Far East
From Freepedia
Far East is an inexact term often used for East 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 include historical China (excluding Tibet and Xinjiang), Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. But it commonly encompasses the states and cultures of Southeast Asia such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. Western Pacific Ocean nations such as Indonesia and the Philippines are sometimes included as well, though never Australia or New Zealand.
It was well popularized in the English language during the second 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 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 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.
The United Kingdom and United States historically used "Far East" for several units and commands in the region:
- British Far East Command
- RAF Far East Air Force
- U.S. Far East Air Force
- U.S. Far East Command
- The U.S. Far East Network
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 are named "Far East," as is 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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