Just wondering how US dopers (or other non-UK dopers) react to it… I’m aware of the cultural differences, but would this make you feel uncomfortable, or just a raised eyebrow, or would you not even register it? Would the reaction be different if this were a US shop rather than in the UK?
The supermarket is ASDA which is part of the Wall-Mart group but this is typical usage over here.
For those who’d rather not click:
The sign above the aisle says “oriental” to refer to Japanese / Chinese etc foods. I know in the US “oriental” tends to be replaced with “asian”, but interested to know how seeing it in a banal public place like this would register. FWIW the same section of the shop uses “asian” for indian food (naans, curry paste etc), so here at least it’s a useful distinction.
I haven’t seen the Asian/Oriental distinction here. Here, the Asian section has foodstuffs from Japan, China, Thailand, and India. Most of the time I’ve noticed kosher foods being next to the Asian section, and the local market has British foods in that area as well. From the end of the aisle, AFAICR, it’s: Kosher, British, Indian, Thai, Japanese, Chinese; with the Japanese and Chinese overlapping a bit.
Agreed that ‘Oriental’ is not the preferred term. In the local Super Fresh, the Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Indian foods sometimes seem to run together.
I’d notice that it was not the preferred term used here in the US, but that’s it. I don’t think the term is a perjorative, even when used to describe people or ethnicity. Outdated, maybe. Interesting that the store makes a distinction between Oriental and Asian.
FWIW, There’s a Korean-owned food store here in Michigan called “Seoul Oriental Market.” And a quick look at the local yellow pages reveals another store called “Oriental Emporium Food and Gifts.”
Why?
A local chain (Meijers) has an “International Foods” aisle. I almost always hit that aisle, and if I remember correctly, stuff like Indian/Thai curry powders and paste, Chinese noodles, Japanese dried seaweed etc are all lumped under “Asian.”
A couple of months ago, I would have thought it seemed pretty outdated. Now I’m just confused. I met a young man from India at a dinner party this summer. There was a bottle of “Asian Sesame” salad dressing on the table. It was one of his pet peeves that things marked “Asian” in the US are actually east Asian (or supposedly so…not sure how “Asian” American salad dressings are.) He pointed out that there are well over a billion people in Asia who are not east Asian.
I didn’t think to ask him what his preferred term would be, and I have no proposed alternatives, other than “East Asian,” “Central Asian,” etc.
I tend not to notice supermarket signs.
But if I saw it in the UK, I’d think that things are different in different countries. If I saw it in the US my eyebrows would go straight up and make me wonder about the store.
I’m at the Atlanta airport right now and I just ate at Asian Chao, Oriental Cuisine. The only reason I even noticed is because of this thread. I agree that the term seems acceptable for objects, just not people. And yes, the food was terrible.
Pretty mild reaction of surprise - not because I find the term offensive, but because I know others do, and I’m used to supermarkets that don’t try to piss off their customers so blatantly. “International Foods” or “World Cuisine” or somesuch is the signage I’d expect to see.
This is correct, or at least it was correct. It does seem to be changing. I call it PC Creep. People think, “Hurr durr. Asian good. Oriental bad,” without understanding context.
It’s like that newspaper reporter from the US who asked Nelson Mandela what it was like to be the first African American leader of South Africa.
