中國社會既定的三種東亞視角具有一個共同特徵，就是其高度抽象性。這使得它們具有某種脫離歷史的靜態性質，從而無法處理歷史過程中的種種差異，也無法應對歷史的流動性。 在現代歷史過程中，東亞社會存在著顯著的不均衡狀態。這種不均衡狀態突出地表現為東亞論述在東亞地區不同社會裏並不具有同等的思想功能。 形成東亞不同社會之間歷史差異的一個重要的因素是冷戰。一方面，東亞是美蘇在冷戰時期的重要戰場，這意味著東亞論述難以無視冷戰歷史；另一方面，東北亞部分區域恰恰又在抗衡冷戰結構的意義上履行了自己的歷史功能，這意味著東亞論述與冷戰視角並不一致。

The common characteristic of the three existing perspectives on East Asia is its high abstraction. This static character cannot account for the differences in the historical dynamics. In the process of modern history, East Asian societies exist conspicuously unbalanced condition, which makes discourses on East Asia bear different intellectual functions in different societies. One of the factors which shape historical differences in East Asian societies is Cold War. On the one hand, East Asia is a main battlefield for the struggle between US and USSR, with a result that discourse on East Asia cannot be indifferent to history. On the other hand, parts of East Asia perform its own historical function in opposing the structure of the Cold War; therefore discourse on East Asia cannot be the same as the Cold War world view.