You’re not supposed to say “Mongoloid” any more; now it’s “Down’s Syndrome.”
Even though they have the same number of syllables, I somehow can’t imagine Devo singing “Down’s Syndrome.” It doesn’t fit into the song as well.
Malaysians are about 50% Muslim, 15% Hindu, and 35% Chinese (this includes Buddhism, Confucianism, and anything else that goes into being Chinese). In Malaysia, Chinese New Year is a big celebration along with the Muslim ‘Îd holidays, Hindu and Tamil holidays, and Hungry Ghost Day and Wesak (Buddha Day).
The interesting thing about Malaysia is the way each of the three groups joins in participating in the holidays of the other two. Everybody goes to everybody else’s house for “open house” parties. Malaysians do more partying than anything else.
According to the Moorish Science Temple, African-Americans are “Asiatic.”
here’s the smoking gun. everton in the US Asian means something different. In the US, Asian by and large means East Asia, and does not include the Indian subcontinent. Also, in the US Asian and Oriental are interchangeable terms (except that now it is generally non-PC to use Oriental when referring to people).
Therefore, people of Mongol stock are generally East Asian, although there are exceptions.
Well, with enough make-up some Japanese girls make convincing African-Americans.
One thing I think is worthy of mention is that the Japanese word for Asia is “Ajia”. That is to say there is no native, nor Sino-Japanese word for Asia.
I remember my first night in Japan (or Asia as a matter of fact.) I turned on the tv to CNN Asia and they had the weather for Tokyo, Pusan, Beijing, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, all the way to Delhi. It was exhilerating: I really felt like I had indeed crossed the great ocean - I was in Asia.
That feeling lasted about 24 hours. Asia, honestly, seems like a faraway place. Restaurant guides have an “Asian” section which usually covers everything not Japanese, Chinese or Indian. As strange as it may seem, even here, the word “Asian” has an exotic ring.
Of course, you’re not going to confuse anyone if you refer to Japan as part of “Ajia”, but I’d venture to say the level of self-identification is almost nil. Korea is close, norther China and Taiwan, less so. Everything else is faraway lands.
I’m pretty sure pepperlandgirl is still posting regularly. Could you be thinking of pennylane? A quick search shows that she stopped posting in December, 2001, but then started again in April. I hope she’s back to stay as well.
jovan makes an interesting point. As far as I know, there is no native Asian word for “Asia.” Europeans can claim kinship with each other based on a common history, a common religion, and even a common historical enemy (the Muslims). Asians can make no similar claims, and thus do not have as much of a regional consciousness.
Out of curiosity, what is the Mandarin word for “Asia”? What about the Hindi, or the Cantonese? I’m guessing it’s some variant of the European designation, like Japanese has.
Surely you mean most Americans who use the term “Asians”? If you read the rest of the thread you’ll see that there are plenty of people around the world who don’t use it for that meaning at all.
Compare that with the definition of ethnic. When your eyes finish rolling you’ll see that they are not synonyms and that your definition; “Asian = Mongoloid” is too narrow and is misleading.
Not necessarily. You don’t have a monopoly on the use of the word and it means different things to different people in different contexts. Even if you do consider Asian to be a direct substitute for Oriental do you deny that it is also applicable to any of the categories of people I mentioned? If Indians, Arabs and Turks are not Asian what do you consider them to be?
This allows me to chime in as one of the few people on the board who volunteer to answer questions about Nepal. I’m only a tourist, with only the most rudimentary understanding of Nepali, but I have spent a number of months there, and travelled in the most popular areas of the country. And I love Nepal, so I try to stick up for it when people forget that there’s an independent country squashed between the giants of India and China.
The Buddha’s birthplace is generally accepted to not be in India, but rather just over the border in modern day Nepal at Lumbini. Nepalis are rightfully proud that their country was the birthplace of the Buddha and are somewhat touchy about the subject when someone claims the Buddha was born in India (especially when you remember the long history of border squabbles between Nepal and post-independence India).
Not too long ago, researchers in the Indian state of Orissa claimed that the Buddha was born there. The response from the Nepali community was typical
“Oriental” is a word that makes me uneasy, after having read E Said’s Orientalism (written late 70s by a Palistinian-American). It’s a really interesting look at the way the West has represented the “orient” in its literature and popular perception. His thesis is based on the assertion that, historically, the “orient” has always been represented as primarily foreign and strange and different and weird and so on, and regional differences within the orient are obscured. Thus East Asians and Indians and Arabs and Africans are collectively viewed as “Oriental.”
In studying this book people always say “Hey, whaddaya mean Africa is ‘oriental’?” and we are assured that Said’s observations about the historical field known as “orientalism”, which treats all non-White (basically) nations as equally “Oriental”, is accurate. I can’t comment directly on that but the power of his book (the opening chapter, if you don’t feel like committing to the whole thing) has convinced me that the word is not a good choice. A quick Google search will provide a great deal more information.
So I endorse (and I will no doubt be dismissed as “PC” and therefore somehow irrelevant) calling these regions for what they are: West Asia (the “Middle East”), Central Asia (the *stans, etc), South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka), East Asia (Japan, China, Korea etc), South-East Asia (Indonesia, Phillipines, Malaysia, Thailand etc). These regional labels also tend to approximately match the physical appearances of the residents - don’t assume someone is Indian if you don’t know - it’s safer to assume they’re of South Asian origin.
Finally, the confusion of North American “Indians” just makes it too confusing. Let’s use the word for people from India and make the effort to come up with more accurate words for other people.
OMG, you’re right! I am so embarrassed. Please accept my apologies, both of you, pennylane and pepperlandgirl.
If there were any other Dopers with Beatles-themed names starting with P, I might have confused them too. I apologize in advance to pleasepleaseme, prudence, and polythenepam, if you’re out there.
