Which East Asian culture do you find the most interesting?

[Prowler]

And by culture I'm talking about things such as food, history, clothing, language, religion, traditions, etc. Let's keep politics and societal issues out of this.

My vote goes to Japanese. I think Japan has the most interesting history of the four countries. And it also has my favorite language in East Asia. As for its pop culture... well Japan has tons of video games and anime, so it's not really fair to compare. But when it comes to cinema, Hong Kong has produced a lot of quality titles. Also, I prefer Chinese food to Japanese and Korean(a bit too spicy).

Korean and Chinese culture have a lot of interesting aspects as well. Chinese history is huge and very interesting. The most interesting one after Japanese, imo. The Korean language has sort of grown on me as well. And I love the way Hangul looks on paper. Simple and functional alphabet. You can learn it in like a day or two. Seriously.

Sadly, I don't know that much about Mongolia other than Genghis Kahn's era.

[SophieDem]

I think the most interesting is Japanese and then comes Chinese.

I just find everything beautiful that is Japanese. The art, symbols, traditions, dances. the history. I fell in love with it at the age of 13 and Japanese culture made me interested in other Asian countries, too.

I especially love their languages. ^___^

[MikeandRaph87]

As a history buff I must say, Russian history is the most interesting while Japanese culture is the most appealing of all the diverse cultures on the Asian continent to me.

[CyberCubed]

Japan is where all the technological marvels came from. Mainstream videogames and consoles, the Sony walkman, anime, Toyota cars, etc.

China being a communist country and Korea being split into two warring nations really prevented them from ever being as progressive as Japan is.

[Candy Kappa]

Japan, hands down.

[CyberCubed]

Its rather ironic that a little sliver of an island like Japan managed to influence the world. And this is on top of the fact that America dropped two Atomic bombs on them in 1945 and they bounced back from that.

[Powder]

If it's not clear already I'm kind of a Japanophile.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Its rather ironic that a little sliver of an island like Japan managed to influence the world. And this is on top of the fact that America dropped two Atomic bombs on them in 1945 and they bounced back from that.

That's because the USA also re-built it after destroying it. They feared Japan would fall under Communism/USSR's sphere of influence like China did. In fact, the second atomic bomb's main reason of being dropped was for the USA to show the USSR the military power they had in hopes of scaring it away. Later, they'd go to war in Korea to prevent the same thing, although they were only able to divide the peninsula in half.

Of course that doesn't mean the Japanese didn't dedicate themselves to re-building their own country. They did it through hard work and used the money very wisely.

Korea didn't rise until the last couple of decades due to being a smaller country than Japan and China and thus being unable to outmatch both. Also, they got invaded and colonized by Japan in the first half of the 20th century. And after WW2 and the Korean War, South Korea was a dirt poor country, one of the poorest in the world. And also had to put up with a far-right wing authoritarian regime for the next decades.

It's quite amazing how South Korea was able to develop so fast from the 80s onward. And China is barely even Communist anymore. It's certainly not Communist economically wise. Otherwise it wouldn't be where it is today.

[Katie]

Mongolian.....or maybe Tibeten....I also think Indonesia is nice.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

My vote goes to Japan first, for the same reasons as most others have mentioned. Second is a tie between China and Tibet. I've always found Chinese and Tibetan medicine and spiritual practices to be fascinating, And briefly dabbled in Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism in high school before I became Wiccan.


As for non-Eastern cultures and history, my main area of interest is Celtic and Greek/Roman, as well as ancient Egyptian. Hindu culture is also interesting, as is Gypsy culture. Basically anything that deals with metaphysical practices and spirituality other than the three largest main-stream monotheistic cultures. I have even made a study here and there of North and South American and Australian tribal cultures,

[Kanon]

I voted for Japan

I was like ten years old, when I read my first manga and was instantly hooked on the idea to find out, why they wrote the book in the opposite direction

That was the start of a long journey of anime, manga and watching documentaries about their history and NINJAS

[CyberCubed]

Was Japan the birth of martial arts? Or was that China?

[MsMarvelDuckie]

China seems to have some of the "oldest" forms of martial arts, but that is misleading, because even ancient Greece and Gaul had their own types of martial combat, both armed and unarmed. In fact the idea of martial arts as an Eastern Asian inventian is sort of a myth. Martial arts are formal rules and techniques for fighting developed for use primarily in war, no matter where or when they are developed and used. Africa has several very old forms as well, as do/did several Sourh American cultures.

[Jephael]

I actually happen to have 2 adopted cousins from Korea. Unfortunately, I'm not very close with either of them.

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by MsMarvelDuckie

China seems to have some of the "oldest" forms of martial arts, but that is misleading, because even ancient Greece and Gaul had their own types of martial combat, both armed and unarmed. In fact the idea of martial arts as an Eastern Asian inventian is sort of a myth. Martial arts are formal rules and techniques for fighting developed for use primarily in war, no matter where or when they are developed and used. Africa has several very old forms as well, as do/did several Sourh American cultures.

I think it lies a lot in the modern misconceptions of the English usage of the word "Martial Arts", cause within that label there is a vast ocean of things that are martial arts that don't involve fisticuffs. Yet when invoking the word, most people associate it with East -Asian fisticuffs combat systems. Few see boxing or wrestling as martial arts, or even techniques of espionage or gunplay.

[Prowler]

I don't think East Asian martial arts(Kung Fu, Karate, Judo, Tae Kwon Do) would work outside of competitions, anyway. Who's gonna pull such moves in, let's say, a bar fight where people won't play by the rules? Or what if someone points you a knife or a gun? How will your black belt get you out of that situation? It can't be a coincidence that more people these days are trying the Israeli martial art Krav-Maga. In fact, it seems that many girls are trying it out these days. At least from my observation.

[Candy Kappa]

It works just fine when you've been trained by a proper instructor and not a money grabbing color belt pusher.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

I think it lies a lot in the modern misconceptions of the English usage of the word "Martial Arts", cause within that label there is a vast ocean of things that are martial arts that don't involve fisticuffs. Yet when invoking the word, most people associate it with East -Asian fisticuffs combat systems. Few see boxing or wrestling as martial arts, or even techniques of espionage or gunplay.

Exactly. That was sort of my point, though I didn't come out and say it. Martial arts is sort of a "catch-all" term for any type of combat skill training. It's Eastern Asian culture saturation that has made most people automatically associate the term with that culture. Basically, Hong Kong kung-fu movies and Japanese manga/anime have permanently left their stamp on what people see as martial arts.

Originally Posted by Prowler

I don't think East Asian martial arts(Kung Fu, Karate, Judo, Tae Kwon Do) would work outside of competitions, anyway. Who's gonna pull such moves in, let's say, a bar fight where people won't play by the rules? Or what if someone points you a knife or a gun? How will your black belt get you out of that situation? It can't be a coincidence that more people these days are trying the Israeli martial art Krav-Maga. In fact, it seems that many girls are trying it out these days. At least from my observation.

Not true. Properly trained martial artists can and DO handle themselves quite well in real-life situations. That's what these arts were originally designed for, after all. As a case in point- my husband has told me stories of a woman he knew when he lived in California before we met, whose hands were register as lethal weapons because of her martial arts training- and she proved it a few times. He knew of an instance where she had been jumped by a couple of guys, and using her training, had downed them both before escaping. She even thought she might have killed one of them, because he didn't move after he was down. She was too freaked out about it to check, though, and never talked much about what happened. But it shows how a well-trained person CAN defend themselves even against armed attackers.

As a side-note, I've taken a couple of women's self-defense classes, where they teach you how to get away from such attacks, using the most effective moves for a quick escape. Most of them involve going for vulnerable or weak points on the attacker. Thankfully, I've never had to actually use any of them for real.

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

It works just fine when you've been trained by a proper instructor and not a money grabbing color belt pusher.

Yup. This. When we lived with my grandmother, I helped take care of two of my young cousins, who were in a tea-kwon-do class. Unfortunately, their instructor was one of those belt-pushers, teaching form, but no substance. The only thing that class would have been good for was competitions and crap like that. In contrast, we had an instructor in my hometown who was known as a very competent and experience practicioner, with a reputation that was well-respected in the field. I always wanted to take one of his classes, but never got to.

[Wolfie65]

If we're talking about (relatively) small countries influencing the world, things would look VERY different today without Germany, France, Italy and England.
Although not technically 'East Asian', I have a soft spot for Polynesia, or at least the idea of Polynesia.

[TigerClaw]

I would have to go with Japanese culture, They are far more advance then we are, Lots of cool things came from them, Anime, Video Games, Electronics, Ect.