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.
今年亞洲最重大的六個事件是什么？這完全是個主觀問題。為什么是六個？怎樣才算是“重大”？此外，既然說到這了，我們這里的亞洲到底是什么意思？這個詞自希羅多德(Herodotus)時代以來一直被用來指代“歐洲以東的土地”。不過，現在圣誕節都快到了，我們還是趕快轉入正題吧。我們這里的亞洲就按照英國《金融時報》的定義——大體上包括從印度次大陸到澳大利亞的地區。這一地區的國家有近40億人口，超過了世界人口的一半?！爸卮蟆痹谶@里表示將在很多年里影響大量人口——這一定義排除了小國里發生的有意義的事件。