Sinosphere

This article is about a group of nations historically influenced by Chinese culture. For other uses, see Sinosphere (disambiguation).
"East Asian cultural sphere" redirects here. For the Japanese imperialist concept, see Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. For other uses, see Culture of East Asia.

Sinosphere
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese
  • 東亞文化圈
  • 漢字文化圈
Simplified Chinese
  • 东亚文化圈
  • 汉字文化圈
Literal meaning
  • East Asian cultural sphere
  • Chinese character cultural sphere
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin
  • Dōngyà wénhuà quān
  • Hànzì wénhuà quān
Bopomofo
  • ㄉㄨㄥ ㄧㄚˋ ㄨㄣˊ ㄏㄨㄚˋ ㄑㄩㄢ
  • ㄏㄢˋ ㄗˋ ㄨㄣˊ ㄏㄨㄚˋ ㄑㄩㄢ
IPA
Wu
Romanization
  • ton-ia ven-ho-chioe
  • hoe-zr ven-ho-chioe
Hakka
Pha̍k-fa-sṳ
  • Tûng-â vùn-fa-khiên
  • Hon-sṳ vùn-fa-khiên
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutping
  • Dung1aa3 man4faa3hyun1
  • Hon3zi6 man4faa3hyun1
IPA
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ
  • Tang-a bûn-hòa-khoan
  • Hàn-jī bûn-hòa-khoan
Tâi-lô
  • Tang-a bûn-huà-khua
  • Hàn-jī bûn-huà-khuan
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC
  • Dĕ̤ng Ā ùng-huá-kuŏng
  • Háng-cê ùng-huá-kuŏng
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet
  • Vùng văn hóa Á Đông
  • Vùng văn hóa Đông Á
  • Vùng văn hóa chữ Hán
Chữ Nôm
  • 塳文化亞東
  • 塳文化東亞
  • 塳文化𡨸漢
Korean name
Hangul
  • 동아문화권
  • 한자문화권
Hanja
  • 東亞文化圈
  • 漢字文化圈
Transcriptions
Revised Romanization
  • Dong-a Munhwagwon
  • Hanja Munhwagwon
McCune–Reischauer
  • Tong'a Munhwakwŏn
  • Hancha Munhwakwŏn
Japanese name
Kanji
  • 東亜文化圏
  • 漢字文化圏
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburn
  • tō-a bunkaken
  • kanji bunkaken
Kunrei-shiki
  • Tou-A Bunkaken
  • Kanzi Bunkaken
This article contains Vietnamese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of chữ Nôm, chữ Hán and chữ Quốc ngữ.
Chinese dragons, legendary creatures in Sinosphere mythology and culture

The Sinosphere,[1] also known as the Chinese cultural sphere,[2] East Asian cultural sphere,[3] or the Sinic world,[4] encompasses multiple countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia that were historically heavily influenced by Chinese culture.[4][5] The Sinosphere comprises Greater China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.[6] Other definitions may include the regions of modern-day Mongolia[7][8][9] and Singapore, due either to historical Chinese influence or a contemporary overseas Chinese population.[10] The Sinosphere is different from the Sinophone world, which indicates regions where the Chinese language is spoken.[11]

Imperial China was a major regional power in Eastern Asia and exerted influence on tributary states and neighboring states, including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.[a] These interactions brought ideological and cultural influences rooted in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. The four cultures were ruled by their respective emperors under similar imperial systems. Chinese inventions influenced, and were in turn influenced by, innovations of the other cultures in governance, philosophy, science, and the arts.[14][15][16] Literary Chinese became the written lingua franca for bureaucracy and communications,[17] and Chinese characters became locally adapted as kanji in Japan, hanja in Korea, and chữ Hán in Vietnam.[18][19]

In late classical history, the literary importance of classical Chinese diminished as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam each adopted their own writing systems. Japan developed the katakana and hiragana scripts, Korea created hangul, and Vietnam developed chữ Nôm (now rarely used in lieu of the modern Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet).[20][21] Classical literature written in Chinese characters nonetheless remains an important legacy of Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese cultures.[22] In the 21st century, ideological and cultural influences of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism remain visible in high culture and social doctrines.

  1. ^ Fogel 2009; Matisoff 1990.
  2. ^ Zhang, Linjun; Han, Zaizhu; Zhang, Yang (2022). "Reading Acquisition of Chinese as a Second/Foreign Language". Frontiers in Psychology. 12: 131. ISBN 978-2-832-52952-2. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
  3. ^ Lowe & Yasuhara 2016; Choi 2010.
  4. ^ a b Reischauer, Edwin O. (1974). "The Sinic World in Perspective". Foreign Affairs. ISSN 0015-7120. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fuchs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Lowe & Yasuhara 2016; Wang 2015; Denecke & Nguyen 2017.
  7. ^ Billé, Franck; Urbansky, Sören (2018). Yellow Perils: China Narratives in the Contemporary World. University of Hawaiʻi Press. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-824-87601-2.
  8. ^ Christian, David (2018). Inner Eurasia from the Mongol Empire to Today, 1260–2000. A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia. John Wiley & Sons. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-631-21038-2.
  9. ^ Grimshaw-Aagaard, Mark; Walther-Hansen, Mads; Knakkergaard, Martin (2019). The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Imagination. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. p. 423. ISBN 978-0-190-46016-7.
  10. ^ Gold, Thomas B. (1993). "Go with Your Feelings: Hong Kong and Taiwan Popular Culture in Greater China". The China Quarterly. 136 (136): 907–925. doi:10.1017/S0305741000032380. ISSN 0305-7410. JSTOR 655596. S2CID 154597583.
  11. ^ Hee, Wai-Siam (2019). Remapping the Sinophone: The Cultural Production of Chinese-Language Cinema in Singapore and Malaya before and during the Cold War. Hong Kong University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctvx1hwmg. ISBN 978-9-888-52803-5. JSTOR j.ctvx1hwmg. S2CID 213443949.
  12. ^ Kang, David C. (2012). East Asia before the West: five centuries of trade and tribute (Paperback ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-15319-5.
  13. ^ Howe, Christopher. The Origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy: Development and Technology in Asia. p. 337
  14. ^ Qian, Nanxiu; Smith, Richard J.; Zhang, Bowei, eds. (2020). Rethinking the Sinosphere: Poetics, Aesthetics, and Identity Formation. Cambria. ISBN 978-1-604-97990-9.
  15. ^ Qian, Nanxiu; Smith, Richard J.; Zhang, Bowei, eds. (2020). Reexamining the Sinosphere: Cultural Transmissions and Transformations in East Asia. Cambria. ISBN 978-1-604-97987-9.
  16. ^
    • Jeffrey L. Richey (2013). Confucius in East Asia: Confucianism's History in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Association for Asian Studies. ISBN 978-0-924-30473-6.
    • Ching-I Tu, ed. (2010). East Asian Confucianism: Interactions and Innovations. Rutgers University. ISBN 978-0-615-38932-5.
    • Huang, Chun-chieh, ed. (2015). East Asian Confucianisms: Texts in Contexts. National Taiwan University Press. ISBN 978-3-847-10408-7.
  17. ^ Denecke, Wiebke; Li, Wai-yee; Tian, Xiaofei (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature (1000 BCE-900 CE). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-199-35659-1.
  18. ^ Asher, R. E.; Moseley, Christopher (19 April 2018). Atlas of the World's Languages. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-85108-0.
  19. ^ Lacoste, Véronique; Leimgruber, Jakob; Breyer, Thiemo (14 October 2014). Indexing Authenticity: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-110-34701-2.
  20. ^ Elman, Benjamin A., ed. (2014). Rethinking East Asian Languages, Vernaculars, and Literacies, 1000–1919. Brill. ISBN 978-9-004-27927-8.
  21. ^ Pelly, Patricia (2018). "Vietnamese Historical Writing". Historical Writing Since 1945. The Oxford History of Historical Writing. Vol. 5. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780199225996.003.0028. ISBN 978-0-199-22599-6.
  22. ^ Takacs, Sarolta (4 March 2015). The Modern World: Civilizations of Africa, Civilizations of Europe, Civilizations of the Americas, Civilizations of the Middle East and Southwest Asia, Civilizations of Asia and the Pacific. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-45572-1.


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