East Asia

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For Miyuki Nakajima album, see East Asia (album).

East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. Political-geographically, it covers about 6,640,000 km², or 15% of the Asian continent. More than 1.5 billion people, about 40% of the population of Asia or a quarter of all the people in the world, live in geographic East Asia. The region is one of the world's most crowded places. The population density of East Asia, 230 per km², is over five times the world average. In the various color metaphors for race, indigenous East Asians are often thought as the yellow race.

Culturally, it embraces those societies that have long been part of the Chinese cultural sphere:

• displaying heavy historical influence from the Classical Chinese language (including the traditional Chinese script),
• Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism
• Mahayana Buddhism,
• and Daoism (Taoism).

This combination of language, political philosophy, and religion (as well as art, architecture, and popular culture) overlaps with the geographical designation of East Asia with the exception of the overseas Chinese, including those in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the West.

East Asia and Eastern Asia (the latter form preferred by the United Nations) are both more modern terms for the traditional European name the Far East, which describes the region's geographical position in relation to Europe rather than its location within Asia.

Political-geographic East Asia.

Political-geographic East Asia shaded in dark green, cultural and other possible definitions shaded in light green.

The following countries (both states and territories) are commonly seen as located in political-geographic East Asia:

• People's Republic of China (China)
• Hong Kong (a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China)
• Macau (a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China)
• Republic of China (Taiwan)
• Japan
• Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)
• Republic of Korea (South Korea)
• Mongolia

The following peoples or societies are commonly seen as being encompassed by cultural East Asia:

• Chinese society (including the Chinese-dominated regions of Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Singapore and Taiwan, with their ethnically Chinese-majority populations)
• Japanese society
• Korean society
• Mongolian society
• Vietnamese society

Some consider the following countries or regions as part of East Asia, while others do not. Disagreements hinge on the difference between the cultural and geographic definitions of the term. Political perspective is also an important factor. In descending order in terms of the frequency with which they are described as East Asian:

• The parts of China that are not historically dominated by Han Chinese people: Qinghai, Tibet, Xinjiang (considered either East Asia or Central Asia—here the primary question is cultural, with geography also at issue)
• Mongolia (considered either East Asia or Central Asia—here culture and/or geography may be at issue)
• Singapore (considered either East Asia or Southeast Asia—here the primary question is geographic)
• Vietnam (considered either East Asia or Southeast Asia—here the primary question is geographic)
• Russian Far East (considered either East Asia or North Asia—here the primary question is political, with culture and geography also at issue)

In infrequent circumstances, the term East Asia is purposefully used to include all countries in Southeast Asia, especially when used in dualism with the term West Asia, the latter of which is then used to include those regions commonly considered West Asia, Central Asia, and Southwest Asia.

[edit] Other subregions of Asia

• Southeast Asia
• South Asia (Indian Subcontinent)
• Central Asia
• Southwest Asia or West Asia (One definition of the Middle East is synonymous with Southwest Asia)
• North Asia (Siberia)
• Northern Eurasia (Extends into Europe)
• Central Eurasia (Extends into Europe)

[edit] See also

• Asian Network of Major Cities 21
• East Asian languages
• East Asian Tigers, a label pertinent to the recent economic history of the region.
• East Asia Summit
• History of East Asia
• Sinosphere

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