Welcome to the East Asia flair panel AMA! A team of flaired users specializing in topics in or related to East Asia will be on hand to answer your questions about the region, its people and its history.
East Asia, commonly defined as encompassing China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, usually Manchuria and sometimes Mongolia and Tibet, has never been a single homogeneous entity. Across up to 12 million square kilometers it would be impossible not to find marked differences in landscape, language and lifestyle, which even today can often be overlooked from a Western point of view. Arguably the only serious attempt at Pan-Asianism ended in flames in the 1930s and 40s, and even in recent years there has been no dearth of causes for enmity between powers and between peoples.
Yet alongside such divisions, there have also been connections, both within the broader region and further afield across the globe. For quite a while, East Asia was largely united by a common standard of writing, and at many times people have been able to travel quite freely between its various landmasses, be they merchants, pirates, political exiles or simply travelers and tourists. Across the steppe and the seas, people, goods, ideas and knowledge from East Asia have flowed out to the wider world, and those from the wider world have flowed back into East Asia.
In the many millennia of East Asian History huge changes have occurred in many areas. Looking just at the last 1000 years, we see effects from the Mongol conquests in the 13th century, to the Columbian exchange in the 16th, to the appearance of Western imperialism in the 19th, and of course, a whole host of endogenous developments, be they religious, cultural, political or socioeconomic. There have been continuities too, of course, and sometimes quite resilient ones. For one, the physical geography has for the most part been pretty constant, outside of course the regular course changes of the lower Yellow River.
With this panel we hope to shed a little more light, to the best of our abilities, on one of the most prominent and yet often least popularly understood regions of the world. We're all ears for questions, and hopefully, you should be all ears for answers!
Our Panelists today are:
/u/bigbluepanda has the least worst knowledge of the evolution of the military within pre-modern Japan, of which the majority of questions fall into the Sengoku period.
/u/buy_a_pork_bun Specializes primarily in the Vietnam War and the Chinese Civil War. That said he is more than happy to discuss the nature of Tokugawa judicature, the transition of power towards and away from Meiji, the CCP, Japanese colonialism, and Chinese ethnography from Tang, Song, and Qing. Somewhere in the vaults is a fuzzy memory of the utilization of military equipment in the Pacific theater and in the Korean War and probably a few tidbits about the vehicle of Japanese legitimacy from Fujiwara onwards.
/u/Cenodoxus was originally training as a medievalist, but started researching North Korea because she understood nothing about the country from what she read in the papers. After several years of intense study, now she understands even less. Her previous AMAs on North Korea and Korean history for /r/AskHistorians can be found here and here.
/u/churakaagii is about as niche as you can get for the English language, especially as an amateur in the history game: She got into history through her love of Okinawa, and trying to figure out how and why her heritage language and culture is in a zombie state. On /r/AskHistorians, this has largely turned into answering questions about Japan from very specific times that were relevant to Okinawa, e.g. the tide of Western colonialism in East Asia during the mid-to-late 19th century, or the pre-WW2 Imperial period.
/u/cthulhushrugged specializes in the Early & Mid-Imperial Eras of China, in particular, the political, military, economic, and ethnic histories of the Qin, Han, Tang, and Song Dynasties (and the periods of civil war bracketing each). He's also thrilled to wax poetic about the Mongols and Genghis Khan (and more broadly the border states and peoples surrounding China), why invading Korea and Vietnam overland are horrible ideas, and the Pacific Theater of the 2nd World War.
/u/_dk is an avid reader of East Asian history with an interest in the Three Kingdoms period of China and the maritime situation in East Asia during the 16th century, a time of pirates and the Portuguese.
/u/EnclavedMicrostate specialises in Qing Dynasty China, primarily from 1796 to 1912, with a particular emphasis on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851-64) and its broader context. He'll also be happy to discuss the Opium Wars, 19th century Sino-Western relations more broadly, and questions more generally about the later Qing Dynasty and its own domestic and imperial policy.
/u/JimeDorje is the local historian specializing in all things Tibet and Tibet-related, focusing on indigenous Tibetan historiography, the intersection between Sangha and State-formation, and the development of Tibet, Bhutan, and other Himalayan states from the Imperial period, to the development of Buddhist theocracies, and their absorption into 20th Century Statehood. He's happy to discuss all things historically Tibetan, Buddhist, and Himalayan.
/u/keyilan is an historical linguist specialising in East and Southeast Asia. In addition to the historical development of the languages of Asia, he is also interested in historical language planning and policies, particularly in Taiwan and Korea under Japanese occupation, and also minority language rights. Beyond linguistics, areas of interest include Hakka studies, China in the 19th century, and Chinese diaspora communities around the world, with an emphasis on the Chinese Exclusion Acts and anti-Chinese sentiment.
/u/KippyPowers specializes in the Philippines, with interests spanning precolonial, colonial, and modern, with a particular interest in social history and language and cultural politics. Secondary interests include modern China and Taiwan (particularly late Qing Dynasty to now, and yes, he and u/EnclavedMicrostate do love to have fun dialogues on this period together) and modern Viet Nam (in particular the 20th century). In both cases, again, he has a great interest in social and cultural history and is always very excited to discuss them.
/u/lordtiandao works on the institutional, military, and fiscal history of the Song-Yuan-Ming period, focusing on the Mongol conquest and its impact on state employment of personnel and state capacity. He's also interested in the study of nomadic state formation, military mutinies in the Ming dynasty, and Ming policy in Northwest and Southwest China. He's happy to discuss the politics, military, institutions, and finances of the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties.
/u/LTercero focuses on Japan's Sengoku period, in particular, the socio-political climate which drove the military conflicts and general upheaval of 15th-16th century Japan.
/u/ParallelPain loves all history, but focuses on Japan, specifically the Sengoku era, due to the influence of NHK's historical drama. With only a bachelors in history, he'd like to call himself more of an "educated-amateur" than a professional historian, but loves diving through the primary sources in search for answers, which often cause him to take longer to write even short answers, even by /r/Askhistorian standards. That is, if he didn't give up altogether.
/u/ParkSungJun occasionally contributes points about organizational structures and institutions in Imperial Japan, Republican China, and other parts of Asia, Europe, and North America. In addition, he moonlights as an economic historian in commodity markets both past and present.
/u/Spiritof454 is an American Chinese history PhD student researching the late Qing and the Republican period from a perspective of economic and business history.
Reminder from the mod team: our Panel today is consisted of users scattered across the globe, in various timezones with different real-world obligations. Please, be patient, and give them time to get to your question! Thank you!
Hello! Thanks for the opportunity for an interesting panel. I have a couple of questions in mind, but I'm on a train, so maybe it's a bit too incoherent. But here goes.
To my knowledge, wakashu (adolescent boys) were subjects of sexual/erotic interests of adult men in pre-Meiji Japan. How did the dynamics play out? Were boys simply an object of desire that eventually needs to be weeded out (not sure what a more appropriate term is) as the men grow older and realize their duty to their family (wife, kids), similar to how ghulams - young boys - were treated in Abbasid Caliphate? Was it possible for men to love their boys like they love their concubines? I think my bigger question is, how were "male love" and "homoerotic sexuality" (if such thing existed) performed in pre-Meiji Japan?
To follow question number 2, how did the criminalization of same-sex activity in the early Meiji era (to accord to Western norms) affect Japanese idea of sex(uality) and love?
How did Western colonialism influence the idea of "(becoming a) modern man" in the area you study? In Indonesia, the "myth of lazy native" was common in 19th century. The myth goes: Non-Western natives are lazy, irrational, and inefficient. Natives are not disciplined and succumb to superstition. To become a "modern man", "primordial" identity has to be worn off. One has to aim to be like the Westerners (in terms of fashion, intellectual pursuit, even imagination of 'development' and 'industrialization').
Thank you again for the chance!
I've posted this question in the sub before and gotten no answer but here goes:
What was the Taiwanese government's reaction to the United States recognizing the One China Policy? Did it come as a shock? Given the political relationship between US-Taiwan-PRC today, it seems surprising that the US would have done this. Was there ever the possibility of recognizing the two entities as separate, discreet states?
As a follow-up, how did the Kuomintang evolve into the major Taiwanese party more sympathetic to the PRC today? You would assume given their history of animosity and anti-communism they would be more vociferous in their opposition.
How much is known about the earliest Chinese dynasty - the Xia? Among that information how much of it comes from more archeological sources versus secondary accounts from later writers? How much of what is known is history rather than mythology?
I don't know if this is within anybody's wheelhouse in particular, but I would like to know more about the history of celebrating the Duanwu Festival (which was just yesterday!) Here in Taiwan I've read a lot of pop-history articles about how Duanwu represents an appropriation of Chu culture and customs by the northern "China proper." So it got me curious about when Duanwu became a holiday celebrated across all of China, and how and when did Qu Yuan become associated with the holiday?
I'd like to kick it off with a question regarding Japan:
I’ve been told that after reverse engineering the Portuguese arquebuses (was it Sam Hawley’s Imjin War?) the Japanese organized their armies according to the gunsmith from which the weapons were made. European armies were made up of heterogenous units of soldiers who couldn’t trade ammunition or equipment due to the plethora of gunsmiths in Europe, while Japan had only four, and a central command with Nobunaga and Hideyoshi. Am I totally off the mark? And if this is correct, what more can you tell me about these four gunsmiths? Where were they? How large were they? What happened to them after Hideyoshi died? Were they controlled really as strictly as it sounds?
Did the Qing Dynasty follow the Sinocentric view of the world? It's generally accepted that for most of history Chinese dynasties have seen themselves as the center of the universe, and all other peoples to be barbarians on the periphery. The Qing Dynasty though, seems to have been less Sinicized than other dynasties, both "Chinese" and "foreign" (e.g. Yuan, Jin, etc.). So then did the Qing see themselves as the center of the universe, like the Chinese dynasties before them?
When did giant pandas become an iconic creature of Chinese culture? They don't seem to be featured very much in pre-modern Chinese art.
What do we know of 王玄策, a Tang diplomat who was attacked by an Indian king, and lead a combination of Tibetan and Nepali troops in a successful counterattack, capturing said king and bringing him back to China? Did he even exist? I can't find much about him.
Does it make sense to think of China as being part of Greater India or the Indosphere, since China was heavily influenced by Indian religion, architecture, etc? I originally saw the point being made by an Indian nationalist, so I suspect the assertion.
When did China encounter the Indian numerals system? What did they think of the system, compared to their own?
With the exception of Zheng He's treasure fleets, Chinese dynasties never really seemed to have been naval powers. Is there a reason for this?
Zheng He's treasure fleets is said to have brought many soldiers on their trip. Were they ever used for combat? Were they expecting to have to fight any groups on their trip?
Abe no Nakamaro was a Japanese member of one of the missions to Tang China. He stayed in the country and passed the civil service examinations, becoming an administrator. What do we know about his life in China? How did he pass the very difficult civil service exams despite starting studying years behind Chinese students? Was he unique, or were there many foreign (Japanese or others) examinees and administrators in the Tang bureaucracy?
Looking at the list of Japanese missions to Tang China, it seems like many of the ships were lost or shipwrecked. Just how dangerous was the journey from Japan to China in this period? What technological advances did sailors make that made this trip safer in later years?
What happened to the war brides from Japan taken to America after WW2? How did they acclimate to American society? Did they ever try to return to their homeland? What happened to their descendants?
Thich Nhat Hanh was nominated for a Nobel Prize by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967. He’s since been a huge advocate for world peace via Engaged Buddhism and was banned from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam until 2005. Aside from his general religious attitude and his religious activities, which I’m pretty well aware of, why was he nominated for the Prize?
What did he do, Gandhi-esque or otherwise, to earn so much recognition as an activist for peace during the Vietnam War?
To my knowledge, the Khitan script and language remain undeciphered, despite a larger corpus than other deciphered or partly deciphered languages, what barriers are their to its decipherment and have there been any recent developments?
For the panel...
We hear a lot about the Columbian Exchange across the Atlantic, but how did the initiation of a truly global transfer of people/goods/foods to and from the Americas influence life on the other side of the Pacific?
Questions I have regarding Korea:
Is there any good English-language work that covers the Korean War from the Korean Perspective? I’ve read a few good ones that primarily focus on American/Soviet relations, MacArthur’s conflict with Truman, and the negotiations with the North Koreans/Chinese. I’m really curious about the decisions Syngman Rhee had to make, the experience of Korean (South, but North would be interesting, too) soldiers, and possibly the decisions that Korean commanders had to work with.
What do we know about the Korean Population from the Imjin War to the 20th Century? I’ve been repeating what I learned from the museum at Hwaseong in Suwon about how the population was cut nearly in half, and was still barely recovering when Hwaseong was under construction in the 1770s.
King Sejong’s Hall of Worthies, so I’ve been told, made an in kind taxation system based on yearly rainfall tied to a province’s rice output. How was this calculated?
Why is invading Korea overland a bad idea? Seems like the Mongols did just fine. (Are they the exception?) In my understanding of Korean history, really it just seems like the Japanese were the ones with the real problem (invading over sea).
The Sparrowhawk’s visit to Korea in the 1680s allegedly found a Korea “preparing for war.” The Koreans were happy to have some more westerners to make guns and were, again, allegedly, preparing to invade Qing China and reestablish the Ming. Is this… accurate? The war, as far as I can tell, never came to be. Did they have a Ming candidate in waiting Targaryen-style to restore to the throne?
Hi, thanks to everyone on the panel, it's been a fascinating look into history. I have a question for /u/buy_a_pork_bun
I read recently that at the beginning, or perhaps shortly before the long march, Mao stashed two of his children with sympathetic local farmers, the logic being that the children likely wouldn't survive the ordeal they were about to undertake. And this in spite of the fact that the reactionary forces pursuing them were expected to exact harsh reprisals against the local peasants. The book I was reading said Mao never found the children.
My questions are, when did Mao begin looking for his lost children, and when (if ever) did he stop? Did he reference them in later years, and did he ever link his later controversial agrarian policies with the fates of his lost children?
Ok, two more. One on Mongolia and one on the Philippines:
Jack Weatherford (I know, I know) tells a good story in Secret History of the Mongol Queens alleging that Dayan Khaan was a direct descendant of Chinggis Khaan. Indeed, he goes so far as to imply that he was the last legitimate male descendant with a claim to the Great Khaan’s legacy and crown. Is this right? Given Temujin’s fecundity, I find that hard to believe. But was Dayan Khaan regarded as such? Was Manduhkhai Khaatuun using this idea for her own purposes or was it generally acknowledged that this was a true bloodline?
Just learned about Suyat. Any interesting translations out there? I’m becoming interested in Philippines history lately.
Questions I have regarding China:
I read that the last Ming pretender landed on Taiwan and set up shop for a few decades before dying/relenting. Was there already a Han presence on the island that he could claim rulership over, or was he intruding on aboriginal turf?
Van Schaik writes briefly about mid-T’ang Chang’an culture when the Tibetan delegation visited to request a royal marriage. He writes that there was a bit of a Turco-mania going on, with young men cutting meat with their swords, wearing furs in the nomadic style, and portraying dawdles and trinkets they acquired from the western market. All of it logically made the delegates from Tibet celebrities for a brief time. How true is this concept of mid-seventh century Chang’an? How well documented is this Turco-mania?
James Michener’s Hawaii involves a few scenes which are… rather ambiguous about what’s actually happening. Part-sexual assault, part-coercion, and part-indentured servitude is involved in a rather aggressive labor market transferring large amounts of Chinese laborers to Hawai’i. Was this accurate? Were a lot of Chinese laborers moved around the world like this, or was it just for dramatic effect?
What was the Ming policy in northwest and southwest China? As far as I can tell, they pretty much left the area (Tibet for the most part) alone. Tibet seemed key to their horse trade, especially while the Mongols could be unreliable trading partners what with holding an emperor hostage and threateningly naming one of their Khaan’s “Dayan.” I know that today the historic policy is that the Ming never gave up control of Tibet and point to the handing out of titles (at least two cases of “Tai Situ”), conferring of official seals (notably the Karmapa Lama). Although I can’t find any specific incidents from Tibetan histories that I’m looking into of a lot of Tibetan contact with China in this period in any significant capacity. Trade and raid, yes. But a broader policy I’m pretty fuzzy on. The Tibetans themselves had dynastic changeovers to deal with (Phagmodrupa, Rinpungpa, and Tsangpa). What did the Ming think?
The Imjin War has been called the Ming Dynasty’s “Swan Song.” That the counterattack against Hideyoshi’s invasion was so devastating to the Ming finances that they never recovered. What exactly happened?
How did the Mongol military establishment adapt in order to successfully conquer southern China, which had previously foiled steppe conquest dynasties?
FW Mote says that Ming governmental and military institutions took a lot from the Yuan, while the Qing represented something of a break - to what extent is this true?
The Imjin War in Korea would become dominated by siege warfare and infantry battle - why did cavalry not play a larger role? Was a lack of cavalry part of the reason for Japanese failure?
To what extent can the failure of the Qing to modernize successfully and avoid the end of its dynasty be laid at the feet of the Taiping Rebellion, as opposed to fiscal issues or lack of governmental will?
How did adoptions in the late Han and Three Kingdoms period of China operate? Was it a very regulated and legal process?
I've heard Qing emperor Kangxi (regined 1661-1722) had an impressive cannon making program.
What can you tell me about me this? What kind of cannons did the Qing make? Who made them? How did they compare to european cannon making of the same period? Did they ever use them and how did they preform?
What was life at the frontiers of China like? A lot of books I've read focus primary on warfare or imperial conceptions of borderlands and frontier regions, but very little on what kinds of cultural interactions, religious beliefs etc you would see in communities there. Perhaps it is a limitation of the sources, but I'm interested in comparing it to the many works on Sicily, Iberia, Jerusalem, Hungary etc.
I am mostly interested in the Song/Liao/Jin/Yuan empires, but any help is greatly appreciated!
This would be a Philippines-related question:
Escolta used to be the business capital of Philippines during the Spanish and American colonial Eras before Makati. What led to this shift in the base of economic power?
Historiographical/state of the field question(s):
I understand these might be hotbutton issues, so if anyone wants to PM me an answer, I would definitely understand.
The Wu dynasty of the three kingdoms period was ruled by the Sun family, and it seems that other dynasties names were unrelated to the ruling family, so how did Chinese dynasties get their name and why are they called dynasties if the ruling family’s name have nothing to do with it?
Is there significant evidence of East Asian exploration in the Americas or Oceania prior to Columbus?
Little late to the party but maybe somebody will still answer this. How do you see job perspectives in the field of East Asian studies and East Asian history? I am a german undergrad student in my final year and i was always kinda looking to go into technological or social history in a european conext but i spend the last 2 semesters in Korea and will have a 3 month internship in Tokyo soon. The thought of focusing more on Asia (or east asia) in grad school crossed my mind but i am hesitant. Any go for it or dont go for it advices? I have very basic language skills in Korean but nothing that d be sufficient to actually work within these languages - i am aware that d have to change.
@ /u/lordtiandao
From what I’ve read, state formation generally goes in hand with religious justification: the king is the high-priest, or is a sacred king. In any case, he’s very important and above the rest of men.
Is it the same with nomads? Are khans considered to be supernaturally above the rest of men? How do khans justify their rule?
Maybe my question is naive, still, I’m interested in the similarities and differences of nomadic state formation compared to that of sedentary societies’.
Since at least the Tang dynasty, different colours of ceramics were valued differently in China. Celadon for instance was valued more highly than typical brown ceramics.
So how did a ceramic maker decide where to build a kiln, or what type of kiln to build, in order to get the desired colours and quality? Nowadays we know that minerals, temperature and oxygen levels influence the result, but how did the Chinese work out all these factors, and well enough to plonk down considerable investment into a large kiln?
I have a question about the Vietnam War;
What were the reasons that the U.S stayed involved in the conflict, particularly with Nixon and LBJ, considering it was a lost battle
Hi, thanks for taking the time to read.
How responsible was Chang Kai Shek for the Kuomintang's loss to the Communists in the Civil War? I live in Taiwan and hear a lot about how he was incompetent and lost China more than the Communists won it, and also the other viewpoint that Chang was just unlucky and that the Japanese invasion was the main reason he lost.
I realize this is a big question, but I'd love to hear any insight.
I think I am a bit late but I think /u/keyilan could be best suited for this one.
Is there a deeper meaning to the phrase 仕而優則學，學而優則仕 in the Analects? Is there a difference in how this phrase was originally meant in the Analects versus its meaning/usage in contemporary Chinese society?
Three semi-related questions from me on the Sengoku period and historiography:
Stephen Turnbull is obviously much-maligned, but much of what I've read on this sub has revolved around particular errors – e.g. the idea of announced duels in the Gempei War or his now-largely-retracted position on ninja. But is there some broader methodological failure at work, and if so what?
Regarding the Imjin War, how much of an effect did the 1590s invasions of Korea and their failure have on internal politics in Japan?
Uniting these two threads, does Turnbull get enough right for his book on the Imjin War to be a reasonable portrayal of the Japanese perspective, vis-a-vis Swope for China and Hawley for Korea?
I understand between Tang and Qing dynasty the bureaucracy was chosen via examination on Confucian texts and literature, but were the bureaucrats at all effective at what they do given that they were not trained in disciplines that we associate with civil service today (like economics/government/politics)?
Also, was the examination different between the Han Chinese dynasties and the Yuan and Qing dynasties? Thank you very much.
Hi, thank you for taking the time to do this. I don't really know much about East Asia as my focus has been more on European history, so I've had this question on my mind for a while now and I noticed /u/_dk specializes in the Three Kingdoms which conveniently relates to my question.
Forgive me if this is a silly question but just how much of the Three Kingdoms Period is fictional/allegory? I've heard from some that the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that details the events is entirely fictional, and others that it's a mix of fiction (such as the Peach Garden story) and historical fact. Which of these claims is true, and if it's a mix then has there been any work done on determining which parts of the story are historical and which are fiction?
Why did the Ming Dinasty moved is capitol to Beijing?
A question directed mainly at /u/churakaagii: when the Ryukyu Islands moved from the Chinese sphere of influence to the Japanese in the late 19th century, what was the reaction from the islanders?
I have a question with regard to the Chinese Civil War;
When the Kuomintang/Guomindang left for Taiwan, what happened to the other cliques/factions? In the modern CCP regime there exist minor parties, some of them predating the rise of the CCP. Did these parties have any connection to the factions of the Civil War? What is the legacy of Ma Bufang, despite being allied with Chiang Kai Shek?
Any book recommendations for the American occupation of Japan after WW2?