessed the unofficial music scene during the Thaw.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The death of Stalin in 1953 and the twentieth CPSU congress of February 1956 had a huge impact throughout Eastern Europe. Literary thaws actually preceded the congress in Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, and the GDR and later burgeoned briefly in Czechoslovakia and Chairman Mao's China. With the exception of the arch Stalinist and anti-Titoist Albania, Romania was the only country where intellectuals avoided an open clash with the regime, influenced partly by the lack of any earlier revolt in post-war Romania that would have forced the regime to make concessions.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: In the West, Khrushchev's Thaw is known as a temporary thaw in the icy tension between the United States and the USSR during the Cold War. The tensions were able to thaw because of Khrushchev's de-Stalinization of the USSR and peaceful coexistence theory and also because of US President Eisenhower's cautious attitude and peace attempts. For example, both leaders attempted to achieve peace by attending the 1955 Geneva International Peace Summit and developing the Open Skies Policy and Quest for Arms Agreement. The leaders' attitudes allowed them to, as Khrushchev put it, "break the ice."


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev's Thaw developed largely as a result of Khrushchev's theory of peaceful co-existence which believed the two superpowers (USA and USSR) and their ideologies could co-exist together, without war. Khrushchev had created the theory of peaceful existence in an attempt to reduce hostility between the two superpowers. He tried to prove peaceful coexistence by attending international peace conferences, such as the Geneva Summit, and by traveling internationally, such as his trip to USA's Camp David in 1959.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: This spirit of co-operation was severely damaged by the 1960 U-2 incident. The Soviet presentation of downed pilot Francis Gary Powers at the May 1960 Paris Peace Summit and Eisenhower's refusal to apologize ended much of the progress of this era. Then Khrushchev approved the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Further deterioration of the Thaw and decay of Khrushchev's international political standing happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. At that time, the Soviet and international media were making two completely opposite pictures of reality, while the world was at the brink of a nuclear war. Although direct communication between Khrushchev and the US president John F. Kennedy helped to end the crisis, Khrushchev's political image in the West was damaged.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev's Thaw caused unprecedented social, cultural and economic transformations in the Soviet Union. The 60s generation actually started in the 1950s, with their uncensored poetry, songs and books publications.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The 6th World Festival of Youth and Students had opened many eyes and ears in the Soviet Union. Many new social trends stemmed from that festival. Many Russian women became involved in love affairs with men visiting from all over the world, what resulted in the so-called "inter-baby boom" in Moscow and Leningrad. The festival also brought new styles and fashions that caused further spread of youth subculture called "stilyagi". The festival also "revolutionized" the underground currency trade and boosted the black market.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Emergence of such popular stars as Bulat Okudzhava, Edita Piekha, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Bella Akhmadulina, and the superstar Vladimir Vysotsky had changed the popular culture forever in the USSR. Their poetry and songs broadened the public consciousness of the Soviet people and pushed guitars and tape recorders to masses, so the Soviet people became exposed to independent channels of information and public mentality was eventually updated in many ways.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev finally liberated millions of peasants; by his order the Soviet government gave them identifications, passports, and thus allowed them to move out of poor villages to big cities. Massive housing construction, known as khrushchevkas, were undertaken during the 1950s and 1960s. Millions of cheap and basic residential blocks of low-end flats were built all over the Soviet Union to accommodate the largest migration ever in the Soviet history, when masses of landless peasants moved to Soviet cities. The move caused a dramatic change of the demographic picture in the USSR, and eventually finalized the decay of peasantry in Russia.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Economic reforms were contemplated by Alexei Kosygin, who was chairman of the USSR State Planning Committee in 1959 and then a full member of the Presidium (also known as Politburo after 1966) in 1960.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: In 1959, the American National Exhibition came to Moscow with the goals of displaying United States' productivity and prosperity. The latent goal of the Americans was to get the Soviet Union to reduce production of heavy industry. If the Soviet Union started putting their resources towards producing consumer goods, it would also mean a reduction of war materials. An estimated number of over twenty million Soviet citizens viewed the twenty-three U.S. exhibitions during a thirty-year period. These exhibitions were part of the Cultural Agreement formed by the United States and the Soviet Union in order to acknowledge the long-term exchange of science, technology, agriculture, medicine, public health, radio, television, motion pictures, publications, government, youth, athletics, scholarly research, culture, and tourism. In addition to the influences of European and Western culture, the spoils of the Cold War exposed the Soviet people to a new way of life. Through motion pictures from the United States, viewers learned of another way of life.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The Kitchen Debate at the 1959 Exhibition in Moscow fueled Khrushchev to catch up to Western consumerism. The "Khrushchev regime had promised abundance to secure its legitimacy." The ideology of strict functionality concerning material goods evolved into a more relaxed view of consumerism. American sociologist David Riesman coined the term "Operation Abundance" also known as the "Nylon War" which predicted "Russian people would not long tolerate masters who gave them tanks and spies instead of vacuum cleaners and beauty parlors." The Soviets would have to produce more consumer goods to quell mass discontent. Riesman's theory came true to some extent as the Soviet culture changed to include consumer goods such as vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and sewing machines. These items were specifically targeted at women in the Soviet Union with the idea that they relieved women of their domestic burden. Additionally an interest in changing the western image of a dowdy Russian woman led to the cultural acceptance of beauty products. The modern Russian woman wanted the clothing, cosmetics, and hairstyles available to Western women. Under the Thaw, beauty shops selling cosmetics and perfume, which had previously only been available to the wealthy, became available for common women.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev responded to consumerism more diplomatically than to cultural consumption. In response to American jazz Khrushchev stated: "I don't like jazz. When I hear jazz, it's as if I had gas on the stomach. I used to think it was static when I heard it on the radio." Concerning commissioning artists during the Thaw, Khrushchev declared: "As long as I am president of the Council of Ministers, we are going to support a genuine art. We aren't going to give a kopeck for pictures painted by jackasses." In comparison, the consumption of material goods acted as a measure of economic success. Khrushchev stated: "We are producing an ever-growing quantity of all kinds of consumer goods; all the same, we must not force the pace unreasonably as regards the lowering of prices. We don't want to lower prices to such an extent that there will be queues and a black market." Previously, excessive consumerism under Communism was seen as detrimental to the common good. Now, it was not enough for the consumer goods to be made more available; quality of consumer goods needed to be raised as well. A misconception surrounding the quality of consumer goods existed because of advertising's role in the market. Advertising controlled sale quotas by increasing the desirability of surplus sub-standard goods.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The roots of consumerism started as early as the 1930s when in 1935 each Soviet Republic capital city established a model department store. The department stores acted as representatives of Soviet economic success. Under Khrushchev the retail sectors gained prevalence as Soviet department stores GUM (department store) and TsUM (Central Department Store), both located in Moscow, began to focus on trade and social interaction.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: On 31 July 1957 the Communist party decreed to increase housing construction and Khrushchev launched plans for building private apartments that differed from the old, communal apartments that had come before. Khrushchev stated that it was important "not only to provide people with good homes, but also to teach them…to live correctly." He saw a high living standard as a precondition leading the path on the transition to full communism and believed that private apartments could achieve this. Although the Thaw marked a time of openness and liberalization primarily located in the public sphere, the emergence of private housing allowed for a new formulation of a private sphere in Soviet life. This resulted in a changing ideology that needed to make room for women, who were traditionally associated with the home, and consumption of goods in order to create a well-ordered "Soviet" home.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Khrushchev's policies showed an interest in rebuilding the home and the family after the devastation of World War II. Soviet rhetoric exemplified a shift in emphasis from heavy industry to the importance of consumer goods and housing. The Seven-Year Plan was launched in 1958 and promised to build 12 million city apartments and 7 million rural houses. Alongside the increased number of private apartments was the emergence of changing attitudes toward the family. The prior Soviet ideology disdained conceptions of the traditional family, especially under Stalin, who created the vision of a large, collective family under his paternal leadership. The new emphasis on private housing created hope that the Thaw-era private realm would provide an escape from the intensities of public life and the eye of the government. Indeed, Khrushchev introduced the ideology that private life was valued and was ultimately a goal of social development. The new political rhetoric regarding the family reintroduced the concept of the nuclear family, and, in doing so, cemented the idea that the women were responsible for the domestic realm and running the home.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Recognizing the necessity of rebuilding the family in the postwar years, Khrushchev enacted policies that attempted to reestablish a more conventional domestic realm, moving away from the policies of his predecessors, and most of these were aimed at women. Despite being an active part of the workforce, women's conditions were considered by the western, capitalist world to exemplify the "backwardness" of the Soviet Union. This concept goes back to traditional Marxism, which found the roots of woman's inherent backwardness in fact that she was confined to the home; Lenin spoke of woman as a "domestic slave" who would remain in confinement as long as housework remained an activity for individuals inside the home. The prior abolition of private homes and the individual kitchen attempted to move away from the domestic regime that imprisoned women. Instead, the government tried to implement public dining, socialized housework, and collective childcare. These programs that fulfilled the original tenets of Marxism were widely resisted by traditionally-minded women.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: In March 1958, Khrushchev admitted to the Supreme Soviet his embarrassment about the public perception of Soviet women as unhappily relegated to the ranks of a manual laborer. The new private housing provided individual kitchens for many families for the first time. The new technologies of the kitchen came to be associated with the projects of modernization in the era of the Cold War's "peaceful competition." In this time, the primary competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was the battle of providing the better quality of life. In 1959, at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, U.S. Vice-President Richard Nixon declared the superiority of the capitalist system while standing in front of an example of a modern American kitchen. Known as the "Kitchen Debate," the exchange between Nixon and Khrushchev foreshadowed Khrushchev's increased attention to the needs of women, especially by creating modern kitchens. While affirming his dedication to increasing the living standard, Khrushchev associated the transition to communism with abundance and prosperity.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The Third Party Programme of 1961, the defining document of Khrushchev's policies, related social progress with technological progress, especially technological progress inside the home. Khrushchev spoke of a commitment to increasing production of consumer goods, specifically household goods and appliances that would decrease the intensity of housework. The kitchen was defined as a "workshop" that relied on the "correct organization of labour" to be most efficient. Creating what were perceived to be the best conditions for the woman's work in the kitchen was an attempt on the part of the government to ensure that the Soviet woman would be able to continue her labor inside and outside of the home. Despite the increasing demands of housework, women were expected to maintain jobs outside the home in order to sustain the national economy as well as fulfill the ideals of a Soviet well-rounded individual.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: During this time, women were flooded with pamphlets and magazines teeming with advice on how best to run a household. This literature emphasized the virtues of simplicity and efficiency. Additionally, furniture was designed to suit the average height of Moscow women, emphasizing a modern, simple style that allowed for efficient mass production. However, in the newly built apartments of the Khrushchev era, the individual kitchens were rarely up to the standards invoked by the government's rhetoric. Providing fully fitted kitchens were too expensive and time-consuming to be realized in the mass housing project.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: The streamlined, simple design and aesthetic of the kitchen was promoted throughout the rest of the home. Previous styles were labeled as petit-bourgeois once Khrushchev came to power. Khrushchev denounced the ornate style of high Stalinism for its wastefulness. The arrangement of the home during the Thaw emphasized that which was simple and functional, for those items could be easily mass-produced. Khrushchev promoted a culture of increased consumption and publicly announced that the per capita consumption of the Soviet Union would exceed that of the United States. However, consumption consisted of modern goods that lacked decorative qualities and were often poor quality, which spoke to the society's emphasis on production rather than consumption.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Both the cultural and the political thaws were effectively ended with the removal of Khrushchev as Soviet leader in October 1964, and the installment of Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1964. When Khrushchev was dismissed, Alexei Kosygin took over Khrushchev's position as Soviet Premier, but Kosygin's economic reform was not successful and hardline communists led by Brezhnev blocked any motions for reforms after Kosygin's failed attempt.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Brezhnev's career as General Secretary began with the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial in 1965, which showed that an authoritarian ideology was being established. He approved the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Vietnam War 1964-75, and the Soviet–Afghan War which continued after his death. He installed an authoritarian regime that lasted throughout his premiership and that of his two successors, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Many historians compare Khrushchev's Thaw and his massive efforts to change the Soviet society and move away from its past, with Gorbachev's "perestroika" and "glasnost" during the 1980s. Although they led the Soviet Union in different eras, both Khrushchev and Gorbachev had initiated dramatic reforms. Both efforts lasted only a few years and were supported by the people, while being opposed by the hard-liners. Both leaders were dismissed, albeit with completely different results for their country.


title: Khrushchev Thaw

text: Mikhail Gorbachev has called Khrushchev's achievements remarkable; he praised Khrushchev's 1956 speech, but stated that Khrushchev did not succeed in his reforms.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: Rithvik Dhanjani (born 5 November 1988) is an Indian actor who primarily works in Hindi television and web shows. He made his acting debut in 2009, portraying Parth in "Bandini". Dhanjani earned wider recognition with his portrayal of Arjun Digvijay Kirloskar in "Pavitra Rishta". He is a recipient of one Indian Telly Award and Gold Award each, along with other nominations.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: Dhanjani had his first success with "Pyaar Kii Ye Ek Kahaani", where he was seen portraying Jay Khurana. His film debut "Jo Hum Chahein" (2011), failed to leave a mark. 2013, marked a turning point in his career when he turned host with "Yeh Hai Aashiqui" and his success there led to him hosting other shows including "India's Next Superstars", "Super Dancer", "India's Best Dramebaaz" and "So You Think You Can Dance". He made his web debut with "I Don't Watch TV" (2016) and has been part of successful web series including "XXX" (2018) and "Cartel" (2021).


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: In addition to acting, Dhanjani has won reality shows such as "Nach Baliye 6", with his then partner Asha Negi and "I Can Do That".


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: Dhanjani was born on 5 November 1988 in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh. His family, who's Sindhi, moved to Dubai soon after he was born. He has a younger sister named Heena Dhanjani. He did his schooling in Dubai and complete his graduation from City of London College, London. In his college days, he was into acting, modeling and hosting shows.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: Later, Dhanjani got involved in theater for as long as two and a half years. After doing theatre and events in Dubai, he decided to shift to Mumbai to become an actor. He then did an acting course from the Kishore Namit Kapoor Institute before entering the television industry.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: Dhanjani met actress Asha Negi on the set of "Pavitra Rishta" in 2011 and later they began dating each other. Dhanjani and Negi parted ways in May 2020, after dating for 7 years.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: Dhanjani began his acting career with a cameo in "Bandini" in 2009, where he played Parth, a negative character. He then portrayed supporting parts of Prithvi Pundir in "Bairi Piya" from 2009 to 2010 and Partho Rawal in "Tere Liye" in 2010.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: He had his big break with "Pyaar Kii Ye Ek Kahaani" where he played the antagonist, Jay Khurana from 2010 to 2011, who was a werewolf and in love with Sukirti Kandpal's character. In 2011, he made his film debut with "Jo Hum Chahein", portraying Akash. The film received mixed to negative reviews and was a box-office failure. He also worked in the short film, "Aftermath" portraying Ali.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: In June 2012 Rithvik entered "Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 5" as wild card entry and became the second runner up.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: Dhanjani's portrayal of Arjun Digvijay Kirloskar opposite Asha Negi in Balaji Telefilms's "Pavitra Rishta" proved as a major turning point in his career. He portrayed the character from 2011 to 2014. Dhanjani won Indian Telly Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance, along with various other nominations.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: In 2013, he hosted "India's Best Dramebaaz" with Ragini Khanna. From 2013 to 2015, he hosted two seasons of "Yeh Hai Aashiqui", which gained him further praises. In 2013, he also portrayed Kabir, opposite Mihika Verma in an episode of "Yeh hai Aashiqui". In 2015, he and Negi recreated their love story in the final episode of Season 1.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: The same year, he participated in "Nach Baliye 6" with his then partner Asha Negi and they emerged as the winners. In 2014, he portrayed Vidhyut in "MTV Fanaah". In the same year, he participated in the dance reality show "Dare 2 Dance" and hosted the finale episode of "India's Raw Star". He hosted a variety of shows such as "V Distraction" and "Nach Baliye 7" with Karan Patel.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: Dhanjani emerged as the winner of the stunt based reality show "I Can Do That". He has also hosted "India's Best Dramebaaz (Season 2)" the same year. Dhanjani hosted four shows in 2016 including "Pyaar Ki Yeh Kahani Suno", "So You Think You Can Dance", "Man Vs. Job" and "Super Dancer (Chapter 1)". Dhanjani nade his web debut with "I Don't Watch TV" in 2016.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: In 2017, he first hosted "Aye Zindagi" and then participated in "" and ended at 7th place. He also participated in "Lip Sing Battle". From 2017 to 2018, he hosted "Super Dancer (Chapter 2)", for which he won Gold Award for Best Anchor, and "Rasoi Ki Jung Mummyon Ke Sung". He hosted, "India's Next Superstars" and "India's Got Talent 8" in 2018.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: Dhanjani portrayed Shivam Chaturvedi, opposite Anita Hassanandani in "Galti Se Mis-Tech". It received positive reviews. He portrayed Mayank in "XXX", both in 2018. He hosted "Super Dancer Chapter 3" from 2018 to 2019.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: Dhanjani participated in "" in 2020. He stood at 7th place and quit the show midway. The same year, he appeared in "Lockdown Rishtey", as a presenter. He then appeared in "Ladies vs Gentlemen" as panelist.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: In 2021, He hosted "Super Dancer (Chapter 4)". He next portrayed Abhay Angre opposite Monica Dogra in 2021 series "Cartel". "Times of India" praised his performance and noted, "The character arc of Rithvik Dhanjani’s is intriguing, and he shines through the various emotions his character displays."


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: Dhanjani in 2022 appeared in the short film, "Arranged", portraying Tarun opposite Tridha Choudhury. Praising his performance, "Times of India" wrote, "Both, Tridha’s Richa and Rithvik’s Tarun are the most appealing and well-written characters of the film. Onscreen, they get along well, and their genuine and sincere performances contribute to the story's relatability." The same year, he hosted Global Excellence Awards and Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: Dhanjani ranked 15th in 2013 in "Eastern Eye"'s 50 Sexiest Asian Men list. In the same list, he ranked 21st in 2014 and 20th in 2015. In "Times of India"s Most Desirable Men on TV list, he was placed 13th in 2017.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: Apart from acting, Dhanjani is an endorser for several brands and products, including Vivo. He also featured in Amazon Audible's ad film with Nakuul Mehta.


title: Rithvik Dhanjani

text: He has ramp walked in the ITA Creators Walk in 2017 and has been the cover model for several magazines such as Zing Magazine and Gr8 Magazine, where he featured with Asha Negi.


title: Kumon

text: Kumon Institute Education Co. Ltd. is an educational network based in Japan, created by Toru Kumon which uses his Kumon Method to teach mathematics and reading primarily for young students.


title: Kumon

text: Kumon was founded by Toru Kumon, a Japanese educator, in July 1958, opening the first Kumon Maths Centre in Moriguchi, Osaka. Prior to creating Kumon franchises, Kumon had a job teaching at Kochi Municipal High School and Tosa Junior/Senior High School. Inspired by teaching his own son, Takeshi, Kumon developed a curriculum focused on rote memorization.


title: Kumon

text: Kumon initially grew slowly, only gaining 63,000 students over its first 16 years. However, in 1974, Kumon published a book titled "The Secret of Kumon Math", leading to a doubling of its size in the next two years. Kumon opened their first United States locations in 1983, and by 1985, Kumon reached 1.4 million students.


title: Kumon

text: Kumon soon added more educational subjects, leading them to change their name from Kumon Institute of Mathematics to Kumon Institute of Education. At this point, the first Kumon Logo was created. In 1985, Kumon's success lead to an increase in enrollments.


title: Kumon

text: Kumon attracted national attention in the United States after implementation at Sumiton Elementary School, in Sumiton, Alabama. It became the first American school to integrate the Kumon Math Method into the regular K–4 mathematics curriculum. Sumiton has continued to use the Kumon program through 2001 and has influenced other schools to also adopt the Kumon method in their curriculum.


title: Kumon

text: As of 2008, Kumon had over 26,000 centres around the globe with over 4 million registered students. As of 2018, there were 410,000 students enrolled in 2,200 centers across the United States.


title: Kumon

text: Kumon produced Baby Kumon in Japan in 2012, a tutoring program targeted for children between 1–2 years old. Baby Kumon hasn't been utilized in most Kumon Centres in other countries outside Japan. In North America, Kumon began a "Junior Kumon" program in 2001, targeted at children aged 2–5 years old.


title: Kumon

text: Kumon is an enrichment or remedial program, where instructors and assistants tailor instruction for individual students.


title: Kumon

text: Each student is given an initial assessment of their abilities, called the Kumon Diagnostic Test. Each test has 20–60 questions. Based on the results and the student's study skills, a Kumon Instructor creates an individualized study plan.


title: Kumon

text: Students commonly begin Kumon at an easy starting point to build study habits, concentration and a strong understanding of the fundamental topics. As students progress, Kumon instructors raise the difficulty level to challenge the students so they remain motivated, but not so high as to discourage them.


title: Kumon

text: The study plan is regularly updated by the Kumon instructor to match the ability of each student. Students advance to the next level after they complete a mastery test of speed and accuracy. Students do not pass or fail the mastery test, but are given chances to practice and retake the exam until they have demonstrated a sound understanding of the material.


title: Kumon

text: Kumon has two core programs, the Kumon Math and Kumon Native Language Programs. There are also Kumon Japanese and Kumon Kokugo courses for Japanese language speakers, and a Pencil Skills Program for younger students.


title: Kumon

text: All Kumon programs are pencil-and-worksheet-based. The worksheets increase in difficulty in small increments. It is recommended that students study on their own for 15–30 minutes for five days of the week, and visit their local Kumon Center the other two days.


title: Kumon

text: As a high school mathematics teacher, Mr. Kumon understood that an understanding of calculus was essential for Japanese university entrance exams so in writing worksheets for his son, Mr. Kumon focused on all the topics needed for a strong understanding of calculus starting from the basics of counting. Kumon students do not use calculators and solve all problems using mental calculation. Kumon tutoring is in a group of 6 students to one tutor. A student is known as a Kumon Completer once they reach the final level of the Kumon Math or Kumon Native Language program.


title: Kumon

text: The Kumon Native Language Programs are designed to expose students to a broad range of texts and develop the skill of reading comprehension. A number of Kumon Centres also use audio CDs to help students with pronunciation. (Note: Levels vary slightly by country) Kumon is also beginning to develop non-Native language programs more extensively. For example, in Spain, Mexico, and the South American countries that have Kumon Math programs, they will be adding English as a second language over the coming year.


title: Kumon

text: Psychologist Kathy Hirsh-Pasek claims that using such techniques, when used in 2, 3, and 4-year-olds, "does not give your child a leg up on anything", however studies have shown a high percentage of efficacy.


title: N (singer)

text: Cha Hak-yeon (, born June 30, 1990), better known by his stage name N (), is a South Korean singer, actor, presenter, and radio host, signed to 51k. He debuted as a member of the South Korean boy group VIXX in May 2012, he began his acting career in 2014 in MBC's romantic-melodrama "Hotel King" as Noah. He has since had roles in "The Family is Coming" (2015), "Cheer Up!" (2015), and "Tomorrow Boy" (2016). N began his career as a radio host in May 2015 with his show "VIXX N K-pop" on SBS Power FM.


title: N (singer)

text: Born in Changwon, South Korea, N's family consists of himself, his parents, one older brother and two older sisters. N studied at Howon University and spent a year in Japan. Before debuting with VIXX, N participated in a musical called "Gwanghwamun Love Song" and entered in dance competitions. He had an extensive dance background, specializing in hip-hop, ballet, jazz and contemporary. In 2009, he participated and won various competitions held by big entertainment agencies such as SM, YG, and JYP. His blindfold dance, which he personally choreographed, won the Grand Prize at the Korean Youth Dance Festival.


title: N (singer)

text: N was one of ten trainees who were contestants in Mnet's survival reality show "MyDOL" and was chosen to be a part of the final line-up and the 6-member boy group VIXX finally debuted with "Super Hero" on May 24, 2012 on M! Countdown. Prior to participating in "MyDOL", N was featured in Brian Joo's "Let This Die" and Seo In-guk's "Shake It Up" music videos.


title: N (singer)

text: In the year 2012, after VIXX's debut, N became a cast member in the second season of TVN's reality television show "The Romantic & Idol".


title: N (singer)

text: In 2013 with the release of VIXX's album, "Jekyll" N created the choreography to go along with title song "G.R.8.U" of the repackaged "Hyde" mini-album; he also appeared in Episode 4 of SBS's Television Drama "The Heirs" alongside his group members. That same year, he choreographed other VIXX performances for their song "Light Up the Darkness" and for a special performance on the show "Dancing 9" with Justin Timberlake's "LoveStoned".


title: N (singer)

text: In 2014, N appeared in many variety shows as a cast member such as Mnet's "4 Things Show", TVN's "First Day of Work Season 3" and MBC Every 1's "Hitmaker". In "Hitmaker", he became a member of Jeong Hyeong-don and Defconn's first project group, Big Byung, alongside VIXX member Hyuk, Got7's Jackson and BtoB's Sungjae. Going by the stage name Dol Baeki, N and the group created two singles "Stress Come On" and "Ojingeo Doenjang" ().


title: N (singer)

text: N was cast in his first television drama in a supporting role as Noah, a bright and lively hotel employee in MBC's romantic-melodrama "Hotel King". and appeared with Hongbin as a cameo in K.Will, Mamamoo and Wheesung's "Peppermint Chocolate" music video.


title: N (singer)

text: In 2015, N was cast in his second television drama in a supporting role as Cha Hak-yeon in SBS's "The Family Is Coming" and also appeared on "Running Man" alongside other idols, later he joined Super Junior's Eunhyuk and Kangin as cast members of MBC Every 1's "Bachelor's Party". On April 25, 2015, N joined SHINee's Minho and Red Velvet's Yeri as MC on MBC's "Show! Music Core" from April 25, 2015 to November 14, 2015. On May 2, 2015, N's own radio show "VIXX N K-pop" premiered on the radio with N as the host and fellow member Ken as a fixed guest for the Quiz King segment (every Wednesday). N was also appearing on "Super Junior Kiss the Radio" as a fixed guest hosted by Super Junior's Ryeowook.


title: N (singer)

text: On July 7, 2015, N went Off to School at Hyundai Chungun High School in Ulsan, South Korea for three days as a student in JTBC’s variety program "Off to School" alongside other celebrities. Towards the end of July, N was confirmed to join the cast in SBS's survival variety show "Law of the Jungle in Nicaragua"; the show aired in September. In August 2015, N was appointed as co-MC on "Weekly Idol" with AOA's Mina and Apink's Ha-young. He was the MC of the show with the main MC's Jeong Hyeong-don and Defconn from September 2, 2015 to March 24, 2016 In September 2015, N was cast as Ha Dong-jae, a character who is brilliant yet has an oddball personality in KBS’s drama "Cheer Up!" which follows the lives of students at a prestigious boarding high school as they form a cheer-leading club.


title: N (singer)

text: In February 2016, N was cast in his first web drama as Ahn Tae-pyung, a character who takes care of his grandmother and three siblings after his parents’ death in the web drama "Tomorrow Boy" which aired on Naver TV Cast in March. In September, N participated in his first original soundtrack for a drama. N and Melody Day’s Yeoeun released the song "Without You" () for the drama "W" on September 7, 2016. In the same month, N was cast alongside fellow VIXX member Lee Hong-bin and AOA’s Chanmi in the web drama "What's Up With These Kids?" which will air on Naver TV Cast on November 16. In November N was cast in the musical "In The Heights" as the lead role of Benny from December 20, 2016 to February 12, 2017 at the CJ Towol Theater in Seoul Arts Center. On July 2017, it was announced that he also co-choreographed with Jane Kim for MyTeen's debut album's Track 4 titled '꺼내가' ('Take it out).


title: N (singer)

text: A few months before his enlistment N created his own channel on YouTube where he would share short clips of him dancing, touring, etc. under the title "오늘의 기록" Today's Record.


title: N (singer)

text: On March 4, 2019, N enlisted for his military service. On October 7, 2020, N was officially discharged after having completed his military service.


title: N (singer)

text: On October 31, 2020, N left Jellyfish Entertainment after he decided not to renew his contract, he joined 51k on November 3.


title: N (singer)

text: In 2021, N starred in the tvN drama "Mine". The same year, he played a supporting role as Oh Kyung-tae, a warm-hearted police constable in tvN drama "Bad and Crazy".


title: On the Floor

text: "On the Floor" is a song recorded by American singer Jennifer Lopez for her seventh studio album, "Love?" (2011). Featuring American rapper Pitbull, it was released by Island Records on February 8, 2011, as the lead single from the album. "On the Floor" was written by Kinnda "Kee" Hamid, AJ Junior, Teddy Sky, Bilal "The Chef" Hajji, Pitbull, Gonzalo Hermosa, Ulises Hermosa, along with the song's producer RedOne. It is a pop song combining techno, Latin, dance-pop and house music and with a common time tempo of 130 beats per minute. Lopez recorded a Spanish-language version of the song titled "Ven a Bailar" (), which includes additional lyrical contributions from Julio Reyes Copello and Jimena Romero.


title: On the Floor

text: The song's development was motivated by Lopez's Latin heritage and pays homage to her career-beginnings as a dancer. Interpolated within the song are recurrent elements of the 1982 Bolivian composition "Llorando se fue" written by Gonzalo and Ulises Hermosa of Los Kjarkas, a composition that gained notoriety when it was covered by Kaoma in their 1989 single "Lambada". Lopez described "On the Floor" as an evolution of her classic sound and as something which sounded very current. The debut and release of "On the Floor" coincided with Lopez's appointment as a judge on the tenth season of US reality TV show "American Idol," as well as several other product endorsement deals. "American Idol" also provided a platform to debut the single's music video, as well as the stage for Lopez's first live performance of the song.


title: On the Floor

text: Editors from BBC Music and "Los Angeles Times" drew comparisons to Lopez's debut single, "If You Had My Love" (1999) and follow-up single "Waiting for Tonight" (1999). In the United States, it was Lopez's first single in four years to garner airplay, and has sold 3.8 million copies, earning a triple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was ranked by "Billboard" as the eleventh-biggest hit of 2011 on the year-end "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. "On the Floor" finished in first in Austria, Finland, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and other countries.


title: On the Floor

text: A music video was directed by TAJ Stansberry and choreographed by Frank Gatson Jr, with fans being given the chance to vote for their preferred ending for the video. The completed clip premiered simultaneously on Vevo and during the March 3, 2011, episode of "American Idol". It depicts a Los Angeles underground club culture where Lopez portrays a "queen of the nightclub", among other characters. The video received critical acclaim for its lavish production, styling, and choreography, all of which critics felt highlighted Lopez's skills as a dancer. "On the Floor" sold over eight million copies worldwide in 2011, making it the best-selling single of that year by a female artist.


title: On the Floor

text: Lopez's seventh studio album "Love?" (2011) was conceived in late 2007 and early 2008. During that time frame, under contract to Epic Records, Lopez released "Louboutins", a song written and produced by The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, as the project's lead single. However upon release, the song failed to garner enough airplay to chart, despite topping the US "Billboard" Hot Dance Club Songs chart. Lopez subsequently left Epic Records, citing that she had fulfilled her contractual obligations and now wished to release "Love?" under a new label. Upon signing with The Island Def Jam Music Group, Lopez continued working with The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, in addition to collaborating with new producers such as RedOne. It was not until January 2011 that Lopez teased the media about the new lead single for "Love?". In a tweet on her Twitter account, Lopez posted: "I see u @RedOne_Official! We're making BIG things happen 'On the Floor' this new year!!!". Subsequently, on January 16, 2011, an unfinished snippet of "On the Floor" leaked online, labelled as a RedOne production and featuring rap vocals from Pitbull. It is the second time that Lopez and Pitbull have collaborated on a song, the first being "Fresh Out the Oven", the 2009 buzz single which reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart.


title: On the Floor

text: According to the "Los Angeles Times"s Gerrick D. Kennedy, a full-length unfinished version of "On the Floor" leaked online over the same weekend in time for Lopez's new L'Oreal commercial, which premiered during the telecast of the 68th Golden Globe Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. The timing of the leak also coincided with Lopez's debut on judges panel for season ten of "American Idol". Lopez confirmed the single's title as "On the Floor" during the red carpet ceremony at The Golden Globes, before appearing the following day on the radio show "On Air with Ryan Seacrest" for the song's US premiere. The final version of the song was uploaded to Ryanseacrest.com, where the site's editor, Sadao Turner, revealed that the final master of the song was different from the previously leaked and unfinished version. "On the Floor" made its debut in the United Kingdom, on January 28, 2011 when it was played by DJ Scott Mills on his radio show, "Ready for the Weekend". Benji Eisen from AOL Music stated that Lopez had used "genius marketing and branding" by synchronizing the digital release of "On the Floor" with the premiere of its music video on "American Idol". It was added to the B-playlist on the UK's biggest mainstream radio station, BBC Radio 1, on March 16, 2011.


title: On the Floor

text: When talking about "On the Floor", during an interview with MTV, Lopez said that she wanted a song that would evolve her sound, "it feels like me today, which I like. It's not something that you hear and you're like, 'That's not her,' but you also go, 'Is that her? I like that. It's new,' and that's what I wanted. I wanted it to be very me, but I wanted it to be me not from my first album or my second album, but for today." Additionally, Lopez felt a strong connection to "On the Floor" because it captured both sides of her career, singing, and dancing, "The minute RedOne played it for me, I made him play it 20 times in a row, and I just sat there at the board and I kept listening to it and listening to it ... Because I really feel like, emotionally, I connected to it, but also because of how much I love to dance and how much that's always been such a big part of who I am since I started. Since I was a little girl, I just totally connected with the idea of getting out there."


title: On the Floor

text: "On the Floor" is an up-tempo pop and dance-pop song combining elements of Latin, house and techno music. American rapper Pitbull starts the song with a rap introduction while the melody interpolates elements of the Los Kjarkas composition, "Llorando se fue", popularized by Kaoma's 1989 hit single "Lambada". "On the Floor" was written in the time signature of common time, set at a tempo of 130 beats per minute and in the key of E minor by Bilal "The Chef" Hajji, Kinnda Hamid, Gonzalo Hermosa, Ulises Hermosa, Achraf "AJ Junior" Janussi, Nadir "RedOne" Khayat", Pitbull and Teddy Sky. Lopez's vocal range spans from A3 to B4 while the melody uses a simple chord progression of E minor–C major–G major–B minor. The song was adapted in Spanish as "Ven a Bailar" which featured additional lyrics by Julio Reyes Copello and Jimena Romero.


title: On the Floor

text: "On the Floor" was produced by RedOne with additional vocal production by Kuk Harrell. Josh Gudwin joined Harrell to record the vocals whilst the whole composition was recorded and engineered by RedOne, Christopher "TEK" O'Ryan and Trevor Muzzy at Cove Studios in New York and Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles. O'Ryan, RedOne and Harrell also edited Lopez's vocals while the latter two also arranged vocals for the final track, with Harrell also providing background vocals. All instruments and programming were carried out by RedOne with the exception of the accordion which was tasked to Alessandro Giulini. Pitbull appears courtesy of Mr. 305, Polo Grounds Music and RCA Records. His vocals were recorded by Al Burna at Al Burna Studios in Davie, Florida and At El Studios Indamix in Dominican Republic. Final mixing was carried out by Muzzy.


title: On the Floor

text: According to Idolator and Gerrick Kennedy from the "Los Angeles Times", "On the Floor" is reminiscent of Lopez's single, "Waiting for Tonight" (1999). Kennedy elaborated on the comparisons, stating that "listeners haven't heard this dance-electro-pop side of Lopez since 1999... much of her back catalog flirts with more gritty urban-pop sounds." Editors for the "New York Daily News" made some comparisons between "On the Floor" and another RedOne production, Kat DeLuna's 2010 single, "Party O'Clock". DeLuna's song contains the lyrics "Party in Ibiza, Party in New York/All the way to Africa/Love in the Caribbean/On my way to Vegas" whereas Lopez sings the nearly identical line, "Brazil, Morocco/London to Ibiza/Straight to L.A. New York/Vegas to Africa."


title: On the Floor

text: "On the Floor" garnered universal acclaim from music critics. "Rolling Stone" called the song "music worth getting lost in". Mikael Wood from the "Los Angeles Times" agreed, calling "On the Floor" the standout track from "Love?" Wood said, "On the Floor" "returned Lopez to the upper reaches of the "Billboard" Hot 100" but added that the rest of the album was unlikely to match its success. The "Houston Chronicle"s Joey Guerra concurred with his following critics, nothing that "On the Floor" was one of the four standout moments on the album, typyifying the "aggressively sexual anthems that are likely to soundtrack the summer." Comments echoed by "The Observer"s Hermione Hoby read, "the song ['On the Floor'] was a particular triumph."


title: On the Floor

text: In his article for the "Los Angeles Times", Gerrick Kennedy said the song is a "sweat-inducing, sticky dance floor track" which was "vintage J.Lo" and catchier than either of her previous releases, "Louboutins" or "Fresh Out the Oven". Although Kennedy praised the song's overall appeal, he commented that RedOne had produced more inventive "pop gems" with the likes of Lady Gaga and that Pitbull's appearance was a "throwaway verse." In her review for AOL Music's Radio Blog, Nadine Cheung commented that Lopez "reinforces her renaissance woman status." Nick Levine from Digital Spy called "On the Floor" a song that The Black Eyed Peas would have been "proud to have released". Levine's review agreed with others that the song was a "welcome comeback for Lopez," and praised the use of a "not so-subtle" sample with the "Latin-tinged electro-housy" production. Overall, he said that the production was "the antithesis of classy", and although not original "there's no denying that this gets the job done."


title: On the Floor

text: Not all of the reviews were positive, with some critics citing a lack of originality. In his review of "Love?", BBC Music's Alex Macpherson said that "On the Floor" was a predictable recording from Lopez as it was "not too dissimilar to the supreme millennial house of 'Waiting for Tonight' (1999)". He went on to describe "On the Floor," and album track "Papi," as "apparent distillations of the trashy Miami house aesthetic that dominates pop these days." Ken Capobianco from "The Boston Globe" described "On the Floor" as quite generic.


title: On the Floor

text: The single also drew comparisons to "Party O'Clock," a 2010 single by American singer Kat DeLuna, also produced by RedOne. In a statement issued to the "New York Daily News", DeLuna said "It's cool that artists like J.Lo are inspired by my musical sound and style. ... Jennifer helped pave the way for Latinas like myself. I love her", and insisted that there wasn't an issue. DeLuna also noted Lopez as someone who inspired her, and paved the way for someone like her to perform. Following previews of the music video for "On the Floor," DeLuna changed her mind about how she felt with the claims of copying. In another interview with the New York Daily News, several days after the first, she said "I've seen this before, where the more established artist tries to take the vision and artistic ideas away from an emerging artist and assumes no one will notice because of their bigger shadow... Luckily, my loyal fans and the power of the Internet have let the 'Kat' out of the bag." Lopez was interviewed about the issue on Hispanic-American entertainment program "¡Despierta America!". Lopez replied "What? Really? I'm not aware of that...", and when pressed by the presenter a second time, insisted she had not heard rumors of the comparisons.


title: On the Floor

text: "On the Floor" received two International Dance Music nominations for Best Latin/Reggaeton Track and Best Commercial/Pop Track. The song was nominated at the 2012 Swiss Music Awards for Best International Hit. The Spanish version "Ven a Bailar" received two nominations at the 2012 "Billboard" Latin Music Awards for Vocal Duet Song of the Year and Latin Pop Song of the Year. "On the Floor" was recognized by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in their Most Performed Songs list for the year. "Ven a Bailar" was also recognized at the 20th ASCAP Latin Music Awards at the Pop Category. It received a Broadcast Music Award at the Pop Awards and the London Awards. At the 2011 Premios Juventud ceremony, the duo received a nomination for La Combinación Perfecta (The Perfect Combination) for the song.


title: On the Floor

text: She got nominated for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Song ("On the Floor"), the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Female ("On the Floor"), MuchMusic Video Award for International Video of the Year – Artist ("On the Floor") with Pitbull.


title: On the Floor

text: In 2022, "On The Floor" was sampled by British drill rappers A1 x J1 and Tion Wayne for their single "Night Away (Dance)". The song was released on March 3, 2022, and debuted at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart two weeks later.


title: On the Floor

text: "On the Floor" made its chart debut in Canada, during the week beginning February 12, 2011. It debuted at number eighty-six on the Canadian Hot 100, despite not being released until February 22, 2011, thus becoming the first release from "Love?" to receive airplay recognition. Neither the album's Epic Records buzz single ("Fresh Out the Oven", which also features Pitbull), nor the previous lead single "Louboutins" charted on US "Billboard" Charts. In the chart week dated April 16, 2011, "On the Floor" became Lopez's fourth Canadian chart-topper, and highest-charting single in nine years following "If You Had My Love" (1999), "Love Don't Cost a Thing" (2001) and "Jenny from the Block" (2002). In the United States, "On the Floor" made its chart debut on the Hot Dance Club Songs, at number twenty-six. Additionally it debuted on the US Pop Songs chart at number forty, marking Lopez's first appearance on pop airplay charts since 2007. The single went on to make its "Billboard" Hot 100 debut at number nine, becoming the highest debuting Hot 100 single of Lopez's career. "On the Floor" became Lopez's tenth top-ten hit on the Hot 100, of which, six have featured other artists. "Billboard"s Gary Trust reported that it was Lopez's highest peaking chart position since her 2006 feature on LL Cool J's "Control Myself," although it was actually in 2003 when Lopez last released a top-ten peaking single as a lead artist ("All I Have" with LL Cool J). The full single was not released until February 22, almost one month after it was uploaded to YouTube and serviced to radio, despite a remix EP being available before hand. Keith Caulfield from "Billboard" noted that Island Def Jam Music's strategy of delaying the release was unusual as fellow pop contemporaries, such as Lady Gaga and Britney Spears, "released their singles to digital retailers at about the same time they were serviced to radio and streaming sites." The single's release was synchronized with the debut of the music video on season ten of "American Idol", resulting in first week sales of 170,000 copies and a Hot Digital Songs chart position of number three. The Spanish version of the song also became a success on Latin radio stations where it peaked at number two on the "Billboard" Hot Latin Songs chart.


title: On the Floor

text: As a direct result, Kaoma's 1989 single "Lambada" re-entered the charts after more than two decades, making its digital chart debut at number three on the "Billboard" World Digital Chart. In the week following the music video's debut, "On the Floor" experienced a 31% increase in sales, which totaled 232,000 copies, and landed the song at number two on the Hot Digital Songs chart, as well as number five on the Hot 100. "On the Floor" thus became Lopez's seventh top-five hit in the United States. It is the first single since "So What" (2008) by Pink to debut in the top-ten of the Hot 100, and then climb up the chart in its second week. Just over a month after release "On the Floor" had sold over 600,000 copies in the United States, according to "USA Today"s Bill Keveney. Keveney, attributed Lopez's commercial comeback to product endorsement deals with L'Oreal and Gillette, also noting her appointment as a judge on "American Idol" a contributing factor in the growth of her popularity. During the week ending May 8, 2011, "On the Floor" rose from number seven to a new peak of number three on the Hot 100. By March 28, 2011, "On the Floor" reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart, becoming her fifth consecutive US dance chart topper, with three coming from her album "Love?", including "Fresh Out the Oven" (with Pitbull) and "Louboutins" (2009). "On the Floor" brings Lopez's US dance number ones total to nine singles since she launched her career in 1999. Since then, it has been certified 3× Multi-Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting shipments of three million copies. As a result of Lopez's first televised performance of the song on May 5, 2011, "On the Floor" logged 175,000 digital sales that week (up 25% on the previous week), earning Lopez the "Digital Gainer" title that week. Consequently, "On the Floor" reached a new peak of number three on the Hot 100 and number five on the US Pop Songs chart, becoming her highest-charting single commercial single as a lead artist, as well as her most successful airplay hit on contemporary hit radio, since 2002's "Jenny from the Block". By April 2012, the song has sold 3.49 million downloads in the US alone. A year later in April 2013, it was reported that "On the Floor" had sold 3.8 million downloads in the United States.


title: On the Floor

text: Globally, "On the Floor" topped 37 national single charts and has sold 11 million copies as of June 2017. On the Slovakia Airplay chart, the single debuted at number sixteen, before peaking at number one where it remained for two weeks beginning on March 7, 2011. It returned to the top of the chart in the first week of April 2011, after dipping to number two at the end of March, and made a third return to number one in the third week of April. In total, "On the Floor" spent a total of seven weeks at number one. It also topped both the Flemish and Wallonian single charts in Belgium. On the Flanders Ultratop 50, "On the Floor" peaked at number one, remaining there for four weeks. Meanwhile, on the Wallonia Ultratop 50, the single remained at number one for four weeks, before dropping to number four and then returning to number one for a fifth week. In both territories, it is Lopez's first number one single in Belgium. The Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA) certified the single gold, for selling 15,000 copies. In Finland, "On the Floor" debuted at number one, giving Lopez her third number one in the country, behind "Love Don't Cost a Thing" (2001) and her debut single "If You Had My Love" (1999). Selling platinum with over 12,000 copies, "On the Floor" was the second-best-selling single of 2011 in Finland and in total it spent nine weeks at number one, making it Lopez's longest-serving number-one, as well as her longest-charting single in the country.


title: On the Floor

text: "On the Floor" also reached number one in Spain (fifteen weeks), Germany (six weeks) and France (one week). In Spain, "On the Floor" reached number one on March 13, 2011, where it remained for fifteen weeks. Consequently, the single was certified Triple Platinum, by the Productores de Música de España (PROMUSICAE), for shipments of 120,000 copies. It was also certified 2× Platinum by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI), in Germany, for shipping 600,000 copies. In Italy, "On the Floor" entered the Italian Singles Chart at number four before ascending to the summit, where it would remain for four weeks. It is Lopez's fourth Italian number-one, and first English-language single to reach number one since "Get Right" (2005), though Spanish single "Qué Hiciste" reached number one in 2007. The Federation of the Italian Music Industry (FIMI) certified "On the Floor" Multi-Platinum for shipping 60,000 copies. The single experienced similar success in Sweden and Switzerland, where it respectively spent three and five weeks at the top of the countries' singles charts. In Sweden it is Lopez's first number one single, whereas in Switzerland it is her second, following 2007's "Qué Hiciste". In both countries the single was certified Double Platinum, shipping 40,000  copies in Sweden and 60,000 copies in Switzerland. As of July 26, 2011 "On the Floor" had official sales of 1.41 million copies.


title: On the Floor

text: In Australia, "On the Floor" debuted at number ten, becoming Lopez's first top-ten single in the country since 2005's "Get Right". It has since reached number one, becoming her second Australian chart topper, and first in nearly twelve years since 1999's "If You Had My Love". It was certified 4× platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 280,000 copies. It reached number two in New Zealand, and was certified double-Platinum for sales of 30,000 copies. In Ireland, "On the Floor" debuted at number twelve on the Irish Singles Chart on March 10, 2011. It continued a steady climb to the top spot, spending two weeks at number two before finally reaching number one on April 14, 2011. In the United Kingdom, "On the Floor" was added to playlists on mainstream radio in March 2011. On April 3, 2011, "On the Floor" made its UK Singles Chart debut at number one, becoming Lopez's third chart-topper in that country. Overall it is Lopez's twelfth UK top-five hit, and topped the UK Digital Songs chart after logging first week sales of 130,000 copies – the highest first week sales for Lopez in the UK. "On the Floor" also debuted at the top of the R&B Singles Chart. It remained at number one for two weeks, becoming the only single by Lopez to do so. The song was the biggest selling R&B / hip hop single of 2011 in the UK. As of May 2012, "On the Floor" had sold 822,056 copies, becoming Lopez' biggest-selling single in the UK.


title: On the Floor

text: By the end of 2011, International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) noted that "On the Floor" had sold over 8.4 million copies worldwide, making it the best selling single by a female artist.


title: On the Floor

text: The music video for "On the Floor" was filmed on January 22–23, 2011, with TAJ Stansberry serving as the director and Frank Gatson as the choreographer. Lopez told MTV News that for the video she was holding an open casting call to find club kids, "[We want] those kids who go to the club and they dance all night and that's all they care about? It's just about having a good time, getting all sweaty, and it's all about the music and leaving it on the dance floor. I don't want to say what the video is, but that's the type of dancers. We're doing a big casting call..." Meanwhile, Gatson said that Lopez wanted a post-2AM Los Angeles club vibe for the video. He said,


title: On the Floor

text: Just prior of the casting call and video shoot, Stansberry expressed his views to MTV News on the concept for the video – originality. "Originality, being you. This song is about being who you want. It's about letting loose. There's no explanation. This is this underground video, this underground party." During the video shoot, MTV interviewed Lopez about the concepts for the video. Lopez described some of the characters she played, telling MTV that in one scene "I play one character where she kind of runs this party, acts like she's kind of over it, but at the same time loves it and loves this kind of underground kind of party dance culture... So I got to be wild and crazy, and at the same time I got to be sexy and sweet too." The video makes use of product placement, including BMW, Swarovski and Crown Royal, according to Tanner Stransky from "Entertainment Weekly." Stransky also noted the "unintentional placement" of fake eyelashes and wigs, weaves, and other hair-extending products.