Eastasia (Nineteen Eighty-Four)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eastasia is green on the fictitious 1984 world map
Eastasia is green on the fictitious 1984 world map

Eastasia is one of the three superstates in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the others being Oceania and Eurasia. Its borders are not as clearly defined as the other two superstates but it is known that they at least comprise most of modern day China, Japan, and Korea as well as fluctuating areas of the Russian Far East, Mongolia, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Middle East. Its political ideology is, according to the novel, "called by a Chinese name usually translated as Death-worship, but perhaps better rendered as 'Obliteration of the Self'."

Not much information about Eastasia is given in the book. It is known that it is the newest and smallest of the three superstates. According to Goldstein's book, it emerged a decade after the establishment of the other two superstates, placing it somewhere in the 1960s, after years of fighting among its predecessor nations. It is also said in the book that the industriousness and fecundity of the people of Eastasia allows them to overcome their inadequacies in comparison the other two states. Some believe that Eastasia is in fact just one part of a "World State" that controls all of Earth, but pretends to exist as three states to maintain the constant war used to keep the population in line.

No flag is depicted or described in the book for any of the three superstates. The movie adaptation shows a flag of Oceania and briefly shows a flag of Eurasia, but never depicts a flag for Eastasia.