Ricci invented the phrase as an Asian parallel to the Eurocentric notion of the Far East, which positioned Europe as a region on the fringes of a Sinocentric world.

[2] This semantic change is credited to the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci, who used the Far West as the Asian counterpart to the Eurocentric concept of the Far East.

"[4] He may have used the term to ingratiate himself with his Chinese hosts by identifying Europe as a region on the western fringes of the known Sinocentric world.

Zhou Bingmo gave Western learning a more elaborate name by calling it taixi zhixue, which first appeared in a postface for the 1628 edition of Matteo Ricci's Jiren shipian (The Ten Paradoxes).

There were some Japanese intellectuals that opposed adopting the Western notion of Asia, and instead advocated retaining East Asian geographical terminology.

One example is Aizawa Seishisai (1781–1863), who claimed that calling Japan an Asian country was an insulting name for the "divine land" (神州, shinshuu).