In the usage of years past, “0riental” once meant the Mideast and anything further east, from the perspective of most Europeans–and Americans too, in early days. The renowned Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, in fact, concentrates primarily on the Mideast and western Asia.
My initial reaction is that cultural sensitivity is important, but it can at the same time be presumptious to dictate the vocabulary and usage of foreigners speaking in their own languages.
Then again, one can argue that English, as a world language, is in a unique position which goes beyond the usages of its native speakers.
On still another hand, though, as this thread shows, our geographical nomenclature varies just from one English speaking country to another.
I’ve met a few Siberians who said they were from the “Russian Far East”. While hey looked very average white / Caucasian (I hesitate to use “Caucasian” since the folks I’ve met from the Caucasus area certainly had a specific look.
a significant percentage of Siberians very obviously have the blood of Genghis Khan running through their veins.
After getting reamed on this board for admitting that I had once used the term Oriental to refer to an Asian, I did a little googling and found an all-Asian board (Circa 2013) where they were discussing this matter. Among this particular group of Asian-Americans the sentiment seemed to run 60-40 between those who didn’t give a damn about the term “Oriental” and those who did. Those who did quoted the rug catchphrase quite a bit. Often. A lot.
Point of order - The few Philippinos on that board did not like to be called Asian or Asian-American. They do not want to be lumped with Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans.
Obviously, Asia is a HUGE continent that includes numerous ethnics groups, cultures, languages and skin colors. An Israeli is, strictly speaking, an Asian. So is an Iran, a Pakistani, a Thai or an Afghan.
But it’s East Asians who have generally insisted on being referred to as “Asian,” because so many of them regarded the term Oriental as… is not racist, at least clunky or outdated, like “Negro” Over time, most Americans have gotten used to calling Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese and Filippinos “Asian” rather than Oriental.
So far so good. But lots of other people from other parts of Asia respond “Hey- what about US!”
I now see a lot of newspapers and magazines referring to Indians and Pakistanis as “South Asians,” to differentiate them from the (East) Asians.
