Far East

Far East
	Location of the Far East, geographically defined
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	遠東
Simplified Chinese	远东
Literal meaning	Far East
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Yuǎn Dōng
Tongyong Pinyin	Yuǎn Dōng
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutping	Jyun5 Dung1
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ	Óan-tong
Burmese name
Burmese	အရှေ့ဖျား ဒေသ
IPA	[ʔəʃḛbjá dèθa̰]
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Viễn Đông
Chữ Hán	遠東
Thai name
Thai	ตะวันออกไกล ; Tawan-oak klai
Korean name
Hangul	극동
Hanja	極東
Transcriptions
Revised Romanization	Geuk Dong
McCune–Reischauer	Kŭk Tong
Mongolian name
Mongolian Cyrillic	Als Dornod
Japanese name
Kanji	極東
Katakana	キョクトウ
Transcriptions
Romanization	Kyoku Tō
Malay name
Malay	تيمور جاوء ; Timur Jauh
Indonesian name
Indonesian	Timur Jauh
Filipino name
Tagalog	Silanganan (poetic); Malayong Silangan (literal)
Portuguese name
Portuguese	Extremo Oriente
Russian name
Russian	Дальний Восток ; IPA: [ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok]
Romanization	Dál'niy Vostók

The Far East is a geographical region that includes Eastern Russia, Eastern and Southeastern Asia.[1] South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.[2] The term "Far East" came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 12th century, denoting the Far East as the "farthest" of the three "easts", beyond the Near East and the Middle East. Likewise, in Qing Dynasty of the 19th and early 20th centuries the term "Tàixī (泰西)" – i.e. anything further west than the Arab world – was used to refer to the Western countries.

Since the 1960s, East Asia has become the most common term for the region in international mass media outlets.[3][4]

Popularization

Prior to the colonial era, "Far East" referred to anything further east than the Middle East. In the 16th century, King John III of Portugal called India a "rich and interesting country in the Far East[5] (Extremo Oriente)." The term 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 (Lejano Oriente), Portuguese (Extremo Oriente), German (Ferner Osten), Italian (Estremo Oriente), Polish (Daleki Wschód), Norwegian (Det fjerne Østen) and Dutch (Verre Oosten).

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, a Prime Minister of Australia. Reflecting on 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.[6]

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, the Russian Far East, and occasionally South Asia might 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, the Far East University in South Korea, and Far East, the periodical magazine of the Missionary Society of St. Columban. Furthermore, the United States and United Kingdom have historically used Far East for several military units and commands in the region; the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet, for instance.

Territories and regions conventionally included under the term Far East

Name of region[7] and territory, with flag	Area (km²)	Population	Population density (per km²)	Capital	Forms of government	Currency	Official languages
North Asia
Russia[8][9]	6,952,600	8,371,257	1.2	Moscow[10]	Federal semi-presidential republic	Ruble	Russian and 27 other co-official languages
Southeast Asia
Brunei	5,765	417,200	72.11	Bandar Seri Begawan	Absolute Islamic Sultanate	Brunei dollar	Malay and English
Cambodia	181,035	16,245,729	81.8	Phnom Penh	Constitutional monarchy	Riel	Khmer
Christmas Island[11]	135	1,843	10.39	Flying Fish Cove	External territory of Australia	Australian dollar	English[12]
Cocos (Keeling) Islands[13]	14	544	43.0	West Island	External territory of Australia	Australian dollar	None[14]
Indonesia	1,904,569	261,115,456	138.0	Jakarta	Presidential republic	Rupiah	Indonesian
Laos	237,955	6,758,353	26.7	Vientiane	Socialist Republic	Kip	Lao
Malaysia	330,803	32,049,700	92.0	Kuala Lumpur	Federal constitutional monarchy, Parliamentary democracy	Ringgit	Malay
Myanmar (Burma)	676,578	53,582,855	76.0	Naypyidaw	Unitary presidential constitutional republic	Kyat	Burmese
Philippines	300,000	100,981,437	336.0	Manila	Unitary presidential constitutional republic	Philippine peso (Piso)	Filipino and English
Singapore	722.5	5,638,700	7,804.0	Singapore	Parliamentary republic	Singapore dollar	Malay, English, Chinese (Mandarin), and Tamil
Thailand	513,120	68,863,514	132.1	Bangkok	Constitutional monarchy, Parliamentary democracy	Baht	Thai
Timor-Leste (East Timor)	15,410	1,167,242	78.0	Dili	Parliamentary republic	U.S. dollar / Centavo coins	Tetum and Portuguese
Vietnam	331,212	94,569,072	276.03	Hanoi	One-party led state, Socialist Republic	đồng	Vietnamese
East Asia
China[15]	9,598,094[16]	1,371,821,094[17]	145.0	Beijing	One-party socialist republic	Yuan (Renminbi)	Chinese (Mandarin)[18]
Hong Kong[19]	1,108	7,448,900	6,777.0	Hong Kong	Special administrative region of the People's Republic of China.	Hong Kong dollar	Chinese,[20] English
Japan	377,973	126,440,000	334.0	Tokyo	Parliamentary democracy, Constitutional monarchy	Yen	None[21]
Macau[22]	115.3	653,100	21,340.0	Macau	Special administrative region of the People's Republic of China	Pataca	Chinese,[23] Portuguese
Mongolia	1,566,000	3,081,677	1.97	Ulaanbaatar	Parliamentary republic	Tögrög	Mongolian
North Korea	120,540	25,368,620	212.0	Pyongyang	Juche unitarian dictatorship Socialist Republic	North Korean won	Korean
South Korea	100,363	51,446,201	507.0	Seoul	Presidential republic	South Korean won	Korean
Taiwan[24]	36,197	23,577,271	650.0	Taipei	Semi-presidential system	New Taiwan dollar	Chinese (Mandarin)

Cities

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Notes

"Oxford Dictionaries - Dictionary, Thesaurus, & Grammar". askoxford.com.
The 'Far Eastern Economic Review' for example covers news from India and Sri Lanka.
"A menagerie of monikers". The Economist. 7 January 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
Reischauer, Edwin and John K Fairbank, East Asia: The Great Tradition, 1960.
Robert Sewell (1901). A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar; A Contribution to the History of India.
"Historical documents". Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
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.
Russia is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia, but is considered European historically, culturally, ethnically, and politically, and the vast majority of its population (78%) lives within its European part.
Only the Russian Far East.
Moscow is located in Europe.
Christmas Island is an External Territory of Australia.
English does not have de jure status in Christmas Island and in Australia, but it is the de facto language of communication in government.
The Cocos (Keeling) Islands are an External Territory of Australia.
English does not have de jure status in Christmas Island and in Australia, but it is the de facto language of communication in government.
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 region (i.e. 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.
"Law of the People's Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language (Order of the President No.37)". Chinese Government. 31 October 2000. Retrieved 21 June 2013. For purposes of this Law, the standard spoken and written Chinese language means Putonghua (a common speech with pronunciation based on the Beijing dialect) and the standardized Chinese characters.
Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China
No specific variety of Chinese is official in the territory. Residents predominantly speak Cantonese, the de facto regional standard.
Japan's National Diet have not officially enacted a law stating that the official language is Japanese.
Macau is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
No specific variety of Chinese is official in the territory. Residents predominantly speak Cantonese, the de facto regional standard.
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.