The South China Sea is a marginal sea, part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Karimata and Malacca straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around 3,500,000 square kilometres. The sea carries tremendous strategic importance. Huge oil and gas reserves are believed to lie beneath its seabed. According to International Hydrographic Organization Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition, it is located south of China; the minute South China Sea Islands, collectively an archipelago, number in the hundreds. The sea and its uninhabited islands are subject to competing claims of sovereignty by several countries; these claims are reflected in the variety of names used for the islands and the sea. South China Sea is the dominant term used in English for the sea, the name in most European languages is equivalent; this name is a result of early European interest in the sea as a route from Europe and South Asia to the trading opportunities of China. In the sixteenth century Portuguese sailors called it the China Sea.

The International Hydrographic Organization refers to the sea as "South China Sea". The Yizhoushu, a chronicle of the Western Zhou dynasty gives the first Chinese name for the South China Sea as Nanfang Hai, claiming that barbarians from that sea gave tributes of hawksbill sea turtles to the Zhou rulers; the Classic of Poetry, Zuo Zhuan, Guoyu classics of the Spring and Autumn period referred to the sea, but by the name Nan Hai in reference to the State of Chu's expeditions there. Nan Hai, the South Sea, was one of the Four Seas of Chinese literature. There are one for each of the four cardinal directions. During the Eastern Han dynasty, China's rulers called the Sea Zhang Hai. Fei Hai became popular during the Northern Dynasties period. Usage of the current Chinese name, Nan Hai, became widespread during the Qing Dynasty. In Southeast Asia it was once called the Champa Sea or Sea of Cham, after the maritime kingdom of Champa that flourished there before the sixteenth century; the majority of the sea came under Japanese naval control during World War II following the military acquisition of many surrounding South East Asian territories in 1941.

Japan calls the sea Minami Shina Kai "South China Sea". This was written 南支那海 until 2004, when the Japanese Foreign Ministry and other departments switched the spelling to 南シナ海, which has become the standard usage in Japan. In China, it is called the "South Sea", 南海 Nánhǎi, in Vietnam the "East Sea", Biển Đông. In Malaysia and the Philippines, it was long called the "South China Sea", with the part within Philippine territorial waters called the "Luzon Sea", Dagat Luzon, by the Philippines. However, following an escalation of the Spratly Islands dispute in 2011, various Philippine government agencies started using the name "West Philippine Sea". A Philippine Atmospheric and Astronomical Services Administration spokesperson said that the sea to the east of the Philippines will continue to be called the Philippine Sea. In September 2012, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III signed Administrative Order No. 29, mandating that all government agencies use the name "West Philippine Sea" to refer to the parts of the South China Sea within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, including the Luzon Sea as well as the waters around and adjacent to the Kalayaan Island Group and Bajo de Masinloc, tasked the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority to use the name in official maps.

In July 2017, to assert its sovereignty, Indonesia renamed the northern reaches of its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea as the "North Natuna Sea", located north of the Indonesian Natuna Islands, bordering the southern Vietnam exclusive economic zone, corresponding to the southern end of the South China Sea. The "Natuna Sea" is located south of Natuna Island within Indonesian territorial waters. Therefore, Indonesia has named two seas. States and territories with borders on the sea include: the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China, the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia and Vietnam. Major rivers that flow into the South China Sea include the Pearl, Jiulong, Mekong, Pahang, Agno and Pasig Rivers; the International Hydrographic Organization in its Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition, defines the limits of the South China Sea as follows: On the South. Th

Neil Smillie is an English former professional football player and manager. He played for a number of clubs, with the high point of his career being an appearance in the 1983 FA Cup Final for Brighton & Hove Albion; the son of the former Barnsley and Lincoln City player Ron Smillie, Neil Smillie began his career with Crystal Palace, where he spent seven years, during which he had a spell on loan at Brentford and spent two summers playing for Memphis Rogues in the North American Soccer League. In 1982, he was sold to Hove Albion. During his time with that club, he played in the 1983 FA Cup Final, in which Brighton held Manchester United to a 2–2 draw before losing in a replay. In 1985, Smillie moved to Watford for a fee of £100,000 but his spell at Vicarage Road was unsuccessful, with only 16 first-team appearances in three years. In 1988, he moved on to Reading. A year he moved again to Brentford, where he was a first-team regular for five years with over 170 appearances. In 1993, the new Gillingham manager Mike Flanagan made Smillie his first signing, appointing him as player-coach.

Gillingham went into administration in 1995 and the receivers dismissed Flanagan as manager, appointing Smillie as manager for the remainder of the season. When new owners took over Gillingham in summer 1995, Smillie moved to Wycombe Wanderers, where he served as youth team coach. He, in 1998, gained the job on a permanent basis, he was sacked the following year. As of July 2010, Smillie was working as Sports Marketing Manager for Nike UK and headed the company's talent ID scheme

"Pink Houses" is a song written and performed by John Cougar Mellencamp. It was released on the 1983 album Uh-Huh on Riva Records, it reached No. 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in No. 15 in Canada. "Pink Houses" was ranked No. 439 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Recorded in a farmhouse in Brownstown, the song was inspired when Mellencamp was driving along an overpass on the way home to Bloomington, Indiana from the Indianapolis airport. There was an old black man sitting outside his little pink shotgun house with his cat in his arms unperturbed by the traffic speeding along the highway in his front yard. "He waved, I waved back," Mellencamp said in an interview with Rolling Stone. "That's how'Pink Houses' started."Mellencamp has stated many times since the release of "Pink Houses" that he's unhappy with the song's final verse. At an October 2014 press conference, he stated: "A long time ago, I wrote a song called'Pink Houses.' Now when I hear that song, all I can think is:'Why didn't I do a better job on the last verse?'

If I had written it today, the last verse would've had more meaning." In 2004, the song was played at events for Senator John Edwards' presidential campaign. The song was used at events for Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign."Pink Houses" along with "Our Country" was played by Senator John McCain at political events for his 2008 presidential campaign. Mellencamp contacted the McCain campaign pointing out Mellencamp's support for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and questioning McCain's use of his music. In January 2009, Mellencamp played "Pink Houses" at We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. In 2010, "Pink Houses" was used by the National Organization for Marriage at events opposing same-sex marriage. At Mellencamp's instruction, his publicist sent a cease and desist letter to NOM stating "that Mr. Mellencamp's views on same sex marriage and equal rights for people of all sexual orientations are at odds with NOM's stated agenda" and requesting that NOM "find music from a source more in harmony with your views than Mr. Mellencamp in the future."

Producers: Don Gehman, Little Bastard. Director: Chris Gabrin. First aired: December 1983. Shot in Southern Indiana locations such as Seymour and Bloomington in August 1983; the house appearing near the beginning is located at 530 York Road in Indiana. The white, two-story gas station, bedecked in patriotic buntings and an American flag, was located on the SE corner at the intersection of Indiana State Road 250 and U. S. Highway 31 in Uniontown, Indiana; the man with no shirt on and a straw hat who dances near the end of the video was Harvey Goodin, the mayor of Austin, Indiana in 1983 when the video was shot. Uh-Huh "Rock for Amnesty" The Best That I Could Do Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits In the TV series Glee, glee club member Kurt Hummel discusses the meaning of the song with his father, covers it at the glee club; the 2009 book Little Pink House: A True Story of Defiance and Courage by Jeff Benedict uses Mellencamp's phrase to describe a "historic battle against eminent domain" from a right-libertarian perspective.

Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics