China of old had three competing and complementary religious traditions: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | China: Inside China's Search for Its Soul

Religious and ethical beliefs are approached in much the same way as dim sum, with samplings from Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.

CNN: The Really Useful Guide

Even in East Asia, talking of a single set of values involves blending many of the world's intellectual traditions Confucianism, Buddhism and Islam, to name but three.

ECONOMIST: What would Confucius say now?

However, the people in this part of the world share many common heritages, including Confucianism, Buddhism, and thousand years of cultural and economic exchange and learning from each other.

CNN: Opinion: Toward a new security order in Northeast Asia

Influences of Buddhism and Confucianism can be found - again relics of waves of migration traceable to lands as distant as northern India and China - and the animistic beliefs of the indigenous Balinese remain a guiding influence for much of daily life.

BBC: High spirits in Bali

Malaysia is broadly 60% Muslim and 40% other faiths (which include Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and others).

FORBES: BY MICHAEL J. HERSHMAN

Looking for case studies of Chinese entrepreneurs, quotes from The Art of War and rundown on the continuing influences of Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism, Buddhism?

FORBES: Seeing China, age 30: Parental Angst Optional

Buddhism, like most flavours of Christianity, and unlike Confucianism, does teach that individual human life begins at conception, which implies it is immoral to use embryos for this kind of research.

ECONOMIST: Stem cell research