East Asia (orthographic projection).svg

East Asia is a geographical and cultural region of Asia including the countries of China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. Additionally, Hong Kong and Macau are two coastal cities located in the south of China with autonomous status under Chinese sovereignty. The economies of China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are among the world's largest and most prosperous. East Asia borders Siberia and the Russian Far East to the north, Southeast Asia to the south, South Asia to the southwest, and Central Asia to the west. To its east is the Pacific Ocean.

East Asia has long been a crossroads of civilizations, as the region's prominence has facilitated the transmission of ideas, cultural exchanges, commercial trade, scientific and technological cooperation, and migration, as its position and proximity to both the Pacific Ocean and the Continental Asian landmass makes it strategically significant for facilitating international maritime trade and transportation. The contemporary economic, technological, political, and social integration of East Asia coupled with its rich history of diversity, division, and divergent development have all contributed to its enduring complexity, scientific and technological advancement, cultural richness, economic prosperity, and geopolitical significance on the world stage. With the region having been home to various influential empires, kingdoms, and dynasties throughout history, each leaving its mark on the region and transforming the region's geopolitical landscape ranging from distinct dynastic kingdoms to colonial possessions to independent modern nation-states. East Asia, especially Chinese civilization, is regarded as one of the earliest cradles of civilization. Other ancient civilizations in East Asia that still exist as independent countries in the present day include the Japanese, Korean and Mongolian civilizations. Various other civilizations existed as independent polities in East Asia in the past but have since been absorbed into neighbouring civilizations in the present day, such as Tibet, Baiyue, Khitan, Manchuria, Ryukyu (Okinawa) and Ainu, among many others. Taiwan has a relatively young history in the region after the prehistoric era; originally, it was a major site of Austronesian civilisation prior to colonisation by European colonial powers and China from the 17th century onward. For thousands of years, China was the leading civilization in the region, exerting influence on its neighbours. Historically, societies in East Asia have fallen within the Chinese sphere of influence, and East Asian vocabularies and scripts are often derived from Classical Chinese and Chinese script. The Chinese calendar serves as the root from which many other East Asian calendars are derived.

Major religions in East Asia include Buddhism (mostly Mahayana), Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, ancestral worship, and Chinese folk religion in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, Shinto in Japan, and Christianity, and Musok in Korea. Tengerism and Tibetan Buddhism are prevalent among Mongols and Tibetans while other religions such as Shamanism are widespread among the indigenous populations of northeastern China such as the Manchus. The major languages in East Asia include Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The major ethnic groups of East Asia include the Han in China and Taiwan, Yamato in Japan, Koreans in North and South Korea. and Mongols in Mongolia. There are 76 officially-recognized minority or indigenous ethnic groups in East Asia; 55 native to mainland China (including Hui, Manchus, Chinese Mongols, Tibetans, Uyghurs and Zhuang in the frontier regions), 16 native to the island of Taiwan (collectively known as Taiwanese indigenous peoples), one native to the major Japanese island of Hokkaido (the Ainu) and four native to Mongolia ( Turkic peoples). Ryukyuan people are an unrecognized ethnic group indigenous to the Ryukyu Islands in southern Japan, which stretch from Kyushu to Taiwan. There are also several unrecognized indigenous ethnic groups in mainland China and Taiwan.

East Asians comprise around billion people, making up about 33% of the population in Continental Asia and 20% of the global population. The region is home to major world metropolises such as Beijing, Hong Kong, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Taipei and Tokyo. Although the coastal and riparian areas of the region form one of the world's most populated places, the population in Mongolia and Western China, both landlocked areas, is very sparsely distributed, with Mongolia having the lowest population density of a sovereign state. The overall population density of the region is , about three times the world average of .

History

China was the first region settled in East Asia and was undoubtedly the core of East Asian civilization from where other parts of East Asia were formed. The various other regions in East Asia were selective in the Chinese influences they adopted into their local customs. Historian Ping-ti Ho referred to China as the cradle of Eastern civilization, in parallel with the cradle of Middle Eastern civilization along the Fertile Crescent encompassing Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt as well as the cradle of Western civilization encompassing Ancient Greece.

Chinese civilization emerged early, and prefigured other East Asian civilisations. Throughout history, imperial China would exert cultural, economic, technological, and political influence on its neighbours. Succeeding Chinese dynasties exerted enormous influence across East Asia culturally, economically, politically and militarily for over two millennia. The tributary system of China shaped much of East Asia's history for over two millennia due to Imperial China's economic and cultural influence over the region, and thus played a huge role in the history of East Asia in particular. Imperial China's cultural preeminence not only led the country to become East Asia's first literate nation in the entire region, it also supplied Japan and Korea with Chinese loanwords and linguistic influences rooted in their writing systems.

Under Emperor Wu of Han, the Han dynasty made China the regional powerhouse in East Asia, projecting much of its imperial influence onto its neighbours. Han China hosted the largest unified population in East Asia, the most literate and urbanised as well as being the most economically developed, as well as the most technologically and culturally advanced civilization in the region at the time. Cultural and religious interaction between the Chinese and other regional East Asian dynasties and kingdoms occurred. China's impact and influence on Korea began with the Han dynasty's northeastern expansion in 108 BC when the Han Chinese conquered the northern part of the Korean peninsula and established a province called Lelang. Chinese influences were transmitted and soon took root in Korea through the inclusion of the Chinese writing system, monetary system, rice culture, philosophical schools of thought, and Confucian political institutions. Jomon society in ancient Japan incorporated wet-rice cultivation and metallurgy through its contact with Korea. Starting in the fourth century AD, Japan adopted Chinese characters, which remain integral to the Japanese writing system. Utilizing the Chinese writing system allowed the Japanese to conduct their daily activities, maintain historical records and give form to various ideas, thoughts, and philosophies. During the Tang dynasty, China exerted its greatest influence on East Asia as various aspects of Chinese culture spread to Japan and Korea. The establishment of the medieval Tang dynasty rekindled the impetus of Chinese expansionism across the geopolitical confines of East Asia. Similar to its Han predecessor, Tang China reasserted itself as the center of East Asian geopolitical influence during the early medieval period which spearheaded and marked another golden age in Chinese history. During the Tang dynasty, China exerted its greatest influence on East Asia as various aspects of Chinese culture spread to Japan and Korea. In addition, Tang China also managed to maintain control over northern Vietnam and Korea.

As full-fledged medieval East Asian states were established, Korea by the fourth century AD and Japan by the seventh century AD, Japan and Korea actively began to incorporate Chinese influences such as Confucianism, the use of Chinese characters, architecture, state institutions, political philosophies, religion, urban planning, and various scientific and technological methods into their culture and society through direct contacts with Tang China and succeeding Chinese dynasties. Drawing inspiration from the Tang political system, Prince Naka no oe launched the Taika Reform in 645 AD where he radically transformed Japan's political bureaucracy into a more centralised bureaucratic empire. The Japanese also adopted Mahayana Buddhism, Chinese style architecture, and the imperial court's rituals and ceremonies, including the orchestral music and state dances had Tang influences. Written Chinese gained prestige and aspects of Tang culture such as poetry, calligraphy, and landscape painting became widespread. During the Nara period, Japan began to aggressively import Chinese culture and styles of government which included Confucian protocol that served as a foundation for Japanese culture as well as political and social philosophy. The Japanese also created laws adopted from the Chinese legal system that was used to govern in addition to the kimono, which was inspired from Chinese '' hanfu'' during the eighth century. For many centuries, most notably from the 7th to the 14th centuries, China stood as East Asia's most advanced civilization and foremost military and economic power, exerting its influence as the transmission of advanced Chinese cultural practices and ways of thinking greatly shaped the region up until the nineteenth century.

As East Asia's connections with Europe and the Western world strengthened during the late nineteenth century, China's power began to decline. By the mid-nineteenth century, the weakening Qing dynasty became fraught with political corruption, obstacles and stagnation that was incapable of rejuvenating itself as a world power in contrast to the industrializing Imperial European colonial powers and a rapidly modernizing Japan. The United States Commodore Matthew C. Perry would open Japan to Western influence, and the country would expand in earnest after the 1860s. Around the same time, the Meiji Restoration in Japan sparked rapid societal transformation from an isolated feudal state into East Asia's first industrialised nation. The modern and militarily powerful Japan would galvanise its position in the Orient as East Asia's greatest power with a global mission poised to advance to lead the entire world. By the early 1900s, the Empire of Japan succeeded in asserting itself as East Asia's most dominant geopolitical force. With its newly found international status, Japan would begin to challenge the European colonial powers and inextricably took on a more active role within the East Asian geopolitical order and world affairs at large. Flexing its nascent political and military might, Japan soundly defeated the stagnant Qing dynasty during the First Sino-Japanese War as well as defeating Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905; the first major military victory in the modern era of an East Asian power over a European one. Its hegemony was the heart of an empire that would include Taiwan and Korea. During World War II, Japanese expansionism with its imperialist aspirations through the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere would incorporate Korea, Taiwan, much of eastern China and Manchuria, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia under its control establishing itself as a maritime colonial power in East Asia. After a century of exploitation by the European and Japanese colonialists, post-colonial East Asia saw the defeat and occupation of Japan by the victorious Allies as well as the division of China and Korea during the Cold War. The Korean peninsula became independent but then it was divided into two rival states, while Taiwan became the main territory of de facto state Republic of China after the latter lost Mainland China to the People's Republic of China in the Chinese Civil War. During the latter half of the twentieth century, the region would see the post war economic miracle of Japan, which ushered in three decades of unprecedented growth, only to experience an economic slowdown during the 1990s, but nonetheless Japan continues to remain a global economic power. East Asia would also see the economic rise of Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan, in addition to the respective handovers of Hong Kong and Macau near the turn of the twentieth century. The onset of the 21st-century in East Asia led to the integration of Mainland China into the global economy through its entry in the World Trade Organization while also enhancing its emerging international status as a potential world power reinforced with its aim of restoring its historical established significance and enduring international prominence in the world economy. Despite the absence of armed conflicts in East Asia for decades, the stability of the region remains delicate due to the presence of North Korea's nuclear program and Chinese geopolitical encroachment and provocations occurring in Taiwanese waters. These tensions have emerged from the contentious relationship between mainland China and Taiwan, as the former seeks to reunify with mainland China while the latter strives to maintain its sovereign independence and preserve the present geopolitical order.

Definitions

In common usage, the term "East Asia" typically refers to a region including Greater China, Japan, Korea and Mongolia.

China, Japan, and Korea represent the three core countries and civilizations of traditional East Asia - as they once shared a common written language, culture, as well as sharing Confucian philosophical tenets and the Confucian societal value system once instituted by Imperial China. Other usages define China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan as countries that constitute East Asia based on their geographic proximity as well as historical and modern cultural and economic ties, particularly with Japan and Korea in having retained strong cultural influences that originated from China. Some scholars include Vietnam as part of East Asia as it has been considered part of the greater Chinese cultural sphere. Though Confucianism continues to play an important role in Vietnamese culture, Chinese characters are no longer used in its written language and many scholarly organizations classify Vietnam as a Southeast Asian country. "Within the Pacific region, China is potentially a major economic and political force. Its relations with Japan, Korea, and its Southeast Asian neighbours, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, will be determined by how they perceive this power will be used." Mongolia is geographically north of Mainland China yet Confucianism and the Chinese writing system and culture had limited impact on Mongolian society. Thus, Mongolia is sometimes grouped with Central Asian countries such as Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. Xinjiang and Tibet are sometimes seen as part of Central Asia.

Broader and looser definitions by international agencies and organisations such as the World Bank refer to East Asia as the "three major Northeast Asian economies, i.e. mainland China, Japan, and South Korea", as well as Mongolia, North Korea, the Russian Far East, and Siberia. The Council on Foreign Relations includes the Russia Far East, Mongolia, and Nepal. The World Bank also acknowledges the roles of Chinese special administrative regions Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Taiwan, a country with limited recognition. The Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia defines the region as "China, Japan, the Koreas, Nepal, Mongolia, and eastern regions of the Russian Federation".

The UNSD definition of East Asia is based on statistical convenience, but others commonly use the same definition of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan.

Certain Japanese islands are associated with Oceania due to non-continental geology, distance from mainland Asia or biogeographical similarities with Micronesia. Some groups, such as the World Health Organization, categorize China, Japan and Korea with Australia and the rest of Oceania. The World Health Organization label this region the "Western Pacific", with East Asia not being used in their concept of major world regions. Their definition of this region further includes Mongolia and the adjacent area of Cambodia, as well as the countries of the South East Asia Archipelago (excluding East Timor and Indonesia).

Alternative definitions

In the context of business and economics, "East Asia" is sometimes used to refer to the geographical area covering ten Southeast Asian countries in ASEAN, Greater China, Japan and Korea. However, in this context, the term "Far East" is used by the Europeans to cover ASEAN countries and the countries in East Asia. On rare occasions, the term is also sometimes taken to include India and other South Asian countries that are not situated within the bounds of the Asia-Pacific, although the term Indo-Pacific is more commonly used for such a definition.

Observers preferring a broader definition of "East Asia" often use the term Northeast Asia to refer to China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan, with the region of Southeast Asia covering the ten ASEAN countries. This usage, which is seen in economic and diplomatic discussions, is at odds with the historical meanings of both "East Asia" and "Northeast Asia". The Council on Foreign Relations of the United States defines Northeast Asia as Japan and Korea.

Climate

East Asia is home to many climatic zones. It also has unique weather patterns such as the East Asian rainy season and the East Asian Monsoon.

Climate change

Like the rest of the world, East Asia has been getting warmer due to climate change, and there had been a measurable increase in the frequency and severity of heatwaves. The region is also expected to see the intensification of its monsoon, leading to more flooding.Shaw, R., Y. Luo, T. S. Cheong, S. Abdul Halim, S. Chaturvedi, M. Hashizume, G. E. Insarov, Y. Ishikawa, M. Jafari, A. Kitoh, J. Pulhin, C. Singh, K. Vasant, and Z. Zhang, 2022
Chapter 10: Asia
I
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
.-O. Pörtner, D. C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E. S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, New York, US, pp. 1457–1579 , doi=10.1017/9781009325844.012. China has notably embarked on the sponge cities program, where cities are designed to increase the area of urban green spaces and permeable pavings in order to help deal with flash floods caused by greater precipitation extremes. Under high-warming scenarios, "critical health thresholds" for heat stress during the 21st century will be at times breached, in areas like the North China Plain.

China, Japan and the Republic of Korea are expected to see some of the largest economic losses caused by sea level rise. The city of Guangzhou is projected to experience the single largest ''annual'' economic losses from sea level rise in the world, potentially reaching US$254 million by 2050. Under the highest climate change scenario and in the absence of adaptation, cumulative economic losses caused by sea level rise in Guangzhou would exceed US$1 trillion by 2100. Shanghai is also expected to experience annual losses of around 1% of the local GDP in the absence of adaptation. The Yangtze River basin is a sensitive and biodiverse ecosystem, yet around 20% of its species may be lost throughout the century under and ~43% under .

Economy

Territorial and regional data

China, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan are all unrecognised by at least one other East Asian state because of severe ongoing political tensions in the region, specifically the division of Korea and the political status of Taiwan.

Etymology

Demographics

Ethnic groups

* Note: The order of states/territories follows the population ranking of each ethnicity, within East Asia only.

Culture

Overview

The culture of East Asia has been deeply influenced by China, as it was the civilization that had the most dominant influence in the region throughout the ages that ultimately laid the foundation for East Asian civilization. The vast knowledge and ingenuity of Chinese civilization and the classics of Chinese literature and culture were seen as the foundations for a civilized life in East Asia. Imperial China served as a vehicle through which the adoption of Confucian ethical philosophy, Chinese calendar system, political and legal systems, architectural style, diet, terminology, institutions, religious beliefs, imperial examinations that emphasised a knowledge of Chinese classics, political philosophy and cultural value systems, as well as historically sharing a common writing system reflected in the histories of Japan and Korea. The Imperial Chinese tributary system was the bedrock of network of trade and foreign relations between China and its East Asian tributaries, which helped to shape much of East Asian affairs during the ancient and medieval eras. Through the tributary system, the various dynasties of Imperial China facilitated frequent economic and cultural exchange that influenced the cultures of Japan and Korea and drew them into a Chinese international order. The Imperial Chinese tributary system shaped much of East Asia's foreign policy and trade for over two millennia due to Imperial China's economic and cultural dominance over the region, and thus played a huge role in the history of East Asia in particular. The relationship between China and its cultural influence on East Asia has been compared to the historical influence of Greco-Roman civilization on classical Western civilisation.

Religion

Festivals

*Japan switched the date to the Gregorian calendar after the Meiji Restoration.


*Not always on that Gregorian date, sometimes April 4.

Collaboration

East Asian Youth Games

Formerly the East Asian Games, it is a multi-sport event organized by the East Asian Games Association (EAGA) and held every four years since 2019 among athletes from East Asian countries and territories of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), as well as the Pacific island of Guam, which is a member of the Oceania National Olympic Committees.

It is one of five Regional Games of the OCA. The others are the Central Asian Games, the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), the South Asian Games and the West Asian Games.

Free trade agreements

Military alliances

Major cities

File:Tokyo Station City (234809375).jpeg, Tokyo is the capital of Japan and the world's largest city, both in metropolitan population and economy.
File:Beijing Guomao CBD.jpg, Beijing is the capital of China. It has a history of over 3300 years.
File:Namdaemun-ro, Seoul.jpg, Seoul is the capital of South Korea.
File:Osaka Umeda Sky Building Panoramablick 05.jpg, Osaka is the second-largest metropolitan area in Japan.
File:Guangzhou Night.jpg, Guangzhou is one of the most important economic centers in southern China.
File:Nagoya Night View.jpg, Nagoya is the third-largest metropolitan area in Japan. Nagoya is a major port city and the location of Lexus headquarters.
File:Kyoto, Japan (Unsplash UIN-pFfJ7c).jpg, Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan for eleven centuries.
File:UB downtown.jpg, Ulaanbaatar is the capital of Mongolia, with a population of 1.6 million as of 2021.
File:Hong Kong Night view from Victoria Peak.jpg, Hong Kong is one of the global financial centres and is known as a cosmopolitan metropolis.
File:Pyongyang City - Ryugyong Hotel in Background (13913572409).jpg, Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea, and a major city on the Korean Peninsula.
File:Xi'an Gulou.jpg, Xi'an or Chang'an is the oldest of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.
File:Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam.ogv, Pass of the ISS over Mongolia, looking out west towards the Pacific Ocean, China, and Japan. As the video progresses, major cities along the Chinese coast and the Japanese islands on the Philippine Sea are visible. The island of Guam can be seen further down the pass into the Philippine Sea, and the pass ends just to the east of New Zealand.

See also

* East Asia–United States relations
* East Asian Community
* China–Japan–South Korea trilateral summit
* East Asia Summit
* East Asian studies

Notes

References

Further reading

* Church, Peter. ''A short history of South-East Asia'' (John Wiley & Sons, 2017).
* Chung, Eunbin. ''Pride, Not Prejudice: National Identity as a Pacifying Force in East Asia'' (University of Michigan Press, 2022
online reviews by six scholars
* Clyde, Paul H., and Burton F. Beers. ''The Far East: A History of Western Impacts and Eastern Responses, 1830–1975'' (1975
online 3rd edition 1958
* Crofts, Alfred. ''A history of the Far East'' (1958
online free to borrow
* Dennett, Tyler. ''Americans in Eastern Asia'' (1922
online free
* Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, and Anne Walthall. ''East Asia: A cultural, social, and political history'' (Cengage Learning, 2013).
* Embree, Ainslie T., ed. ''Encyclopedia of Asian history'' (1988)

vol. 1 onlinevol 2 onlinevol 3 onlinevol 4 online
* Fairbank, John K., Edwin Reischauer, and Albert M. Craig. ''East Asia: The great tradition'' and ''East Asia: The modern transformation'' (1960) online free to borrow
famous textbook.
* Flynn, Matthew J. ''China Contested: Western Powers in East Asia'' (2006), for secondary schools
* Gelber, Harry. ''The dragon and the foreign devils: China and the world, 1100 BC to the present'' (2011).
* Green, Michael J. ''By more than providence: grand strategy and American power in the Asia Pacific since 1783'' (2017) a major scholarly surve
excerpt
* Hall, D.G.E. ''History of South East Asia'' (Macmillan International Higher Education, 1981).
* Holcombe, Charles. ''A History of East Asia'' (2d ed. Cambridge UP, 2017)
excerpt
* Iriye, Akira. ''After Imperialism; The Search for a New Order in the Far East 1921–1931.'' (1965).
* Jensen, Richard, Jon Davidann, and Yoneyuki Sugita, eds. ''Trans-Pacific Relations: America, Europe, and Asia in the Twentieth Century'' (Praeger, 2003), 304 p
online review
* Keay, John. ''Empire's End: A History of the Far East from High Colonialism to Hong Kong'' (Scribner, 1997)
online free to borrow
* Levinson, David, and Karen Christensen, eds. ''Encyclopedia of Modern Asia''. (6 vol. Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002).
* Mackerras, Colin. ''Eastern Asia: an introductory history'' (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1992).
* Macnair, Harley F. & Donald Lach. ''Modern Far Eastern International Relations.'' (2nd ed 1955
1950 edition online free
780pp; focus on 1900–1950.
* Miller, David Y. ''Modern East Asia: An Introductory History'' (Routledge, 2007)
* Murphey, Rhoads. ''East Asia: A New History'' (1996)
* Norman, Henry. ''The Peoples and Politics of the Far East: Travels and studies in the British, French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies, Siberia, China, Japan, Korea, Siam and Malaya'' (1904
online
* Paine, S. C. M. ''The Wars for Asia, 1911–1949'' (2014
excerpt
* Prescott, Anne. ''East Asia in the World: An Introduction'' (Routledge, 2015)
* Ring, George C. ''Religions of the Far East: Their History to the Present Day'' (Kessinger Publishing, 2006).
* Szpilman, Christopher W. A., Sven Saaler. "Japan and Asia" in ''Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese History'' (2017
online
* Steiger, G. Nye. ''A history of the Far East'' (1936).
* Vinacke, Harold M. ''A History of the Far East in Modern Times'' (1964
online free
* Vogel, Ezra. ''China and Japan: Facing History'' (2019
excerpt
* Woodcock, George. ''The British in the Far East'' (1969
online

External links

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