East Asian Odyssey towards One Region: The Problem of East Asia as a Historiographical Category

Abstract

AbstractAlong with an explosive interest in East Asian regionalism, the problem of East Asia as a historiographical category draws intense attention worldwide. The questions of interest are the following: How can we define the concept of East Asia? What kind of geographical and conceptual border line could be drawn in mapping East Asia? Above all, why does East Asia as a historiographical category matter? Instead of searching for direct answers to these questions, this paper sought to disclose the paradox between these questions and the East Asian history itself. If we survey East Asia's historical archives as a whole in comparison with Europe's and turn to the real historical process in this region, following the route of the tributary trade system, Imperialism, and the Cold War as the crucial moments of regionalization, there is no clear evidence that this region has been formed as a congruent single unit with a solid core. What stands out as more salient features of the regionalization in East Asia are its extensive, encompassing and highly hybridizing interactions. What is crucial in East Asian historiography is not defining East Asia as a historiographical category by certain criteria in advance, but exploring the extremely entangled history of this region with the non‐East‐Asian players, for which East Asia has the best archives.