Post #593172 by Kaiwaza on Fri, Jun 10, 2011 2:07 PM

What is politically correct in the US Mainland may not be elsewhere. My understanding is that in many British-linked areas "Asian" refers to what Americans would call "South Asian" ie Indian subcontinent..."Oriental" would equate with "Far Eastern" ie Japanese, Chinese, Korean...although some in Europe may use the even OLDER term for Orient & mean what we would call "the Middle East." In Hawaii, I've heard many Asians refer to someone as being "Oriental"..meaning East Asian.
I think the current political correct usage is just ridiculous. It is said that the word "Orient" is ethnocentric as it means "East"..east of what? Europe. (So what? It's a European word.) "Asia" is accepted..yet, Asia is NOT an Asian word..it ALSO is a European word meaning...gues what?..EAST. To tope it all off..if Oriental is unacceptable because it refers to something being Eastern...why is the accepted term for West Asia/North Africa "Middle Eeast"??? Which is considered correct by all US news media. It makes NO SENSE.
Asia & Orient mean exactly the same thing in two different root languages (Greek & Roman I believe).
Of course one shouldn't use INSULTING terms for people...but neither of these terms should be insulting.