What are the six most significant things to have happened in Asia this year? The question is entirely arbitrary. Why six? What counts as significant? And, while we’re at it, what on earth do we mean by Asia, a term that has been used to refer to the “lands east of Europe” since Herodotus? But it’s nearly Christmas, so let’s press on. We’ll define Asia in the way the Financial Times does, broadly the region from the Indian subcontinent to Australia. That is a set of nations containing almost 4bn people, more than half the world’s population. “Significant” for our purposes means something that will affect a large number of people for many years, a definition that excludes interesting developments in small countries.
今年亚洲最重大的六个事件是什么？这完全是个主观问题。为什么是六个？怎样才算是“重大”？此外，既然说到这了，我们这里的亚洲到底是什么意思？这个词自希罗多德(Herodotus)时代以来一直被用来指代“欧洲以东的土地”。不过，现在圣诞节都快到了，我们还是赶快转入正题吧。我们这里的亚洲就按照英国《金融时报》的定义——大体上包括从印度次大陆到澳大利亚的地区。这一地区的国家有近40亿人口，超过了世界人口的一半。“重大”在这里表示将在很多年里影响大量人口——这一定义排除了小国里发生的有意义的事件。