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.