The term “Mongoloid” (now considered offensive) was still used in academia in the latter half of the 20th century (when I was growing up). Please keep that in mind when I say, at that time, “Oriental” was the accepted word for people who lived in Asia and had “Mongoloid” features.
Today, the major supermarket chains where I live stock products from China, Japan, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Burma, the Philippines, etc., in the “Asian” or “International” aisle. There are many local mom-and-pop grocery stores owned by Chinese, Phillipinos, Koreans, or Thais that are called “{Name’s} Oriental Grocery”.
My husband is from “south-central Asia” and his ancestry is Aryan-Caucasian-Semitic. Thus, his “race” (a term I don’t think is very useful in describing people, BTW) is Caucasian. However, if he covers his hair with a hat or “do-rag” he could pass for “high yellow”. When he was pulled over by cops, some couldn’t figure out what “race” he is. He’s been labeled as Black, Hispanic, White, Caucasian and others. It was pretty funny. (And, yeah, he used to speed a lot when he was younger.)
So, was I offended when I saw the sign? No, because the term was okay to use when I was growing up, so I don’t have negative associations with it. Further, knowing that the sign was in a British store, where the term “Asian” is often short-hand for Indian or Pakistani, leads me to believe that no disrespect was intended by the use of the word “Oriental” in that context.
I was called out in a thread I made about pho (link), for calling T&T an oriental supermarket. That’s what it is. It’s foods which come from the orient.
Apparently, from what I had once been told, “Oriental” does not carry the same perjorative weight in Europe it does in North America, in part because “Oriental” was a classification in N.A. associated with the head tax East Asian migrants had to pay. I don’t know if that story is true or not, but it certainly sounds plausible!
Seeing that sign in the OP’s link was like a punch in the gut. I felt all the blood drain from my face; my heart began to race. I actually almost had a panic attack, and had to take a valium to calm down. When at last I managed to regain my composure, I wrote a good long letter to the Anti-Defamation League about this horrific incident. Something must be done about this vile and insensitive sign, or else we don’t stand a chinaman’s chance at building a civil society.
This isn’t a new thing. Oriental’s been on the outs since I started growing up (in California, FWIW). It wasn’t exactly offensive, but it was the word used back when folks stereotyped East Asians heavily in ignorance, even more so than today. Asian is the less loaded word now.
That’s word connotation for you. It could just as easily have been the other way round, but it isn’t.
As others have already said, most English people use Asian to describe people from southern Asia. As you Americans would say, “oriental” still flys here, but of course there is a world of difference between “an oriental” “an oriental person”， I try to use their nationalities if I know them.
I still don’t follow the difference. Is it a slur to call someone a “New Englander”? Should I instead attempt to determine what state they are from (Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, etc.)?
Why stop there? Surely there are regional differences within the state. Why not refer to someone based on the particular street they are from?
An Asian person objecting to being called an “oriental” would be like me objecting to being called a “westerner.” It’s PC gone mad.
Until I saw a commercial a little while ago where a guy used “Oriental” and was corrected by his girlfriend I had no idea people might have a problem with the word.
I remember my 3rd grade teacher telling us how Nelson Mandela was was just elected the first African-American President of South Africa and how wonderful that was. I pointed out that he wasn’t American at all; just African. She told me to be quite and that that wasn’t a nice thing to say.
People people. We all know they have odd word spellings in the UK and even in France. Words in Welsh don’t even necessarily look anything like how they are pronounced. Hell, there is even a Monty Python joke to this effect.
Obviously in the UK, the word “Oriental” is pronounced “Asian”.
Oh yeah. “Colored” was once the modern, progressive term (see: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1909). Later “Negro” took that spot (see: Negro National League, 1920, through United Negro College Fund, 1944). “Black” rose notably during the Civil Rights Era, and the choice of terminology (versus those still saying “Negro”) was a major flag for some people. “African-American” followed still later, with Jesse Jackson establishing it as the PC term du jour in the '80s, though it has never seemed to achieve the standardization of any of the preceding three.
I’m not black, but I say “black” because my black friends find “African-American” euphemistic, and some Africans find it presumptuous.
No, “Oriental rugs” represents the classic application of the term. “Orient” means east, everything on the “far” side of the Bosporus. “Oriental rugs” encompass disparate traditions from widely-separated cultures–but they all looked sort of exotic to Europeans, so the distinctions weren’t important. Limiting the term to only the far-eastern or southeastern portions of Asia, that’s the modern “jargon” adaptation.
I prefer to avoid “Oriental” with respect to people, rugs, food, everything. I don’t think there are any usages that aren’t improved by using “Asian” (if one really is speaking of the continent generally), or else specific-culture terms. If it’s a Persian rug or person, or a Turkmen, or a Tibetan, say that.