ABSTRACT
On the surface, the task of defining Asia would appear to be a simple one. For many academic and armchair geographers, and readers of Wikipedia, Asia is traditionally defined as the landmass to the east of the Suez Canal and the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Black and Caspian Seas. To the east it is bound by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Strait, to the south by the Indian Ocean, and to the north by the Arctic Oceans. Although the physiographic dimensions of such a definition are somewhat problematic given that Europe and Asia share the same continental landmass, the historical convention has been that they are treated separately, although this may also be as much for political and cultural reasons as spatial concerns. However, such an approach tells us little of the way the concept of Asia has come to be socially constructed and the implications that it has for governance as well as identity.
