Which meta-region seems more unified: The Far East or Europe? (homes, earthquakes)

[Trimac20]

Europe includes the geographical limits of the European continent and Russia to the Urals.

The 'Far East' includes East Asia and Southeast Asia.

Which do you see as a more unified 'region', culturally, genetically, economically?

On one hand, Europe is bound by the EU, yet it seems to have a bit more internal cultural and ethnic diversity. For the most part, do Europeans have a strong 'pan-European' identity? How well do they get along?

East Asia is dominated by China, but it has peripheral nations that are very different like Korea and Japan. SE Asia has it's own identity, with influences from China, India and their own influences. Yet, despite the apparent homogeneity, I feel a lot of Asian nations dislike each other. Japan and China for instance. Even within SE Asia there's a lot of bad blood.

Genetically, both are pretty similar actually. A Finn and an Italian are about as different from each other as a Korea is from a Cambodian.

Linguistically Europe is dominated by the Indo-European language family, while Asia has the Sino-Tibetan, Japonic/Korean isolates, Altaic, Tai-Kadai, Mon Khmer and Austronesian so is probably more diverse.

I would say the Greco-Roman/Latin influence is sort of analogous to Sinitic influence in Asia.

[ErikJohnsson]

Unless I'm missing something, definitely see Europe as more unified than East Asia+SE Asia. The tension between Japan and the rest and North Korea and the rest really sets that region apart, not to mention there are hardly any regional agreements like European countries have allowing their citizens to easily move between countries.

[Fabio SBA]

Originally Posted by Trimac20

Linguistically Europe is dominated by the Indo-European language family, while Asia has the Sino-Tibetan, Japonic/Korean isolates, Altaic, Tai-Kadai, Mon Khmer and Austronesian so is probably more diverse.

I would say the Greco-Roman/Latin influence is sort of analogous to Sinitic influence in Asia.

There is no consensus whether Japanese and Korean are isolates or members of Altaic, or even related to each other but not to Altaic. Tai-Kadai, Mon-Khmer, Austro-Asiatic and Sino-Tibetan have also very strong typological similarities: most of them are analytic, monosylabic and tonal. This typology, in addition to the complex writing systems of these languages, makes difficult to estabilish phonetic laws, and because of this most linguists aviod grouping them into a single linguistic family. The most liberal linguists may state that there are only three language families in East Asia: Altaic, Austronesian and Sino-Thai-Khmer-Vietnamese (or other name which he would give).

However, there is a sprachbund in East Asia. The Chinese Language performs in East Asia more or less the same role of Greek and Latin in Europe.

[marothisu]

On average I would say Europe. Much, much smaller area than Asia, but in some areas Asia is pretty damn unified, but on average...EUrope

[mrconfusion87]

Europe, easily! Asians still fight amongst themselves quite often; just look at Japan and China, and that's the tip of the iceberg.

[Davy-040]

Many Japanese feel superior to the rest of East Asia and see SE Asians and rural Chinese as lazy, dirty and stupid. pretty much the exact opposite of how the Japanese see their self.

I saw a video on youtube before where a 5 foot tall, tanned Indonesian guy asked for directions in Tokyo,
everyone ignored him, acted like they were on the phone. they did the same test with a 6'2, pale Canadian guy and almost everyone tried to help him.

[Trimac20]

Originally Posted by Davy-040

Many Japanese feel superior to the rest of East Asia and see SE Asians and rural Chinese as lazy, dirty and stupid. pretty much the exact opposite of how the Japanese see their self.

I saw a video on youtube before where a 5 foot tall, tanned Indonesian guy asked for directions in Tokyo,
everyone ignored him, acted like they were on the phone. they did the same test with a 6'2, pale Canadian guy and almost everyone tried to help him.

Disgraceful if true, although one has to remember these aren't controlled experiments.

[Fabio SBA]

Originally Posted by Davy-040

Many Japanese feel superior to the rest of East Asia and see SE Asians and rural Chinese as lazy, dirty and stupid. pretty much the exact opposite of how the Japanese see their self.

I saw a video on youtube before where a 5 foot tall, tanned Indonesian guy asked for directions in Tokyo,
everyone ignored him, acted like they were on the phone. they did the same test with a 6'2, pale Canadian guy and almost everyone tried to help him.

Fact: Japan is one of the most efficient countries in the world. The country is very poor in natural resources and often suffers with earthquakes, but they have a very high per capita income, no significative social issues and everything there works well. They do much with few resources, almost a miracle.

[415_s2k]

Originally Posted by Davy-040

Many Japanese feel superior to the rest of East Asia and see SE Asians and rural Chinese as lazy, dirty and stupid. pretty much the exact opposite of how the Japanese see their self.

... and conversely, many people in China and Korea view Japan as being the root of all evil, economic, environental, and social ills in their region, and dream of someday making Japan, or at least a Japanese person, pay... which is about as immature and pointless as what you describe.

I saw a video on youtube before where a 5 foot tall, tanned Indonesian guy asked for directions in Tokyo,
everyone ignored him, acted like they were on the phone. they did the same test with a 6'2, pale Canadian guy and almost everyone tried to help him.

Originally Posted by Trimac20

Disgraceful if true, although one has to remember these aren't controlled experiments.

There certainly may be some truth to it, but videos like this remind me of the "stupid Americans" video that made the rounds back during the Bush years, where they showed how any Americans couldn't identify England on a map and thought we were at war with Australia... considering that they most likely spoke to and skipped over dozens of Americans who cheerily pointed to England and said, "...uh, no, Australia are our allies." The people who make videos like this often have an agenda to push.

Originally Posted by Fabio SPA

Fact: Japan is one of the most efficient countries in the world. The country is very poor in natural resources and often suffers with earthquakes, but they have a very high per capita income, no significative social issues and everything there works well. They do much with few resources, almost a miracle.

This isn't entirely true... Japan does have a fair number of resources, however the post-WW2 push towards technological advancement and modernization meant that there was a massive drain on rural Japan as people moved to urban and suburban areas for jobs in manufacturing and commerce. There are a large number of farming communities and smaller cities whose livelihoods hinged upon lumber or mining that are now ghost towns; at one point, before the recession, the Japanese government was giving fairly substantial incentives for people to re-homestead farms in an attempt to use a lot of this now-disused land and re-establish rural communities - I don't know what the current state of these projects are.

As far as social issues... well... they don't have problems with murder, but, a falling birthrate that can largely be attributed to a work culture that's in many ways just plain anti-family could certainly be considered a social problem.

In conclusion...

IMHO, Europe is way more unified than Asia, and I find it difficult to entertain an argument to the contrary. First of all, you have no overtly oppressive governments like North Korea or Myanmar, or media blackouts like China. You have no cross-border skirimishes like Pakistan and India, or Thailand and Cambodia. There may be some negative feeling towards certain European nations for their economic position or perceived attitude of superiority versus other European nations, but nothing like the China/Korea vs. Japan animosity.

[Mac15]

Far east. Cannot tell difference between japan,china or vietnam.

Ps i dont see europe as unified culturally, the asians are more alike than europeans are alike for sure. Europe has alot of totally different cultures whereas asians are all kind of similar.