East Asia

East Asia
Area11,840,000 km2 (4,570,000 sq mi) (3rd)
Population1.6 billion (2023; 4th)
Population density141.9 km2 (54.8 sq mi)
GDP (PPP)$44.7 trillion (2023)[1]
GDP (nominal)$24.8 trillion (2023)[1]
GDP per capita$15,000 (nominal)[1]
DemonymEast Asian
Countries
Dependencies
Languages
Time zonesUTC+7, UTC+8 & UTC+9
Largest citiesList of urban areas:[6]
UN M49 code030 – Eastern Asia
142Asia
001World
East Asia
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese东亚/东亚细亚
Traditional Chinese東亞/東亞細亞
Tibetan name
Tibetanཨེ་ཤ་ཡ་ཤར་མ་
Korean name
Hangul동아시아/동아세아/동아
Hanja東아시아/東亞細亞/東亞
Mongolian name
Mongolian CyrillicЗүүн Ази
ᠵᠡᠭᠦᠨ ᠠᠽᠢ
Japanese name
Kanaひがしアジア/とうあ
Kyūjitai東亞細亞/東亞
Shinjitai東亜細亜(東アジア)/東亜
Uyghur name
Uyghurشەرقىي ئاسىي

East Asia is a region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms.[7][8] The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan.[2][3][4][5] Hong Kong and Macau, two coastal cities located in the south of China, are autonomous regions under Chinese sovereignty. The economies of Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau are some of the world's largest and most prosperous economies.[9] 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 the east is the Pacific Ocean and to the southeast is Micronesia (a Pacific Ocean island group that is classified as part of Oceania).

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 civilization 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.[10][11][12] 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),[13] Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism, Taoism,[14] ancestral worship, and Chinese folk religion in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, Shinto in Japan, and Christianity, and Musok in Korea.[15][16][17] 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.[18] Major languages in East Asia include Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Major ethnic groups of East Asia include the Han (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan), Yamato (Japan) and Koreans (North Korea, South Korea). Mongols, although not as populous as the previous three ethnic groups, constitute the majority of Mongolia's population. 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 Island (Japan) to Taiwan. There are also several unrecognized indigenous ethnic groups in mainland China and Taiwan.

East Asian people comprise around 1.7 billion people, making up about 33% of the population in Continental Asia and 20% of the global population.[19][20][21][needs update] 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 133 inhabitants per square kilometre (340/sq mi), about three times the world average of 45/km2 (120/sq mi).[when?][citation needed]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference IMF was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Kort, Michael (2005). The Handbook Of East Asia. Lerner Publishing Group. p. 7. ISBN 978-0761326724.
  3. ^ a b "East Asia". rand.org. RAND Corporation. Archived from the original on 2011-01-02. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Tasks of German foreign policy-East Asia" (PDF). auswaertiges-amt.de. German Federal Foreign Office. May 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 December 2021. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Countries of Asia". nationsonline.org. Nations Online. Archived from the original on 2001-07-01. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  6. ^ "Demographia World Urban Areas" (PDF). Demographia.com. August 2023.
  7. ^ "East Asia". Encarta. Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2009-11-09. Retrieved 2008-01-12. the countries and regions of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Mongolia, South Korea, North Korea and Japan.
  8. ^ Miller, David Y. (2007). Modern East Asia: An Introductory History. Routledge. pp. xxi–xxiv. ISBN 978-0765618221.
  9. ^ "East Asia in the 21st Century | Boundless World History". courses.lumenlearning.com. Retrieved 2019-11-25.
  10. ^ Zaharna, R.S.; Arsenault, Amelia; Fisher, Ali (2013). Relational, Networked and Collaborative Approaches to Public Diplomacy: The Connective Mindshift (1st ed.). Routledge (published 2013-05-01). p. 93. ISBN 978-0415636070.
  11. ^ Holcombe, Charles (2017). A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge University Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-1107544895.
  12. ^ Szonyi, Michael (2017). A Companion to Chinese History. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 90. ISBN 978-1118624609.
  13. ^ Selin, Helaine (2010). Nature Across Cultures: Views of Nature and the Environment in Non-Western Cultures. Springer. p. 350. ISBN 978-9048162710.
  14. ^ Laozi; Mair, Victor H. (1998). Tao Te Ching: The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way. New York: Quality Paperback Book Club. pp. x. ISBN 9780965064750.
  15. ^ Salkind, Neil J. (2008). Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology. Sage Publications. p. 56. ISBN 978-1412916882.
  16. ^ Kim, Chongho (2003). Korean Shamanism: The Cultural Paradox. Ashgate. ISBN 9780754631859.
  17. ^ Andreas Anangguru Yewangoe, "Theologia crucis in Asia", 1987 Rodopi
  18. ^ Heissig, Walther (2000). The Religions of Mongolia. Translated by Samuel, Geoffrey. Kegan Paul International. p. 46. ISBN 9780710306852.
  19. ^ Spinosa, Ludovico (2007). Wastewater Sludge. Iwa Publishing. p. 57. ISBN 978-1843391425.
  20. ^ Wang, Yuchen; Lu Dongsheng; Chung Yeun-Jun; Xu Shuhua (2018). "Genetic structure, divergence and admixture of Han Chinese, Japanese and Korean populations". Hereditas. 155: 19. doi:10.1186/s41065-018-0057-5. PMC 5889524. PMID 29636655.
  21. ^ Wang, Yuchen; Lu, Dongsheng; Chung, Yeun-Jun; Xu, Shuhua (2018). "Genetic structure, divergence and admixture of Han Chinese, Japanese and Korean populations". Hereditas. 155 (published April 6, 2018): 19. doi:10.1186/s41065-018-0057-5. PMC 5889524. PMID 29636655.