Post #592861 by aquarj on Wed, Jun 8, 2011 9:49 AM

On 2011-06-08 05:41, OnyaBirri wrote:
Amazing that in 2011 they refer to her as "oriental" in the above news story. Rugs and figurines are oriental, not persons.

If you're referring to the Mail & Guardian link, that's from South Africa. I'm not up on South African political correctness, but they may be closer to the European tradition where "Oriental" is supposedly more common (and accepted) than in the US. I've heard that in the UK, "Asian" actually refers to origins from India, Pakistan, etc. For that matter, I'm not sure if we Americans want "Asian" to refer to only a small part of Asia, or to be a big umbrella that really covers all of Asia, including Russia and the Middle East. One is wrong, the other is almost meaningless because of its breadth. Maybe the American PC people will come up with a better set of terms someday.

-Randy