Inner Asia
- The term Inner Asia is also used, mainly in the U.S. and Hungary, to refer to Central Asia.
China proper comprises the historical heartlands of China and does not include the frontier regions of Outer China (Inner Asia): Xinjiang, Tibet, Manchuria, and Inner Mongolia.
Extent
There are several ways to define what constitutes "China proper". One way, which is more historically intuitive, is to refer to the general extent of Han Chinese dynasties; this, however, is a highly ambiguous definition, since different dynasties had very different borders, some extending deep into territory that would not be considered part of China proper (or even China), while others relinquished huge areas (including all of North China on several occasions) to non-Han Chinese neighbours. Another, more territorially precise way, is to refer to regions that were ruled as 18 provinces under the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which used a different administrative structure for each of the 5 regions it governed: Manchuria, China proper, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet. This way is also troublesome, however, since the cultural, ethnic, and political reality of China is much more complicated than what 5 regions with distinct defined borders can explain or illustrate.
China proper is bounded north by Inner Mongolia, west by Tibet and Xinjiang, southwest by Burma, south by Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and the Gulf of Tonkin, southeast by the South China Sea, east by the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea, Bohai Sea and Manchuria. Its area is approximately 1,500,000 km². China proper is traditionally thought of as further comprising North China and South China, though the boundary between north and south has never been clear.
Outer China was the homeland of many non-Han Chinese tribes, like the Xiongnu and other minority ethnic groups in Chinese history, some of which tried to invade China proper, but sometimes became partially or wholly Sinicized, such as the Manchus.
The term in Chinese
There is no direct translation for the term China proper in the Chinese language. China proper no longer corresponds to ethnic, demographic, or administrative boundaries in China, and the concept is generally unfamiliar to contemporary Chinese; moreover, the concept of "China proper" may imply that China proper is "separate" from Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, or Tibet, or that areas outside of China proper are somehow less a part of China; many Chinese would find this idea offensive. Contemporary Chinese usually think in terms of modern political divisions of China, which do not correspond well to the boundaries of these historical regions.
To express the concept, one way is to refer to "areas populated by Han Chinese", or hanzu qu (汉族区); but this circumlocution would include most of Manchuria, much of Inner Mongolia, and scattered parts of Xinjiang and Tibet, but would in turn exclude much of southwestern China that was traditionally part of China proper but is populated by various non-Han Chinese minority groups. Another possibility is zhongyuan (中原), which, when used in the context of Mongols or Manchus taking over zhongyuan in ancient texts, means that they've conquered China proper, but zhongyuan is a narrow term that usually refers to only the North China Plain, or, even more narrowly, the central parts of Henan province. One final possibility is the Eighteen Provinces (一十八行省 Pinyin: Yishiba Xingsheng, or 十八省 Shiba Sheng), which were the eighteen provinces under the Qing Dynasty that corresponded to the borders of China proper. But the term "eighteen provinces" would be incomprehensible to a contemporary Chinese, because the People's Republic of China now administers 33 province-level divisions (of which 22 are provinces).
The 18 provinces were:
These provinces still exist today, but their boundaries have changed. Guangxi is now an autonomous region. There have also been 5 more provinces set up, 4 outside the traditional bounds of China proper.
Taiwan
Whether Taiwan is a part of China proper is a controversial question, and depends on the definition of "China proper" that one uses.
For most of China's history, Taiwan was considered a fringe territory, and thus, not a part of China proper. In 1683, China under the Qing Dynasty overpowered loyalists of the preceding Ming Dynasty who had set up a government-in-exile in Taiwan, and incorporated Taiwan into Fujian province, which was one of the 18 provinces of China proper. This lasted until 1887, when Taiwan was made into its own province, which in turn existed until 1895 when the island was ceded to Japan and reestablished in 1947 after retrocession to China. From 1949 onwards, however, Taiwan and mainland China have been ruled by two different governments (namely the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China), and whether Taiwan is part of China proper today depends on one's views on the political status of Taiwan.
Since Fujian was part of China proper, proponents of putting Taiwan into China proper can argue that Taiwan is therefore a part of China proper, since Taiwan was part of Fujian for more than two centuries; this however requires defining "China proper" as "the area of the 18 Qing provinces". On the other hand, Taiwan was not considered or administered as part of China before 1683, and this would place Taiwan outside of China proper; this requires defining "China proper" as "the area of past Han Chinese dynasties".
