Far East
| Far East Countries | |||||||||||||||||
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| Location of the Far East, culturally defined | |||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 遠東 | ||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 远东 | ||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Far East | ||||||||||||||||
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| Burmese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Burmese | အရှေ့ဖျား ဒေသ | ||||||||||||||||
| IPA | [ʔəʃḛbjá dèθa̰] | ||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Quốc ngữ | Viễn Đông | ||||||||||||||||
| Hán tự | 遠東 | ||||||||||||||||
| Thai name | |||||||||||||||||
| Thai | ตะวันออกไกล Tawan-oak klai |
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| Korean name | |||||||||||||||||
| Hangul | 극동 | ||||||||||||||||
| Hanja | 極東 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Kanji | 極東 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Malay name | |||||||||||||||||
| Malay | Timur Jauh | ||||||||||||||||
| Indonesian name | |||||||||||||||||
| Indonesian | Timur Jauh | ||||||||||||||||
| Filipino name | |||||||||||||||||
| Tagalog | Silanganan (poetic) Malayong Silangan (literal) |
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| Portuguese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Portuguese | Extremo Oriente | ||||||||||||||||
| Russian name | |||||||||||||||||
| Russian | Дальний Восток IPA: [ˈdɑlʲnʲɪj vɐsˈtok] |
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| Romanization | Dál'niy Vostók | ||||||||||||||||
The Far East is an English term (with equivalents in various other languages of Europe and Asia, Chinese 遠東 yuǎn dōng literally translating to "far east") mostly describing East Asia (including the Russian Far East) and Southeast Asia,[1] with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.[2]
The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century, denoting East Asia as the "farthest" of the three "easts", beyond the Near East and the Middle East. For the same reason, ancient Chinese people called Western countries "Tàixī (泰西)"—i.e. anything further west than the Indian subcontinent. The term is no longer commonly used [3] as it connotes the "orientalism" of the 19th century as described by Edward Said. From the 1960s onward, terms like East Asia and the Orient had become more common.[4] East Asia remains the common term for the region today.[3]
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[edit] Popularisation
The term Far East was popularized during the period of the British Empire as a blanket term for lands to the east of British India. In pre-World War I European geopolitics, the Near East referred to the relatively nearby lands of the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East denoted northwestern South Asia and Central Asia, and the Far East meant countries along the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean. Many European languages have analogous terms, such as the French Extrême-Orient, Spanish Extremo Oriente, Portuguese Extremo Oriente, German Ferner Osten, Italian Estremo Oriente, Polish Daleki Wschód, and Dutch Verre Oosten.
[edit] Cultural as well as geographic meaning
Significantly, the term evokes cultural as well as geographic separation; the Far East is not just geographically distant, but also culturally exotic. It never refers, for instance, to the culturally Western nations of Australia and New Zealand, which lie even farther to the east of Europe than East Asia itself. This combination of cultural and geographic subjectivity was well illustrated in 1939 by Robert Menzies, the Prime Minister of Australia. Reflecting upon his country's geopolitical concerns with the onset of war, Menzies commented that:
"The problems of the Pacific are different. What Great Britain calls the Far East is to us the near north."[5]
Far East in its usual sense is comparable to terms such as the Orient, which means East; the Eastern world; or simply the East. Southeast Asia and the Russian Far East might now be included in the Far East to some extent.
Concerning the term, John K. Fairbank and Edwin O. Reischauer, professors of East Asian Studies at Harvard University, wrote (in East Asia: The Great Tradition): "When Europeans traveled far to the east to reach Cathay, Japan and the Indies, they naturally gave those distant regions the general name 'Far East.' Americans who reached China, Japan and Southeast Asia by sail and steam across the Pacific could, with equal logic, have called that area the 'Far West.' For the people who live in that part of the world, however, it is neither 'East' nor 'West' and certainly not 'Far.' A more generally acceptable term for the area is 'East Asia,' which is geographically more precise and does not imply the outdated notion that Europe is the center of the civilized world."[4]
Today, the term remains in the names of some longstanding institutions, including the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Far Eastern University in Manila, and the Far East University in South Korea. Furthermore, the United Kingdom and United States have historically used Far East for several military units and commands in the region:
[edit] Territories and regions conventionally included under the term Far East
[edit] Cities
[edit] See also
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Look up far east in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Sinosphere
- Indosphere
- Four Asian Tigers
- East Asia
- South Asia
- Southeast Asia
- Russian Far East
- Spanish East Indies
- Far Eastern Economic Review
- Y-DNA haplogroups by populations of East and Southeast Asia
- Far East Movement
[edit] Notes
- ^ AskOxford: Far East
- ^ The 'Far Eastern Economic Review' for example covers news from India and Sri Lanka.
- ^ a b "A menagerie of monikers". The Economist. 2010-01-07. http://www.economist.com/node/15213613. Retrieved 2011-07-09. "Remember... the Far East? If so, speak softly. Labels are handy ways of sorting out countries by history or geography. But lazily conceived and out-of-date ones are offensive and misleading.... The "Far East", as East Asia used to be called, is indeed far away from Europe but quite nearby for people who live there."
- ^ a b Reischauer, Edwin and John K Fairbank, East Asia: The Great Tradition, 1960.
- ^ Broadcast Speech by Mr R.G. Menzies, Prime Minister
- ^ Continental regions as per UN categorisations (map), except 12. Depending on definitions, various territories cited below (notes 6, 11-13, 15, 17-19, 21-23) may be in one or both of Asia and Europe, Africa, or Oceania.
- ^ The state is commonly known as simply "China", which is subsumed by the eponymous entity and civilisation (China). Figures given are for mainland China only, and do not include Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
- ^ Includes PRC-administered area (Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract, both territories claimed by India).
- ^ Information listed is for mainland China only. The Special Administrative Regions of the PRC (Hong Kong and Macau), the island territories under the control of the Republic of China (which includes the islands of Taiwan, Quemoy, and Matsu) are excluded).
- ^ Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC.
- ^ Macau is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC.
- ^ Figures are for the area under the de facto control of the Republic of China (ROC) government, commonly referred to as Taiwan. Claimed in whole by the PRC; see political status of Taiwan.
- ^ East Timor is often considered a transcontinental country in Southeastern Asia and Oceania.
- ^ Indonesia is often considered a transcontinental country in Southeastern Asia and Oceania; figures do not include Irian Jaya and Maluku Islands, frequently reckoned in Oceania (Melanesia/Australasia).
- ^ Russia is generally considered a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe (UN region) and Northern Asia; population and area figures are for Asian portion only.
- ^ a b Only includes the area of Far Eastern Federal District.
[edit] References
- Ankerl, Guy (2000). Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western. Geneva: INU Press. ISBN 2-88155-004-5.
- Whitaker, Brian (February 23, 2004). "From Turkey to Tibet". The Guardian.
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