What role does a common writing system play in defining “East Asia”?
• East Asia may, in fact, be defined precisely as that part of the world that once used Chinese writing. [Genesis of EA, p. 5] • No tool was more critical to the spread of this common East Asian civilization than the extension, throughout the entire region, of the Chinese script and classical written language. [Genesis of EA, p. 5] • Chinese language inscriptions, and therefore Chinese history in the truest sense, first appear on the Central Plain around 1200 B.C. This was a development whose significance cannot be overstated. [Genesis of EA, p. 8] • The continuous use for over 3,000 years of this same language and this same script (with some modifications) lies at the very heart of the Chinese cultural tradition, and literature written in the classical Chinese language also forms the most critical link binding China to the other, non-Chinese, parts of East Asia, very visibly demarcating them from the rest of the world. [Genesis of EA, p. 8] • The East Asian (Chinese-based) scripts hav
