Noun

Singular china

Plural countable and uncountable; plural chinas

china (countable and uncountable; plural chinas)

1. (uncountable) Ceramic or porcelain
2. (uncountable) Tableware made from china.
3. (Cockney rhyming slang; shortened from china plate; countable) Mate (i.e., friend).

   All right, me old china?

4. (music, countable) A cymbal, flattened at the perimeter, about 16 to 20 inches (40 to 50 centimetres) across, that is ridden or crashed to produce a distinctive "trashy" sound.

Derived terms

• bone china

China (traditional Chinese: 中 國; simplified Chinese: 中 国; Tongyong Pinyin: Jhongguó; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōngguó (help·info); Wade-Giles (Mandarin): Chung¹kuo²) is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia.

The last Chinese Civil War (with major combat ending in 1949) has resulted in two political entities:

• People's Republic of China (PRC), commonly known as China, has control over mainland China and the largely self-governing territories of Hong Kong (since 1997) and Macau (since 1999).
• Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as Taiwan, has control over the islands of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu.

China has one of the world's oldest and continuous civilizations, consisting of states and cultures dating back more than six millennia. It has the world's longest continuously used written language system, and is viewed as the source of many major inventions. Historically, China's cultural sphere has extended across East Asia as a whole, with Chinese religion, customs, and writing systems being adopted to varying degrees by neighbors such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam. The first evidence of human presence in the region was found at the Zhoukoudian cave and is one of the first known specimens of Homo erectus, now commonly known as the Peking Man, estimated to have lived approximately from 300,000 to 550,000 years ago.

China is a cultural region and ancient civilization in East Asia. China refers to a one of the world's oldest civilization comprising successive states and cultures dating back more than 6,000 years. Due to the stalemate of the last Chinese Civil War following World War II, China currently looks like two separate countries: the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Republic of China (ROC). The PRC administers and governs mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau, while the ROC administers and governs Taiwan and its surrounding islands. Each government used to claim that it was the only official government of China. However, PRC is nowadays widely accepted in the world as the only offical government.