Far East

The far east as a cultural block includes East Asia, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and South Asia. Pakistan is occasionally thought of as a middle eastern country, but is part of South Asia. The cultural border of the far east is therefore thought of as India.

The distribution of the two major families of world religion, Dharmic religion and Abrahamic religion, highlights the cultural difference between the far east and the rest of the world, which has undergone religious conversion to religions such as Islam and Christianity.

Shanghai, China

Seoul, Korea

Taipei, Taiwan

Shenzhen, China

Tokyo, Japan

The central business district of Singapore

Skyline of Hong Kong Island, taken from Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Skyline of Bombay

Far East is an inexact term often used for East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia combined, sometimes including also the easternmost territories of Russia, i.e., the Russian Far East, and the western Pacific Ocean region. Far East is sometimes used synonymously with East Asia, which may be defined in geographic or cultural terms to Russia's extreme northeast, coastal China, Taiwan, Japan, both north and south Korea, The Philippines, and Vietnam. But it commonly encompasses the states and cultures of Southeast Asia, such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, and South Asia such as India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

It was well popularized in the English language during the period of the British Empire as a blanket term for lands to the east of British India. Prior to World War I, the Near East referred to relatively nearby lands of the Ottoman Empire, Middle East to northwestern South Asia and Central Asia, and Far East for countries along the western Pacific Ocean. Many European languages have analogous terms, such as the French [Extrême-Orient], German [Ferner Osten], Italian Estremo oriente, and Dutch [Verre Oosten].

In Orientalist usage, it evokes cultural, as well as geographic separation, an exotic in addition to a distant locale. Far East never refers, for instance, to the culturally western nations of Australia and New Zealand, which lie even farther to the east of Europe than much of East Asia. Far East in this sense is comparable to terms such as the Orient, which means East; the Eastern world; or simply the East. East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia, have a close cultural commonality, including religious and philosophical systems, and arts, for instance Indian literature, mythology, religion and art has influenced the region.

The United Kingdom and United States historically used "Far East" for several units and commands in the region:

In addition, the post-World War II trials of Imperial Japanese war criminals was titled the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

Use of the term in the Western world has become somewhat circumscribed due to its Eurocentrism and association with European imperialism in Asia. The more precise East Asia and Southeast Asia, or larger umbrella terms, such as Pacific Rim, are preferred in cultural and economic studies. The region's growth has given new meaning to the term as meaning the Far East of the world (i.e. the easternmost continental land in the Eastern Hemisphere) rather than to the Far East of Europe. Many commercial enterprises and institutions are named "Far East," like that of Far Eastern National University in Vladivostok, Far Eastern University in the City of Manila, and as South Korean's Far East University, and the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review.

References

Whitaker, Brian. "[From Turkey to Tibet]," The Guardian, February 23, 2004.

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Far East

See also

References