Social Studies 105 – Asian Studies

This course examine the development perspective in Asian

countries, historical roots, culture, values as well as issues &
challenges & Asian responses. The course is designed to enable
students to make comparative study of Asian societies. This may
include Asian countries, capital, currency, continental location,
region, socio-economic policy, ethnic identity, literature, religion,
language, art, physical features, folklore, or film from
interdisciplinary perspectives.
3 units subject
Non pre-requisite
Tuesday 8:30 – 11:30
Asia believed to have originated from the Ancient Greek word “Ἀσία”
(Asiē), which was first attributed to Herodotus in the 5th century BCE.
Initially, it referred to Anatolia (present-day Turkey) or the Persian
Empire literally, 'place of the rising sun'.
Asia - is the largest continent in the world by both land area and
population. It covers an area of 44.58 million km², about 30% of
Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area.
The current population of Asia is 4,785,060,131. Asia’s population is
equivalent to 59.22% of the total world population.
5 Regions of Asia
1. Central Asia 2.East Asia 4. West Asia
3. South East Asia 3. South Asia
List of Asian Countries, Capital, Currency, Language, Region & Flag
Flag
Asian Countries Capital Currency Language Region

1.Afghanistan Kabul Afghan afghani Dari Persian CA

2.Armenia Yerevan Armenian dram Armenian WA
Azerbaijani
3.Azerbaijan Baku manat Azerbaijani WA+E
4.Bahrain Manama Bahraini dinar Arabic WA
5.Bangladesh Dhaka Taka Bangla SA
6.Bhutan Thimphu Bhutanese ngultrum Dzongkha SA
7.Brunei Bandar Seri Begawan Malay
Brunei dollar SEA
8.Cambodia Phnom Penh Cambodian riel Khmer SEA
10.Cyprus Nicosia Euro Greek, Turkish WA
11.Georgia Tbilisi Lari Georgian WA
12.India New Delhi Indian rupee Hindi, English SA
13.Indonesia Jakarta Rupiah Indonesian SEA
14.Iran Tehran Iranian rial Persian WA
15.Iraq Baghdad Iraqi dinar Arabic, Kurdish WA
16.Israel Jerusalem Israeli new shekel Hebrew, Arabic WA
17.Japan Tokyo Yen Japanese EA
18.Jordan Amman Jordanian dinar Arabic WA
19.Kazakhstan Nur-Sultan Kazakhstani tenge Kazakh, Russian CA
20.Kuwait Kuwait City Kuwaiti dinar Arabic, English WA
21.Kyrgyzstan Bishkek Kyrgyzstani som Kyrgyz, Russian CA
22.Laos Vientiane Lao kip Lao(Laotian) SEA
23.Lebanon Beirut Lebanese pound Arabic, French WA
24.Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Ringgit Malay SEA
25.Maldives Male Maldivian rufiyaa Dhivehi SA
26.Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mongolian togrog Mongolian EA
27.Myanmar Naypyidaw Kyat Burmese SEA
28.Nepal Kathmandu Nepalese rupee Nepali SA
29.North Korea Pyongyang North Korean won Korean EA
30.Oman Muscat Omani rial Arabic WA
31.Pakistan Islamabad Pakistani rupee Urdu, English SA
32.Palestine Jerusalem (East) Palestine pound Arabic WA
33.Philippines Manila Philippine peso Filipino, English SEA
34.Qatar Doha Qatari riyal Arabic WA
35.Russia (A+E) Moscow Russian ruble Russian URA
36.Saudi Arabia Riyadh Saudi riyal Arabic WA
37.Singapore Singapore Singapore dollar English, Chinese, Malay SEA
38.South Korea Seoul South Korean won Korean EA
Sri Jayawardenepura
39.Sri Lanka Kotte Sri Lankan rupee Sinhala, Tamil SA
40.Syria Damascus Syrian pound Arabic WA
41.Taiwan Taipei New Taiwan dollar Standard Chinese EA
42.Tajikistan Dushanbe Somoni Tajik, Russian CA
43.Thailand Bangkok Baht Thai SEA
Tetum,
44.Timor-Leste Dili US dollar Portuguese SEA
45.Turkey Ankara Turkish lira Turkish WA
46.Turkmenistan Ashgabat Turkmen new manat Turkmen CA
47. UAE Abu Dhabi UAE Dirham Arabic WA
48.Uzbekistan Tashkent Uzbekistan som Uzbek CA
49.Vietnam Hanoi Dong Vietnamese SEA
50.Yemen Sana’a Yemeni rial Arabic WA
 Geographical features of Asia

Asia can be divided into 5 major physical features: mountain

systems, plateaus, plains, steppes, deserts, freshwater environments &
saltwater environments. The Kunlun mountains considered as the
longest mountain ranges located in China, has a length of 3,000
kilometers. The Himalaya mountains extend for about 2,500
kilometers separating the Indian subcontinent from the rest of Asia.The
Himalayas stretch across the northeastern portion of India. They pass
through the nations of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Bhutan &
Nepal.
Asia has 3 famous major physical features: Mount Everest, Lake
Baikal & Gobi Desert. Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the
world, Lake Baikal is the deepest freshwater body. The Gobi desert is
famous for its history, being a route of travel along the ancient trading
network called the Silk Road. Silk Road, also called Silk Route,
ancient trade route, linking China with the West, that carried goods
and ideas between the two great civilizations of Rome and China.
Gobi Desert basin lies across southern Mongolia & northwestern
China.
Natural Resources of Asia
Asia extracts an immense wealth of minerals like oil, natural gas &
coal are of greatest value. Main producing of Oil are Saudi Arabia,
Russia & China. The largest Asian coal producers are China, Russia,
India, Kazakhstan, North Korea, South Korea & Japan.
Asia’s stake in world markets has grown dramatically in the last half-
century. Today, Asian countries rank as some of the top producers of
many agricultural, forest, fishing, mining, and industrial products.
This increased production has brought both extreme wealth and
negative environmental impacts to the continent.
 Environmental problems & ecological balance in Asia
Population growth and economic development contribute to many
environmental problems in Asia. These include pressure on land,
habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity, water scarcity and water
pollution, air pollution, and global warming and climate change.Urban
excess, deforestation, overfishing, global warming, air pollution,
limited safe water supplies, Inequality & poverty. Faces rising sea
levels, heat waves, floods and droughts, increasingly intense and
unpredictable weather events.
Vietnam, Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand are among countries in
the world most affected by climate change in the past 20 years,
according to the Global Climate Risk Index compiled by
Germanwatch, an environmental group.
 Main cause of environmental problems in Asia
Various factors including demand for timber products and palm oil,
intensive farming and urban sprawl. Poor regulation and in some
cases, corruption have commonly allowed unsustainable practices.
Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate
change and faces rising sea levels, heat waves, floods and droughts,
increasingly intense and unpredictable weather events.
Today, environmental problems in the Philippines include
pollution, mining and logging, deforestation, threats to environmental
activists, dynamite fishing, landslides, coastal erosion, biodiversity
loss, extinction, global warming and climate change.
Solution to environmental problems & ecological balance in Asia
Conserve water, electricity, support environmental friendly practices,
recycle waste to conserve natural resources.
Reducing burning agricultural crop residues, municipal waste
burning, and forests, livestock manure management, efficient
application of nitrogenous fertilizers, modern brick kilns & emission
controls on international shipping.
 ETHNO - LINGUISTIC GROUPS IN ASIA
Ethnolinguistic Group

A group of people that share a language, common

ethnicity, and cultural heritage. The vitality of an
ethnolinguistic group depends on their ability to
maintain their language and cultural heritage.
A group of people with a distinct language and culture
that gives them a unique identity
HISTORY OF ETHNOLINGUISTIC
Migrations of distinct ethnolinguistic groups have
probably occurred as early as 10,000 years ago.
However, about 2.000 BCE early Iranian speaking
people and Indo-Aryans have arrived in Iran and
northern Indian subcontinent. Pressed by the Mongols,
Turkic peoples often migrated to the western and
northern regions of the Central Asian plains.
 Prehistoric migrants from South China and Southeast
Asia seem to have populated East Asia, Korea and Japan
in several waves, where they gradually replaced
indigenous people, such as the Ainu, who are of
uncertain origin. Austroasiatic and Austronesian people
establish in Southeast Asia between 5.000 and 2.000
BCE, partly merging with, but eventually displacing the
indigenous Australo-Melanesians.
 In terms of Asian people, there is an abundance of
ethnic groups in Asia, with adaptations to the climate
zones of the continent, which include arctic, subarctic,
temperate, subtropical or tropical, as well as extensive
desert regions in Central and Western Asia. The ethnic
groups have adapted to mountains, deserts, grasslands,
and forests, while on the coasts of Asia, resident ethnic
groups have adopted various methods of harvest and
transport. The types of diversity in Asia are cultural,
religious, economic and historical.
 Some groups are primarily hunter-gatherers- whereas
others practice transhumance (nomadic lifestyle), have
been agrarian for millennia, or adopted an industrial or
urban lifestyle. Some groups or countries in Asia are
completely urban (e.g., Qatar and Singapore); the
largest countries in Asia with regard to population are
the China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, Iran, Thailand, Burma, and
South Korea.
2 BASES FOR ETHNOLIGUISTIC GROUPINGS
ETHNICITY AND LANGUAGE
ETHNICITY-Social identification based on the presumption of
shared history and a common cultural inheritance.
Part of a group with members who have a common
language, beliefs, traits, traditions and the same
ancestors.
Language
EAST ASIA
Groups: Han Chinese, Japanese, Korean
Languages: Sino - Tibetan, Korean
• Groups: Han Chinese, Jap anese, Korean

• Groups: Han Chinese, Japanese, Korean

• Languages: Sino - Tibetan, Korean

SOUTHEAST ASIA
Groups: Malay, Khmer
Languages: Austronesian, Sino-Tibetan and Mon Khmer
WEST ASIA
Groups: Arabs, Jews, Indo - Aryan Turkik
Languages: Arabic and Semitic
Central (North) ASIA
Groups: Slav, Turkik, Paleosiberian
Languages: Slavic, Turkik
Language per Region & Country
EAST ASIA

Japanese
WEST ASIA

Arab
Central (North) ASIA

Turkik
SOUTH ASIA

Dravidian
SOUTHEAST ASIA

Khmer
 IMPORTANCE OF
LANGUAGE IN THE
FORMATION OF ASIAN
CULTURE
Believed to be the key in
unifying diverse groups in a
country.
Human Development & Poverty Level in Asia

Measuring