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East Asia

East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. Geographically, it covers about 12,000,000 km², or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe. More than 1.5 billion people, about 40 percent of the population of Asia or a quarter of all the people in the world, live in geographic East Asia, which is about twice the population of Europe. The region is one of the world's most crowded places. The population density of East Asia, 131 per km², is about three times the world average of 45 per km².

Historically, many societies in East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, and East Asian vocabulary and scripts are often derived from Classical Chinese and Chinese script. Major religions include Buddhism (mostly Mahayana), Confucianism or Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religion, and Shinto in Japan.

This combination of language, political philosophy, and religion (as well as art, architecture, holidays and festivals, etc.) overlaps with the geographical designation of East Asia for the most part, with a few exceptions, such as 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 name the Far East, which describes the region's geographical position in relation to Europe rather than its location within Asia. However, in contrast to the United Nations definition, East Asia commonly is used to refer to the eastern part of Asia, as the term implies.

Other uses of the term East Asia

The following political entities are consistently seen as located in geographic East Asia:

•  Japan
•  South Korea (Republic of Korea)
•  People's Republic of China

(Including the Special Administrative Regions of  Hong Kong and  Macau)

•  North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)
•  Republic of China (Taiwan)

East Asia
Geographical East Asia
Geographic East Asia shaded in dark green, cultural and other possible definitions shaded in light green, with Central Asian portion of the PRC in an intermediate green.
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	東亞
Simplified Chinese	东亚
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Dōngyà Wade–Giles Tung-ya Yue: Cantonese Jyutping dung1 aa3 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tang-a
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Đông Á
Korean name
Hangul	동아시아
Hanja	東亞細亞
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Dong Asia McCune–Reischauer Tong Asia
Mongolian name
Mongolian Cyrillic	Зүүн Ази ᠵᠤᠨ ᠠᠵᠢ Züün Azi
Japanese name
Kanji	東亜
Kana	ひがしアジア
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Higashi Ajia Kunrei-shiki Higasi Azia
Russian name
Russian	Восточная Азия
Romanization	Vostochnaja Azija

In addition the following countries are sometimes included in the definition of East Asia

•  Mongolia
• Siberia, Russia (considered either East Asia or North Asia)
•  Vietnam

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

• Chinese society (including the predominantly Chinese regions outside China proper, such as Singapore and Taiwan)
• Japanese society
• Korean 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: Qinghai, Tibet, Xinjiang (considered either East Asia or Central Asia or South Asia in the case of Tibet—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.

Other subregions of Asia

• Southeast Asia
• South Asia
• 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 part of Europe)
• Central Eurasia (Extends into part of Europe)

See also

• Cities of East Asia
• East Asian studies
• Asian Network of Major Cities 21
• East Asian languages
• East Asian calligraphy
• Four Asian Tigers – a label pertinent to the recent economic history of the region.
• East Asia Summit
• History of East Asia
• Sinosphere
• East Asian Community
• Russian Far East (East Asia north of this area)

Notes and references

1. The area figure is based on the combined areas of the People's Republic of China (including Hong Kong, Macau, Aksai Chin, and Trans-Karakoram Tract), Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and the Republic of China (Taiwan) as listed at List of countries and outlying territories by total area.
2. The population figure is the combined populations of the People's Republic of China (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau), Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Republic of China (Taiwan) as listed at List of countries by population (last updated March 8, 2008).
3. Dispute due to mainly Political status of Taiwan between governments of Republic of China and People's Republic of China.
4. ^ "East Asia". encarta. Micosoft. Retrieved 2008-01-12. East A·sia the countries, territories, and regions of China, Hong Kong, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Macau, Mongolia, parts of Russia, and Taiwan.
5. ^ Columbia University - "East Asian cultural sphere" "The East Asian cultural sphere evolves when Japan, Korea, and what is today Vietnam all share adapted elements of Chinese civilization of this period (that of the Tang dynasty), in particular Buddhism, Confucian social and political values, and literary Chinese and its writing system."
6. See, List of countries by population density
7. "Far East". encarta. Micosoft. Retrieved 2008-01-12. Far East a former term for the countries of East Asia, sometimes extended to include those of Southeast Asia (dated)
8. The Republic of China (Taiwan) is has limited recognition within the international community as a sovereign state, see Political status of Taiwan.
9. MSN Encarta, East Asia
10. Columbia University East Asian Cultural Sphere
11. R. Keith Schopper's East Asia: Identities and Change in the Modern World
12. Joshua A. Fogel (UC Santa Barbara/University of Indiana) Nationalism, the Rise of the Vernacular, and the Conceptualization of Modernization in East Asian Comparative Perspective
13. United Nations Environment Programme (mentions sinosphere countries) Approaches to Solution of Eutrophication
14. Center for South Asia Studies: University of California, Berkeley
15. Center for South Asia Outreach UW-Madison
16. Department of South Asia Studies: University of Pennsylvania
17. South Asia Language Resource Center: The University of Chicago
18. AIIS Advanced Language Programs in India
19. Tibet is located on the Tibetan Plateau which is in Central Asia.

External links

• High resolution map of East Asian region

• Regions of Asia
• East Asia