45) Which country of East Asia has the greatest linguistic diversity?
A) Taiwan
B) China
C) Japan
D) Korea
E) Hong Kong
46) What is both “the common language” and the national language of China?
A) Cantonese
B) Yue
C) Mandarin
D) Fujianese
E) Wu
47) What belief system had North Korea begun to accept once communist ideologies began to
give way?
A) Buddhism, reach union with the cosmos often through meditation
B) Juche, significance of self–reliance
C) Confucianism, a philosophy to generate social stability
D) Shinto, reaching harmony between nature and humanity
E) Taoism, spiritual harmony based on design
48) Which country has isolated themselves from global culture?
A) China
B) North Korea
C) South Korea
D) Japan
E) Taiwan
49) What people form one of the world’s most homogeneous populations?
A) Koreans
B) Chinese
C) Japanese
D) Taiwanese
E) Russians
50) How is East Asian writing system unique to other world writing systems?
A) People literate to the writing system can read the same script without being able to speak the
same language.
B) They represent ideas rather than sounds.
C) It is very difficult to learn.
D) Literate persons must memorize thousands of characters.
E) all of the above
51) What characterizes Shinto religion?
A) nature and harmony and its connections with human existence
B) obedience to authority
C) stresses the quest to escape an endless cycle of rebirths
D) practice of designing buildings in accordance with the spiritual powers
E) Jesus died for our sins
52) Confucianism stresses all of the following ideals EXCEPT
A) the importance of the family.
B) deference to authority.
C) the importance of ethics.
D) respect for tradition.
E) the need for the aristocracy to serve in the bureaucracy.
53) What is Kanji?
A) the writing form used in Korea
B) the Japanese term for the Chinese ideographs they borrowed to begin their writing system
C) the quasi-alphabet used by the Japanese to express concepts that could not be expressed
through Chinese characters
D) a Roman alphabet version of the Japanese language
E) the Chinese names for ideographs
54) Hui
A) are Mandarin-speaking Muslims who are concentrated in the provinces of Gansu, Ningxia,
and Yunnan.
B) is the Chinese term for the thousands of South Asian guest workers who come to China each
year in search of better economic opportunities.
C) is a type of wet rice cultivation that is practiced in the valleys of Japan.
D) is the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese belief system Shinto.
E) is the capital city of North Korea.
55) All of the following statements about Mahayana Buddhism are true EXCEPT
A) it originated in India.
B) it is strongest in Southeast Asia.
C) it emphasizes liberation from the cycle of rebirth.
D) it holds that boddhisatvas help people reach liberation.
E) it is a nonexclusive religion.
56) About how many Chinese citizens are Muslim?
A) tens of thousands
B) one-half million
C) 5 million
D) about 7 million
E) ten million
57) Who are the Ainu?
A) an ethnic minority in Japan
B) the political elite in China
C) the wealthiest people in South Korea
D) the secret police of North Korea
E) the religious leaders of Taiwan
58) Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of Han people?
A) They are Chinese.
B) They form the vast majority of Chinese people.
C) They all speak the same language and dialect.
D) They have historically been incorporated into the Chinese cultural and political systems.
E) Their language is expressed in the Chinese writing system.
59) Which country of East Asia has taken recent steps to acquire nuclear weaponry, triggering
concern in the United States?
A) China
B) Japan
C) North Korea
D) South Korea
E) Taiwan
60) The four southernmost islands in the Kuril chain is claimed by both of these countries.
A) China and Russia
B) China and South Korea
C) South Korea and Japan
D) Japan and Russia
E) India and China
61) Which of the following alliances did NOT exist during the Cold War that followed World
War II?
A) Japan and the United States
B) Taiwan and Russia
C) North Korea and Russia
D) China and Russia
E) South Korea and the United States
62) Which two countries decided to divide Korea at the end of WWII?
A) Japan and the Soviet Union
B) the Soviet Union and the United States
C) the United States and China
D) China and Japan
E) Japan and the United States
63) Currently, some 35,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, and another 28,000 are stationed
in
A) South Korea.
B) North Korea.
C) Taiwan.
D) Russia.
E) China.
64) During what era did the Chinese Empire reach its height?
A) 1100s
B) 1300s
C) 1500s
D) 1700s
E) 1900s
65) Looking at the graphic below, the British sphere of influence in the nineteenth century in
China and East Asia was mainly in
A) the north, along Mongolia.
B) the east, in Japan.
C) southern and central China.
D) the far west, near the Afghan border.
E) the Korean peninsula.
66) Japan remained largely closed to foreign commerce and influence until ________ gunboats
sailed into Tokyo Bay in 1853 to demand trade access.
A) Dutch
B) German
C) British
D) Chinese
E) American
67) Japan is involved in a conflict over the Kuril Islands with which other country?
A) China
B) Vietnam
C) South Korea
D) Russia
E) Taiwan
68) Macao was the last territory to be returned to China by a European colonial power. Which
European colonial power returned it?
A) Portugal
B) Great Britain
C) France
D) Russia
E) Germany
69) Which East Asian nation developed the political strategy of a “Greater East Asia Co–
Prosperity Sphere”?
A) Japan
B) South Korea
C) North Korea
D) China
E) Taiwan
70) What actions are partially responsible for North Koreas’ failure to develop with the rest of
East Asia?
A) It was devoted to a state–led economy.
B) They rejected globalization.
C) They have trade agreements with only Russia.
D) The country operates under harsh economic and social sanctions.
E) All of these are reasons North Korea has failed to develop.
71) Where is China’s “rust belt” located?
A) Beijing
B) Guangdong
C) Fujian
D) Manchuria
E) Tianjin
72) In which of the following countries of East Asia were the feet of elite girls bound in order to
produce a dainty appearance?
A) Japan
B) South Korea
C) China
D) North Korea
73) Which East Asian country is the world leader in the high-tech fields of robotics and optics?
A) North Korea
B) Taiwan
C) South Korea
D) China
E) Japan
74) Why did China relax its “one-child” policy in 2015 and allow two children per family?
A) China needs more females.
B) The country is worried about future labor shortages.
C) The Chinese government wants to overpopulate the planet.
D) The Chinese government is very concerned about the inability of Chinese males to find
wives.
E) The Chinese government is very concerned about female infanticide.
75) Japan’s economy
A) is currently the largest in the world.
B) slowed substantially in the 1990s.
C) has seen sustained gains in its real estate values over the last two decades.
D) did not begin to industrialize until after World War II.
E) is not as large as China’s.
76) In the 1990s, which country of East Asia had the most laissez-faire economy in the region?
A) Japan
B) South Korea
C) Taiwan
D) Hong Kong
E) North Korea
77) China’s “Great Leap Forward”
A) took place in the late 1960s.
B) occurred against the wishes of Mao Zedong.
C) occurred simultaneously with the “Cultural Revolution.”
D) has directly resulted in today’s economic growth in China.
E) led to a major famine as the government melted down peasants’ farm tools.
78) China’s late-twentieth–century economic reform
A) led to growth rates exceeding 10% per year.
B) led to the strongest growth during the “Great Leap Forward.”
C) began in earnest in the mid-1990s.
D) has not embraced capitalist principles.
E) has been a disaster.
79) China’s government is on which of the following paths of development?
A) pure Marxist development
B) modified socialist development
C) pure capitalist development
D) modified capitalist development
E) pure socialist development
80) What has been the consequence of China’s “one-child” policy?
A) The average total fertility rate has declined to 1.5.
B) The number of baby boys has far outweighed the number of baby girls.
C) Gender-selective abortion emerged, although the government is cracking down on the
practice.
D) Some families have abandoned healthy baby girls at birth.
E) all of the above
81) Where is the Three Gorges Dam, why is China building it, and what are the major problems
associated with its construction?
82) Briefly explain the following terms:
Anthropenic landscapes
Pollution export
superconurbation
83) Discuss the importance and impact of the Yangtze and Huang He rivers in China, including
both their positive and negative aspects.
84) Compare and contrast the Chinese and Japanese/Korean City Systems.
85) Write an essay in which you discuss the characteristics and distribution of Japan’s
population, as well as the country’s urban-agriculture dilemma.
86) How did China come to be divided into China and Taiwan? What was, and currently is, the
state of relations between these two countries?
87) Discuss and analyze the geopolitical history of China from the late 1890s to the present.
Include Taiwan in your analysis.
88) Write an essay in which you trace the political, geopolitical, and economic history of Japan
from 1853 to the present.
89) Please discuss the history of Korea, explaining how it came to be divided into two countries.
What is the current situation in South Korea and North Korea?
90) Compare and contrast the role and status of women in Japan and China.
91) Explain the postwar economic development of Japan and South Korea. What are the
similarities and what are the differences?
92) Explain and discuss China’s move to a postcommunist economy. What does this mean? How
has the plan been enacted and what reforms took place. What are the criticisms of this economic
model?