As elegant and succinct a statement as you'll find.
Societies and civilizations develop in real space, as people make use of resources and evolve trading systems to supply whatever is not produced locally. In general drainage basins and travel-constraining landscape features form physiographic macroregions, which have cores and peripheries. Towns and cities develop as central places in a matrix of exchange, and thrive and decline cyclically with their regions. Many cultural features map themselves onto the same geography:
For the most part, each of the major speech groups of southeastern China dominated one macroregional or subregional core. In the Lower Yangzi, it was Wu speakers of the Taihu subgroup. In the Ou-Ling subregion of the Southeast Coast macroregion, it was Wu speakers of the Oujiang subgroup. The core areas of the other three subregions of the Southeast Coast were each dominated by a distinct Min-speaking group: Hokchius in the Min basin, Hokkiens in the Zhang-Quan subregion, and Teochius (Hoklos) in the Hanjiang basin. For the rest, Cantonese dominated the regional core of Lingnan, Gan speakers that of the Gan Yangzi, and Xiang speakers that of the Xiang basin subregion of the middle Yangzi...
(G. William Skinner's Introduction to Leong's Migration and Ethnicity in Chinese History: Hakkas, Pengmin, and their neigbors [1997], pg. 3)
We have several books that deal with East Asian macroregions, such as Philip Huang's The Peasant Family and Rural Development in the Yangzi Delta, 1350-1988 (HN740 .Y36 H83 1999)... searches in Annie for 'chin* region*' and 'japan* region*' produced the following (among many others), for perusal:
CALL NO. DS894.39.I924 A8 1992.
TITLE As Iwate goes-- is culture local? [videorecording] / Media
Production Group ; produced in association with the National
Institute of Multimedia Education, Japan.
IMPRINT Richmond, Ind. : Center for Educational Media, Institute for
Education on Japan, Earlham College, c1992.
CALL NO. DS894.39.Y349 S546 1985.
AUTHOR Kelly, William W. (William Wright), 1946-
TITLE Deference and defiance in nineteenth-century Japan / William W.
Kelly.
IMPRINT Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1985.
CALL NO. HC427.8 .S3 1976.
AUTHOR Schran, Peter.
TITLE Guerrilla economy : the development of the Shensi-Kansu-Ninghsia
border region, 1937-1945 / Peter Schran.
IMPRINT Albany : State University of New York Press, 1976.
CALL NO. GF666 .T68 1960.
AUTHOR Trewartha, Glenn Thomas, 1896-
TITLE Japan, a physical, cultural and regional geography / Glenn Thomas
Trewartha.
IMPRINT Madison : The University of Wisconsin Press; London : Methuen,
1960, c1945.
CALL NO. DS897.O814 O837 1999.
TITLE Osaka : the merchants' capital of early modern Japan / edited by
James L. McClain and Wakita Osamu.
IMPRINT Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 1999.
CALL NO. DS509.3 .K6313 1971.
AUTHOR Kolb, Albert, 1906-
TITLE Ostasien. English.
TITLE East Asia: China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam; geography of a cultural
region. Translated by C. A. M. Sym.
IMPRINT London, Methuen, 1971.
CALL NO. HT395.C552 P453 1998.
TITLE Beijing and Tianjin : towards a millennial megalopolis / edited
by Brian Hook.
IMPRINT Hong Kong ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1998.
CONTENTS History and culture / Colin Mackerras -- Government and
politics / Jane Duckett -- Geography and natural resources /
Richard Louis Edmonds -- Human resources / Brian Hook and Lee
Wing On -- Economic development / Luo Qi and Robert F. Ash.
CALL NO. HC427.92 .H833 1997.
TITLE The China handbook / edited by Christopher Hudson ; advisers Marc
Blecher, Judy Curry.
IMPRINT Chicago : Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, c1997.
CALL NO. DS777.55 .S455 1972.
AUTHOR Shabad, Theodore.
TITLE China's changing map; national and regional development, 1949-71.
IMPRINT New York, Praeger [1972]
CALL NO. DS793.F8 F83 1996.
TITLE Fujian : gateway to Taiwan / edited by Brian Hook.
IMPRINT Hong Kong ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.
CALL NO. HC428.K9 G77 1996.
TITLE Guangdong : China's promised land / edited by Brian Hook.
IMPRINT Hong Kong ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.
CALL NO. HN761.H62 H39 1977.
AUTHOR Hayes, James, 1930-
TITLE The Hong Kong region, 1850-1911 : institutions and leadership in
town and countryside / by James Hayes.
IMPRINT Hamden, Conn. : Archon Books, 1977.
CALL NO. DS760.9.L49 S6 1964.
AUTHOR Spector, Stanley, 1924-
TITLE Li Hung-chang and the Huai Army; a study in nineteenth-century
Chinese regionalism. Introd.: Regionalism in nineteenth-century
China, by Franz Michael.
IMPRINT Seattle, University of Washington Press [1964]
CALL NO. DS731.H3 L46 1997.
AUTHOR Leong, Sow-Theng.
TITLE Migration and ethnicity in Chinese history: Hakkas, Pengmin, and
their neighbors / Sow-Theng Leong ; edited by Tim Wright, with
an introduction and maps by G. William Skinner.
IMPRINT Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 1997.
CALL NO. DS730 .N33 1998.
TITLE Nationalism and ethnoregional identities in China / edited by
William Safran.
IMPRINT London ; Portland, Ore : Frank Cass, 1998.
CONTENTS Introduction : nation, ethnie, region, and religion as markers of
identity / William Safran -- State discourses, minority
policies, and the politics of identity in the Lijang Naxi
people's autonomous country / Sydney D. White -- Han-Muslim and
intra-Muslim social relations in northwestern China / Colin
Mackerras -- Language education, intellectuals, and symbolic
representation : being an urban Mongolian in a new
configuration of social evolution / Naran Bilik -- Texture of
tongues : languages and power in China / Arienne M. Dwyer --
Preferential policies for ethnic minorities in China : the case
of Xingjiang / Barry Sautman -- Ethnic identity change in the
People's Republic of China : an explanation using data from the
1982 and 1990 census enumerations / Matthew Hoddie --
Unforgiven and remembered : the impact of ethnic conflicts in
everyday Muslim-Han social relations on Hainan Island / Keng-
Fong Pang -- Patriotic villains and patriotic heroes : Chinese
literary nationalism in the 1990s / Yingjie Guo.
CALL NO. DS796.S25 G66 1995.
AUTHOR Goodman, Bryna, 1955-
TITLE Native place, city, and nation : regional networks and identities
in Shanghai, 1853-1937 / Bryna Goodman.
IMPRINT Berkeley : University of California Press, c1995.
CALL NO. DS796.S24 S538 1998.
TITLE Shanghai and the Yangtze Delta : a city reborn / edited by Brian
Hook.
IMPRINT Hong Kong ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1998.
CALL NO. HC427.6 .M37 1998.
AUTHOR Marks, Robert, 1949-
TITLE Tigers, rice, silk, and silt : environment and economy in late
imperial south China / Robert B. Marks.
IMPRINT Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press,
1998.
CALL NO. HD1537.C5 L58 1989.
AUTHOR Little, Daniel.
TITLE Understanding peasant China : case studies in the philosophy of
social science / Daniel Little.
IMPRINT New Haven : Yale University Press, c1989.
CALL NO. DS793.H644352 S36 1989.
AUTHOR Schoppa, R. Keith, 1943-
TITLE Xiang Lake--nine centuries of Chinese life / R. Keith Schoppa.
IMPRINT New Haven : Yale University Press, c1989.