Please remember the question is asking about what we would think of in the case of someone putting Asian on a dating site in the USA. It does not mean we don’t know India is part of Asia.
I would think Japanese, Chinese or Korean. Probably because that’s what I would mean!
*c.1300, “the East” (originally usually meaning what is now called the Mid-East), from O.Fr. orient (11c.), from L. orientem (nom. oriens) “the rising sun, the east, part of the sky where the sun rises,” originally “rising” (adj.), prp. of oriri “to rise” (see orchestra). *
Funny how “occidental” doesn’t have the same frequency of use.
Interesting too how in the States you’d never call an African-American “colored” (unless you’re trying to provoke a fight), but it’s the “National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.” If there had been “No African-Americans” signs back in the day, they’d probably insist today that we call them “colored.” I.e. the term itself isn’t objectionable but the associations with the time frame in which it was used are.
Asian, citizen of the Roman province of Asia Minor.
The whole racial politics in the US (and to a the lesser extent) the UK is mind boggling.
He should put “Aryan”. That’d really mess with their heads.
Someone who’d assume you speak Hindi? 
I would think, “Somebody from Asia.”
If someone is Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, I would consider them Oriental. I know it’s considered a slur by some people, but I don’t mean it to be a slur, just more descriptive.
It’s too bad we have so royally messed up the word Indian so that it can mean either “from India” or “native American.” Indian-dot and Indian-feather is not good enough.
Just to clarify, I fully agree with the Miss Manners common courtesy on using Asian.
there have been many threads on this topic. Asian as the prefered nomenclature for the people formally known as Orientals probably started in Berkeley in the sixties. I don’t have the link handy but posted before.
It started getting into the mainstream in the late 80’s, although one could argue that it’s still not fully mainstream.
I learned Chinese when Asian was more common but Oriental was perfectly acceptable. and that pre-dated Oriental is a rug catchphrase.
sorry if I was snarky but I really hate that ‘Oriental is a rug’ meme repeated mindlessly ad nauseum as the final word on the subject by people who generally don’t have a fucking clue to any of the history, culture. language or context.
Back to the subject, if I hear an American say “Asian,” I think Far-East-looking (not necessarily from there, it may be someone who’s a 7th generation American but many of whose 7-generations-before foreparents were born in China).
If I hear it in the UK, I know it’s “from India or thereabouts”.
If I hear someone say “Asiático” in Spain, I ask “asian, how?” and they usually clarify that they mean Far-East-looking. The trend of thinking that referring to someone as “chinese” means “Far-East-looking” (as opposed to meaning “from China”) and Should Not Be Done is relatively new in Spain (and from what I know, in other Hispanic countries as well); given that Spain is on its second generation of immigrants from China, people who get on that particular high horse are likely to get dismounted rapidly, as the speaker is highly likely to have used “chinese” to describe someone who, gee, was born in Shanghai.
I’m half Chinese, American-born from the west coast. To me and almost everyone I know, “Asian” is taken to mean East Asian. I consider everyone from China and Japan down to Indonesia to be “Asian,” while people from India are “Indian.” (This does bring up some confusion with Indians v. Native Americans, but that’s a different issue.) I’m not really sure why this is. Possibly the wide difference in culture between India and East Asian countries contributes to it.
I am also a British born Indian who lives in the US, though I’m probably a bit more Anglicized than SBUK (I’m more Anglicized than any other first-generation child of Indian emigrants that I’ve met, and I’ve met a lot).
I refer to myself as “of Indian descent”. To be perfectly honest, as far as I can remember nobody in Britain every asked me what my ethnic background was; everyone could tell from my hair and my skin tone and my nose.
People in the US ask all the time, and they’re horrible at identifying Indians. I usually make them guess, and they’ll go through various Hispanic and Arab cultures before guessing correctly.
Oriental is the word that plays in my head when describing Southeast Asians, but I quickly learned to translate it into “Asian”. If I have to refer to myself using continental terms I say South Asian.
I am from Eastern Europe, for what it’s worth Oriental means Arab or Persian to me, Asian means the yellow race, Mongols, Vietnamese, etc.
If an Indian or Bharati claimed they were Asian I would be really confused. Yes technically it’s the Eurasian continent but they are not yellow. And if they claimed they were of Aryan descent someone would probably call the police. Aryan is Nazi.
And stop calling yourselves Caucasian, people. The Caucasus is a definite place where Caucasians live - Armenians, Georgians, Azeri. No Pakistanis or Americans are NOT Caucasian. It’s kind of baffling why would they call themselves that because it’s a rather offensive term.
For me personally, Asian means all of Asia, the whole kit and kaboodle from Turkey to Japan, even the Arabian peninsula. But I do know “Asian” can mean different things to different people, so I try to understand what any particular person means when saying the word.
Asian. From the continent of Asia.
Nothing. My grandpap always identified himself as “Asian”; a tag that got hung on him when he came over here the first time around 1900. Being from Siberia, he basically qualified and the more he found out about the basic racism here he kinda wore it as a badge of honor.
That’s not the reason it’s considered offensive.
It’s simply that because it’s offensive to use “Oriental” specifically for people, as a matter of default it’s still okay to use “Oriental” for objects. At some point the latter might also become offensive, who knows.
To me, an Englishman: Asia is the largest place on earth and starts east of the Urals until one hits the Pacific. Some say east of the Carpathians.
That being the case, Asian is fairly meaningless as a descriptor. There are billions of people, thousands of tribes/national identities ( if claimed ), and hundreds of powers.
To a lesser extent African is pretty useless as a cultural indicator.
What, Khoi-san?
Nah, I think he’s talking about the Simpsons.
On a side note, does anyone here think the British are not European? Because I know a Briton here who thinks Britain is not part of Europe.