East Asia

Chp. 26

• Mountains rugged highlands and deserts cover much of the area. The Mountains cause the deserts. Many of the islands were formed by volcanoes. In China, only 11% of the land can be used for growing crops.

• Wheat Bowl – the North China plain along the Yellow River. This river’s yellow deposits (loess) bring fertility, but it’s flooding make it the “river of sorrows”

Rice bowl – along the Yangtze (Chaing Jiang) River.

• Monsoons and currents – affect the climate. One affect is that Japan’s climate is milder than would be expected at that latitude.

• Climate – look (on page 543) at the similarities to the U.S.—the mountains cause some deserts to exist.

Climates

• Vegetation – again, look at the similarities to the U.S.

27.1 – Place• 94% of the 1.2 billion Chinese are Han.

There are 50 other ethnic groups

• Japan is homogeneous—all of the same ethnic group. (almost)

• Mongolia – divided into tribes but also Homogeneous—some Mongolians live in Russia, others in China.

Population

Movement

• CHINA – 90% live on 1/6th of the land, some on scattered oases. Today, one child per ;family is all that is legal.

• Japanese Population Growth – like in most industrialized countries, it is slow.

• Migration – North Koreans have been migrating to the south—push/communism, pull/a free society, prosperity.

• Mongolia – sparsely populated• Taiwan 1,517 people/sq. mile Hong Kong

14,000 people per sq. mile

Yurts in Mongolia

• Human/Environment Interaction (urbanization)

• China – has a lot of big cities even though only 25% of the people live in cities.

Shanghai

• Japan – very urbanized, has a megalopolis with a population of 27 million people.

• Korea – also highly urbanized, (2/3rds of the people live in cities,) they have crowded cities.

• Taiwan – 3/4th of the people live in cities—Taipei is the capital and biggest city.

27.2 History and Government

China

• Dynastic Cycle – starting in 1700 B.C. it was believed that a dynasty ruled as long as they had the “Mandate of Heaven”

• Confucianism and Daoism were two philosophies that developed under the ancient Zhou dynasty.

• The Quin (Chin) dynasty built the great wall, gave China its name & had quite an impact.

• Tang dynasty made China large, peaceful and prosperous (they traded)

• Japan – the Japanese lived in Clans, had an imperial family, but, after 1192 the real ruler was the Shogun or the top Samurai warrior.

• Korea – ruling family, then military rulers, then conquered by Mongols.

Ch'eomseongdae (designated National Treasure #31) means "Star Gazing Tower." Built during the reign of Queen Seonduk in 634, it is the oldest existing observatory in the Far East. It has 27 levels of stones in a round shape (Queen Seonduk was the 27th ruler of the Shilla Dynasty) with four sets of parallel bars to make a square-shaped structure on its top. The ends of the parallel bars jut out several inches from the surface and might have been a support for a staircase used to reach the top.

Picture of a Korean home taken in 1954

Man with traditional hat

• Mongolia – these guys ruled China for a while after 1260 and also invaded (unsuccessfully) Japan.

During the 1800s:

• China, exposed as being weak, but, too heavily populated to invade and conquer, so European nations just demand “spheres of influence” in parts of China.

• Japan – forced to open its doors by the U.S., it then modernized, industrializes, and like the European countries, it then wants colonies—(conquests) and starts to expand.

During the 1900s

• China – has a revolution and overthrows the Emperor. But, it is soon involved in a civil war between the communists—led by Mao Ze Dong, and the “nationalists.”

• Japan, conquers Korea and parts of China, then the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

• After we nuke Japan they have to give up their conquests.—they then become democratic and capitalist and turn into an economic powerhouse.

• Chinese go back to fighting their civil war, the Communists win and the Nationalist flee to Formosa (Taiwan—Nationalist China).

• Korea, the Japanese are chased out by the Americans in the South and the Russians in the North. After a War in which the U.S. helped S. Korea, there are still two Koreas today—the South is free, and prosperous, the north is poor, communists, and has a couple atomic bombs.

• Hong Kong after about a hundred years of being a British colony, was given back to China in 1997

27.3 Cultures and Lifestyles

• Languages – Both Chinese and Japanese are based on ideograms—pictorial characters . The Chinese written form is the same throughout the country, but the spoken form varies.

• The Japanese can be written in ideograms or with a phonic alphabet.

• Religion – They have no problem being followers of more than one religion. –Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Daoism, Islam in western China). Shintoism (in Japan), and shamanism (in Korea), all have a presence in the region.

• Standards of living – Japan – has one of the highest in the world, many women now work.

• Korea and Taiwan – also developed quickly and continue to make improvements.

Japanese mall

Shopping in Korea

• China – the “communist” government is allowing more and more capitalism and the standard of living is improving accordingly;.

• Demographics – literacy – – Japan over 90% – China about 78% and rising.

• Health Care – – life expectancy in Japan is 82 years for women

and 76 for men, – the regional average is 70 women and 5 for men.

• Architecture – based on wood construction, the pagoda (derived from Buddhist temples in India) is one common style—multistory with each story a bit smaller than the one below;

Chapter 28—East

Asia Today

• Agriculture – China – more than 60% of Chinese work I agriculture

growing a lot of rice, wheat and tea. – The Communist tried to put them all on communes

and collective farms, but didn’t work well and private ownership is again allowed.;

• Japan – most farms are about 3 acres, grown three crops per year, and grow most of the vegetables that Japan needs.

• Korea – too rugged for farming.

• Taiwan – small terraced farms growing pineapples, bananas, tea, peanuts, and veggies.

Mongolia – grazing

• Fishing – an important sources of food

• Industry – Japan – has a lot, has a very productive team minded workforce, and depends a lot on trade for raw materials.

• Taiwan – lighter industries, also many Taiwanese have built factories and invested in mainland China—so have people in Hong Kong and Japan.

• Mongolia – has some manufacturing based on their raw materials -- livestock (shoes, coats, wool) and woods.

Use chapter 28 to fill in this chart

Country Agricultural Prod. Industrial Prod.

China

Japan

Korea

Taiwan

Mongolia

Country Agricultural Prod. Industrial Prod.

ChinaRice, wheat, tea, soybeans, cotton, jute, silk

Korea

Taiwan

Mongolia

Rice, veggies, tea, mulberries

Rice, grains, potatoes, chickens, cattle, pigs

Rice, pineapples, bananas, tea, peanuts, veggies

Sheep, goats, camels, cattle, milk, wool

Japan

Coal, steel, cement,

Autos, electronics, steel

Textiles, appliances,

Textiles (wool), leather shoes, meat, milk, furniture & paper

Electronics, textiles, steel,, cars,

N.K. heavy industry—chemicals, iron, steel

• Transportation and communication – Japan - bullet trains, the 2nd largest merchant marine fleet in the world, and cars. Outside of Japan people use buses, trains, bicycles, and carts pulled by animals.

• Japanese and Taiwanese own TV’s, in china the average family might have a radio.nd the Environment 28.3

• People and the Environment 28.3

• China has a lot of Coal, uses it, and thus creates a lot of Acid Rain.

• Japan – industrialized in a hurry and thus created a lot of pollution and waste. Since the 70s they have become one of the least polluting industrialized countries, but, they still have a lot of pollution.

• Natural disasters – earthquakes (Japan has about 1,500 per year) , typhoons, volcanoes (they are part of the “ring of fire”---Jap. Has 50 active volcanoes).

East Asian Cultural Landscape

A Pagoda found in Nara, Japan

This Japanese temple is said to be the largestwooden structure in the world.

Shinto Shrine Orignially built in Japan about 725, rebuilt in the 1850s.

China’s Great Wall

Japan’s Mount Fuji (Fujiyama)

Okay, so a mountain isn’t exactly culture, you still ought to be aware of it.