East Asian people (alsoEast Asians orNortheast Asians) are the people fromEast Asia, which consists ofChina,Japan,Mongolia,North Korea,South Korea, andTaiwan.^[1] The total population of all countries within this region is estimated to be 1.677 billion and 21% of the world's population in 2020.^[2] However, largeEast Asian diasporas, such as theChinese,Japanese,Korean, andMongolian diasporas, as well as diasporas of other East Asian ethnic groups, mean that the 1.677 billion does not necessarily represent an accurate figure for the number of East Asian people worldwide.^[3]

The major ethnic groups^[a] that form the core of traditional East Asia are theHan Chinese,Koreans, andYamato.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]} Other ethnic groups of East Asia include theAinu,Bai,Hui,Manchus,Mongols,Turkics (and otherMongolic peoples),Qiang,Ryukyuans, andTibetans.^[12][13]

The major East Asian language families that form the traditional linguistic core of East Asia are theSinitic,^[b]Japonic, andKoreanic families.^[14][15][16] Other language families include theTibeto-Burman,Ainu languages,Mongolic,Tungusic,Turkic,Hmong-Mien,Tai–Kadai,Austronesian, andAustroasiatic.^[17]

Throughout the ages, the greatestinfluence on East Asiahistorically has been fromChina, where the span of its cultural influence is generally known as theSinosphere laid the foundation for East Asian civilization.^[18] Chinese culture not only served as the foundation for its own society and civilization, but for also that of its East Asian neighbors, Japan and Korea.^[19] The knowledge and ingenuity of Chinese civilization and the classics of Chinese literature and culture were seen as the foundations for a civilized life in East Asia. China served as a vehicle through which the adoption of Confucian ethical philosophy, Chinese calendar systems, political and legal systems, architectural style, diet, terminology, institutions, religious beliefs,imperial examinations that emphasized a knowledge of Chinese classics, political philosophy and culture, as well as historically sharing a commonwriting system reflected in the histories ofJapan andKorea.^{[20][21][22][18][23][24][25]} The relationship between China and its cultural influence on East Asia has been compared to the historical influence ofGreco-Roman civilization onEurope and theWestern World.^[24] Major characteristics exported by China towards Japan and Korea include shared vocabulary based on Chinese script, as well as similar social and moral philosophies derived fromConfucianist thought.^[25][23][26]

Han characters andWritten Chinese became the fundamental linguistic basis as well as the unifying linguistic feature in East Asian writing system as the vehicle for exporting Chinese culture to its East Asian neighbors.^[26] Chinese characters became the unifying language of bureaucratic politics and religious expression in East Asia.^[26] The Chinese script was passed on first toKorea and then toJapan, where Han characters acted as the major underlying fundamental linguistic basis constituent of theJapanese writing system. In Korea, however,Sejong the Great invented thehangul alphabet, which has since been used as the fundamental linguistic basis for formulating theKorean language.^[27] In Japan, much of theJapanese language is written inhiragana,katakana in addition toChinese characters.^[25] In Mongolia, the script used there is theCyrillic script along with theMongolian script system.

A review paper by Melinda A. Yang (in 2022) summarized and concluded that a distinctive "Basal-East Asian population" referred to as 'East- and Southeast Asian lineage' (ESEA); which is ancestral to modern East Asians,Southeast Asians,Polynesians, andSiberians, originated inMainland Southeast Asia at ~50,000 BC, and expanded through multiple migration waves southwards and northwards respectively. This ESEA lineage gave rise to various sublineages, and is also ancestral to theHoabinhian hunter-gatherers of Southeast Asia and the ~40,000 year oldTianyuan lineage found inNorthern China, but already differentiated and distinct from European-related and Australasian-related lineages, found in other regions of prehistoric Eurasia. The ESEA lineage trifurcated from an earlier "eastern non-African" (ENA) or "East-Eurasian" meta-population, which also contributed to the formation of Ancient Ancestral South Indians (AASI) as well as to Australasians.^[28]

The majority of East Asians have theABCC11 gene (80-95%), which greatly reduces body odor and codes for dry-type earwax.^[29] It is believed that this reduction in body odor may be an adaptation to colder climates by ancient Northeast Asian ancestors, although this is not definitively proven.^[30]

Alcohol flush reaction is the characteristic physiological facial flushing response to drinking alcohol experienced by 36% of East Asians.^[31][32][33] Around 80% of East Asians carry anallele of the gene coding for the enzymealcohol dehydrogenase calledADH1B*2, which results in the alcohol dehydrogenaseenzyme converting alcohol to toxicacetaldehyde more quickly than other gene variants common outside of East Asia.^[34][35] According to the analysis byHapMap project, another allele responsible for the flush reaction, the rs671 (ALDH2*2) of theALDH2 is rare among Europeans and Sub-Saharan Black Africans, while 30% to 50% of people of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ancestry have at least one ALDH2*2 allele.^[36] The reaction has been associated with lower than average rates of alcoholism, possibly due to its association with adverse effects after drinking alcohol.^[34]

• Ethnic groups in Asia
• Oriental

• East Asian people
• Ethnic groups by region

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