Culture similarities between Chinese & Japanese & Korean?

• HeckKER

  28 Jan 05, 16:07

  Both of them...are influenced by Confucianism and Buddhism...
  
  Both has japanese green tea and chinese green tea culture which is started so long ago..
  
  Their Kanji....resembles chinese language characters...
  
  As for koreans..they have dragon boat festival..
  
  Can anyone tell me why?
  
  
• Qitai

  28 Jan 05, 17:21

  Originally posted by HeckKER:

  Both of them...are influenced by Confucianism and Buddhism...
  
  Both has japanese green tea and chinese green tea culture which is started so long ago..
  
  Their Kanji....resembles chinese language characters...
  
  As for koreans..they have dragon boat festival..
  
  Can anyone tell me why?
  
  

  Japanese do not have a written language until Buddhism is introduce in Japan. And with it, Chinese writing otherwise known as Kanji (which translate to Han Zi literally meaning "Han" dynasty writting). At this time, Japan is primitive and agriculture based at best.
  
  The Han Dynasty in China from ~200 B.C. to ~200 A. D. literally rule the "known world" at that time, including Korea and Japan. It was a lot more advance in technology and culturally than these neighbouring counries at that time and thus a lot of it's culture, beliefs etc. are passed to these neighbouring countries. If I remember correctly, the Koreans even had to send tributes to the Han empire yearly as a form of recognition of it's superiority.
  
  Effective, it is similar to USA's position after WWII where it is simply in a superior position and others get influence by them, both culturally and technologically.
• keuriseudo

  28 Jan 05, 17:57

  Originally posted by HeckKER:

  Both of them...are influenced by Confucianism and Buddhism...
  
  Both has japanese green tea and chinese green tea culture which is started so long ago..
  
  Their Kanji....resembles chinese language characters...
  
  As for koreans..they have dragon boat festival..
  
  Can anyone tell me why?
  
  

  Originally posted by Qitai:

  Japanese do not have a written language until Buddhism is introduce in Japan. And with it, Chinese writing otherwise known as Kanji (which translate to Han Zi literally meaning "Han" dynasty writting). At this time, Japan is primitive and agriculture based at best.
  
  The Han Dynasty in China from ~200 B.C. to ~200 A. D. literally rule the "known world" at that time, including Korea and Japan. It was a lot more advance in technology and culturally than these neighbouring counries at that time and thus a lot of it's culture, beliefs etc. are passed to these neighbouring countries. If I remember correctly, the Koreans even had to send tributes to the Han empire yearly as a form of recognition of it's superiority.
  
  Effective, it is similar to USA's position after WWII where it is simply in a superior position and others get influence by them, both culturally and technologically.

  I agree with Qitai.
  
  Also, for more of your info...
  
  The Koreans are also widely influenced mainly from Northern China, Mongolia and later, Japan. Even way back during the warring states, the Chinese kingdom of Yan were already having trouble dealing with the early Choson (Korean) invaders. hehe... they called the Chosons arrogant warriors. Thus, both cultures were exchanged in the process.
  
  The old Korean writings are made up of Chinese Characters, until King Sejong introduced the Hangul alphabet to the Koreans.
• Dr Who

  1 Feb 05, 18:14

  
  
  Don't forget the Vietnamese. They also used Chinese characters until the French introduced the latin alphabet (something like Pinyin system)
  
  The use of Chinese characters enabled the country to be united although each region used a different pronunciation. Had Europe used the chinese system, they would have had remained united as a single empire. instead of so many countries.
  
  Anyway, China will once again rule the world economically, socially, and even linguistically in the 21st Century. I just returned from Thailand and i found the place full of tourists from China. Thais would cannot speak Chinese would be disadvantaged.............I honestly found it amusing that many dark skined ethnic Thais were attempting to speak Chinese to the tourists......
• YaoRockets

  3 Feb 05, 13:02

  China didn't rule japan because it's separated by sea from the mainland, because China was the only power in the known world, Japan copied most chinese culture and language
  
  Korea was a vassel state of China until mid 19th when Japan took it over from china. Korean writing were only invented like 700 years ago, for the convenience of low class people. The elites still spoke and wrote in chinese. Most korean history books and important legal documents were written in chinese.
  
  Similar story happend to vietnam. China ruled Vietnam directly for over 1,000 years, vietnam was made a province bearing the name An Nan (the Pacified South). Later viets rebelled and drove the chinese out. but the culture remained. Again their history were recored in chinese and the ruling class wrote in chinese and their school textbooks were Confucius's books same as in china. Then the french came in 18th century and colonized vietnam, and created a latinized writing of vietnamese.
  
  After WWII with the rise of nationalism and cold war, both korea and vietnam completey switched to the local languages, but thousands years of cultural adoption is much harder to rid of.
  
  think about: a hundred years later, someone might wonder about a similiar qustion: why do singaproean speak english?
  
  LOL
  
  
• shirurinu

  3 Feb 05, 13:07

  For ur info... Koreans have Lunar New Year just like we do.....