Diffusion of paper

Paper spread slowly outside of China; other East Asian cultures, even after seeing paper, could not make it themselves[citation needed]. Instruction in the manufacturing process was required, and the Chinese were reluctant to share their secrets. The paper was thin and translucent, not like modern western paper, and thus only written on one side. The technology transferred to Japan from China by Buddhist priests, around 610, where fibres (called bast) from the mulberry tree were used. East Asia or Eastern Asia (the latter form preferred by the United Nations) is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical[1] or cultural[2] terms. Geographically and geopolitically, it covers about 12,000,000 km2 (4,600,000 sq mi), or about 28% of the Asian continent, about 15% bigger than the area of Europe. More than 1.5 billion people, about 38% of the population of Asia or 22% of all the people in the world, live in East Asia. The region is one of the world's most populated places, with a population density of 133 inhabitants per square kilometre (340 /sq mi), being about three times the world average of 45 /km2 (120 /sq mi), although Mongolia has the lowest population density of a sovereign state. Using the UN subregion definitions, it ranks second in population only to Southern Asia. Historically, many societies i East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, and East Asian vocabulary and scripts are often derived from Classical Chinese and Chinese script. Sometimes Northeast Asia is used to denote Japan and Korea.[3] Major religions include Buddhism (mostly Mahayana), Confucianism or Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese folk religion in China, Shinto in Japan, Taoism in Taiwan, Shamanism in Korea, Mongolia and other indigenous populations of northern East Asia,[4][5] and recently Christianity in South Korea.[6] The Chinese Calendar is the root from which many other East Asian calendars are derived. The history of East Asia is predominantly the Chinese Dynasties that dominated in trade as well as military, such as the Qin and the Han Dynasties. There are records of tributes sent overseas from the early kingdoms of Korea of Japan. There were also a consideration level of cultural and religion exchange between the Chinese and other regional Dynasties and Kingdoms. As the connections began to strengthen with the Western World, the Chinese power began to diminish. Japan took the opportunity to begin conquering colonies. At the time of WWII, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan and the Northeastern part of China were all under Japanese control. It was not until the end of WWII when Korea and Taiwan had a chance to free from Japan.