Discussing East Asian Community

  A "community" can be defined as 'a group of people living in a common place, with common values and identity'. So what can we say toward the community of "East Asia"?

  First, let's find some commonalities. We can agree that East Asia is a society with "Rice culture".
Just like you'll find hundreds of nouns for describing meat in Western languages, and for describing camels in Arabic, you can find hundreds of descriptions for rice in Asian languages. That's how much rice is related to the people's lives.
  The other significant aspect shared among East Asians is "Confucianism". This set of value is believed to be still deeply rooted even in Socialist states like  China and North Korea. (Chinese government even uses Confucius Institute to spread their influence overseas!) Elderlies and people with high position or dense experience are respected, and family values remain strong. Societies operate with Family as units. In the West, people's names are often in the order of Given name, then Family name, but in East Asia, Family name always comes first. The people also have high loyalty to the organizations they belong, such as schools, companies, etc.
  Compared with the West where individuality and originality are prioritized, the sense of self is not so strong in East Asia. Also, they prefer a latent understanding in communication, which you don't need many words to understand others' feelings and the nuance. Modesty is considered as a virtue, as they are accustomed to address oneself as inferior positions in formal occasions.
  Economically, East Asians aren't necessarily earning more than people of other parts, but there is a wide middle class since they often have higher saving rates.

  How about differences? Apart from traditions, rituals, and languages, ideology may be the most apparent yet invisible difference in East Asia. Due to historical facts, disputes continue till nowadays among Democratic nations (South Korea, Japan, Taiwan etc.) and Socialist states (DPRK, China). However, I consider there are far more similarities than differences, and social systems in any country have always been changing throughout history.

  The democratic countries we know in the world have all gone through times of very un-democratic regimes, no matter it's monarchy, dictatorship, or totalitarian regimes. In order to gain peace, people should remember that the Future is the only way toward changes, and that people share much commonalities with one another that the differences are too subtle to be focused on.