Land, Peoples and Languages of East Asia

East Asia Land, Peoples and Languages of East Asia:

Geography:

Eastern Asia lies between the uplands of Central Asia and the Pacific. It is a region of highlands, deep valleys, and fertile plains. Its main rivers are the Yangtze, Chiang Jiang River, and Huang Ho, Yellow or Huang He River. Along the eastern coast of Asia are the Kamchatka peninsula, really part of Northern Asia, and a series of islands- Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu- form the country of Japan while farther south is the smaller island Taiwan, Formosa. The Korean Peninsula lies opposite Japan.

Western part of China is the least explored part of the world. The Tien Shan and the Sayan ranges form its northern boundary and extend to the Great Himalayan ranges in the south where Mount Everest, twenty-nine thousand twenty-eight feet, is considered China's highest point. Mongolia lies within the northern bounds of China and Tibet together with the Chinese Turkestan or western Chinese province of Turkestan lies within southwest China.

Mongolia and Sinkiang are areas of high, barren plateau, with some grasslands and desert regions like the Takla Makan and the Gobi desert. The Tibetan plateau is extremely high. It is an area of cold deserts, stark mountains, and deep valleys. Near the Tien Shan Mountains in Sinkiang is the Turfan depression which is about five hundred feet below sea level.

Japan is consists of some four thousand islands forming an extended arc off the coast of East Asia. The twelve hundred mile long archipelago has four sizeable home islands. The northernmost is Hokkaido which is considered cold and underpopulated. Honshu, the main island, is the largest and most populated. To its south, lie the two islands of Shikoku, traditionally known as the Four Provinces and Kyushu, the Nine Provinces. The highest elevation is Mount Fuji, twelve thousand three hundred ninety feet, and the longest river is the Shinano, three hundred seventy kilometers.

Korea on the other hand, is a peninsula suspended from the Asian mainland at its northern end, Manchuria and Siberia, and projecting southward into the waters of the western Pacific. This six hundred mile long peninsula faces eastward across the Sea of Japan, East Sea. The northern zone of the nation of the nation, occupied successively by Soviet military forces and a communist dictatorship since nineteen forty-five, comprises one hundred twenty-two thousand three hundred seventy square kilometers while the Republic of Korea to the south is slightly smaller with ninety-eight thousand four hundred forty-seven square kilometers.

China is the ancient source and today the central bulk of one of the great areas of civilization, which in recent years have come to be called as East Asia. When Europeans first traveled far to the east to reach Cathay, Japan and the Indies, they naturally gave these distant regions the general name "Far East". For the people who lived there, however, it is neither "East" nor "West" and certainly not "Far". A better term for the area is "East Asia", which does not imply the outdated notion that Europe is the center of civilization.

East Asia can be defined in three ways: in geographic terms as the area east of the great mountain and desert barrier that bisects Asia; in racial terms as the habitat of

Mongoloid man; and in cultural terms as the domain of a civilization rooted in that of ancient China.

Ecosystem:

One determining influence on East Asian civilization has been its relative isolation from the other great civilizations of mankind. Separated by great distances and formidable mountains and deserts, it developed distinctive cultural patterns that have been retained in large part until today.

The home of the early East Asian civilization in North China was very much more isolated than were these other early centers. On one side stretched the seemingly boundless Pacific. On the other side rose the tremendous central massif of Asia- the Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, more than ten thousand feet high, and the huge mountain chains that radiate from this roof of the world.

Climate also contributed to East Asia's distinctiveness. The climate of East Asia, like that of India, is determined largely by the great land mass of Asia. In winter the air over Central Asia, far removed from the ameliorating influence of water, becomes very cold and heavy, flowing outward and bringing cool, dry weather to the southern and eastern fringes of the continent. In summer the reverse takes place. The air over Central Asia warms up and rises, and moist oceanic air rushes in to take its place, dropping a heavy load of water on the continental fringes.

As a result of these monsoon winds, most of East Asia have ample rainfall during the best growing months. This distinctive climate gave East Asia an agricultural pattern quite different from that of the West. Many of the principal crops and animals of East Asia, notably rice, soy bean, chicken, water buffalo and the pig seem to have come from hot and humid Southeast Asia. In the more intensive agriculture of East Asia domesticated animals were used less and manpower more. The chief cereal of most of East Asia has been rice which grows best in flooded fields and is well adapted to the hot, wet summers of this area.

The monsoonal climate in East Asia brings hot and rainy summers, giving rise to a great variety of temperate and tropical vegetation. China has the most varied vegetation of any country of the world, with about thirty thousand species, excluding mushrooms and mosses. About two-thirds of Japan's total area is forested, roughly ten percent of China is under forest cover; sizeable tracts remain untouched. One reason for this difference is the traditional respect that the Japanese have had for their scenery.

North of the Yangtze River, much of China was once covered by primeval deciduous forest, most of which has been removed to create farmland. A wild growth of trees and shrubs survives throughout the cultivated areas and parklike tree growths and stands of bamboos are widespread. The original forest cover included sixty different genera of tall trees which includes: oak and maple, linden, chestnut, hornbeam, magnolia, tulip tree, camphor three, cedar, sweet gum, catalpha and lianas, vines. Palm trees are found throughout the South China, South Korea, as well as in the southern part of Japan.

East Asia also has endemic kinds of deer. The Siberian tiger, originally native to southeastern Siberia, Manchuria and Korea has spread southward through eastern China into all of Southeast Asia and Northern India. The giant panda inhabits the lower mountain margin of China bordering Tibet; the lesser panda- a member of the racoon family- is a Himalayan animal. The large rivers of China have a rich fish life, among which is the paddlefish of North America. Another fresh water animal is the giant salamander, found in Japanese waters.