East Asia Totally Explained

Everything about East Asia totally explained

East Asia

Area	11,839,074 km²
Population	1,555,784,500
Density	131 per km²
Countries	China (PRC) Japan North Korea South Korea Taiwan (ROC) Mongolia
Languages	Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Taiwanese, and many others
Time zones	UTC +7:00 (Western Mongolia) to UTC +9:00 (Japan and Korean Peninsula)
Capital cities	Beijing Pyongyang Seoul Taipei Tokyo Ulan Bator
Other major cities	Busan, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Osaka, Shanghai, Yokohama

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:

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're 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 Asian in the case of Tibet—here the primary question is cultural, with geography also at issue)

(considered either East Asia or Central Asia—here culture and/or geography may be at issue)

(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)Further Information

Get more info on 'East Asia'.

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