Sinosphere

The Sinosphere, also known as the Chinese cultural sphere, East Asian cultural sphere, or the Sinic world, encompasses multiple countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia that were historically heavily influenced by Chinese culture. The Sinosphere comprises Greater China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Historically, it also included the Ryukyu Kingdom. Singapore and Malaysia might also be included due to modern-era overseas Chinese migration. The Sinosphere is different from the Sinophone world, which indicates regions where the Chinese language is spoken. Imperial China was a major regional power in Eastern Asia and exerted influence on tributary states and neighboring states, including Japan, Korea and Vietnam. These interactions brought ideological and cultural influences rooted in Confucianism, Taoism and East Asian Buddhism. The four cultures were ruled by their respective emperors under similar administrative systems, furthermore, the adoption of the Confucian-based imperial examination system deeply influenced the bureaucracy and social structure of Korea and Vietnam. Chinese inventions influenced, and were in turn influenced by, innovations of the other cultures in governance, philosophy, science, and the arts. Literary Chinese became the written lingua franca for bureaucracy and communications, and Chinese characters became locally adapted as kanji in Japan, hanja in Korea, and chữ Hán in Vietnam. The literary importance of classical Chinese was moderated as Japan, Korea and Vietnam invented their own phonographic writing systems, with Japan developing the katakana and hiragana scripts, Korea creating the hangul, and Vietnam initially developing chữ Nôm but replacing it with Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet since the 1910s due to French colonization. However Classical Chinese or modified versions of it such as kanbun and the Idu script remained in official use until the modern era. In the 21st century, ideological and cultural influences of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism remain visible in high culture and social doctrines.