[6] Likewise, during the Qing dynasty of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the term "Tàixī (泰西)" – i.e., anything further west than the Arab world – was used to refer to the Western countries.

[10] The term is still used in Russia to refer to its sparsely populated easternmost regions (being "far" in this case from the political, economic and cultural centres, Moscow and Saint Petersburg).

In the 16th century, King John III of Portugal called India a "rich and interesting country in the Far East[11] (Extremo Oriente)."

Americans who reached China, Japan and Southeast Asia by sail and steam across the Pacific could, with equal logic, have called that area the 'Far West.'

A more generally acceptable term for the area is 'East Asia,' which is geographically more precise and does not imply the outdated notion that Europe is the center of the civilized world.