Final answer:
East Asia in the post-Tang era can be viewed as partially unified in terms of culture, with shared practices and respect for Chinese cultural elements but also significant local adaptations that maintained distinct identities. The cultural region of East Asia was not entirely monolithic but was characterized by unity in diversity. The correct option is b.
Step-by-step explanation:
To what extent do shared practices justify thinking of East Asia as a unified cultural region in the post-Tang era? After the Tang dynasty, East Asia exhibited partial unification in terms of cultural practices.
Despite a shared respect for certain Chinese cultural elements, such as Confucianism and Taoism, the cultural and political borrowing was chiefly a means to facilitate system building within local contexts.
The Sui and Tang dynasties were instrumental in consolidating and unifying regimes, linking peoples, faiths, and languages into a mosaic rather than uniformity. Post-Tang, the cultural exchanges continued, shaping the local polities in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, which selectively adopted Chinese culture to different extents.
Significantly, as these nations adopted the Chinese written tradition, they also contributed to it, thereby maintaining distinct identities while sharing a cultural heritage. Thus, East Asia can be considered unified culturally to a partial extent, respect for unity in diversity.
Sociologists today seek signs of a global culture, which parallels the search for a unified East Asian culture in history, yet recognizing the persistent individuality of each contributing region to a larger cultural tapestry. The correct option is b.