Oriental is a rug? Asian is too broad? Is there another word to describe Japanese, Korean and Chinese people?

Question

Asians could include all types of people including Russians and Indians, which are nothing like Japanese, Koreans or Chinese people. Apparently though, these people get offended at the term Oriental because it's a rug or something. What can I call them without saying all three races?

Answer 1

The appropriate term for the three ethnic groups you specify is "East Asian". Vietnamese people are also sometimes described that way without offense.

The term "Asian", although endorsed by US and state governments as well as left-wing academics, is an absurd one. The continent of Asia is a huge land area, home to many different races, religions, languages, and civilizations. Some of them are are ancient enemies; others never encountered each other at all until the rise of the modern world. The term "Asian" is simply too broad to be meaningful. I personally suspect the adoption of this term was brought about by left-wing activists trying their best (as usual) to create anti-American political fronts.

Russia incidentally is in both Asia and Europe. About two-hundred miles east of Moscow there is a long chain of mountains running almost directly north to south. These mountains, the Urals, have traditionally been considered the dividing line between Europe and Asia. About two-thirds of Russia lie to the east of the Urals. The huge region of Russia that lies in Asia is usually called "Siberia".

Nimadan

Answer 2

You can call them Asians as we Indians are not considered Asians even though we are Asians. We are unique in that sense and we should be proud that even though we are part of Asia, other Asians refer to anyone from the Indian Sub Continent as South Asians or Indians. If you want to categorize it geographically you could say Indians, Pakistani's, Bangladeshi's, Nepali's, Bhutaneses and Sri Lankan's are all South Asians. People in the rest of Asia except China, Korea and Japan are called South East Asians and the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese are called Far Eastern. You could figure out a more apt term if your still not sure.

Answer 3

Well, Asian would probably be your best bet. B/c if Oriental is offensive, then just about anything else would be. And they're from Asia. Other than that you'd have to say Chinese, or Japanese, or Korean, Laocean, Cambodian, Vietnamese, ect. Is Russia really considered part of Asia? I thought it was part of Europe, but I could be wrong.

Answer 4

If you don't know the specific country, use Asian. You're right in saying that Russians and Indians are also asians, but in reality, how many times are you going to call a person from Russia asian??

Being half asian, I often ask people who use the word "oriental" to point out a country or continent named "Orient." They can't because it doesn't exist. Rule of thumb: country/continent=race.
Europe=European
Asia=Asian
Russia=Russian
France=French

You can't go wrong unless you can't place them.

Answer 5

Oriental is also wrong because it also encompasses southern Asia and the Malay Archipelago.

You can however, refer to the three locations as East Asia.
If you are doing a presentation or writing a paper, you need to first define East Asia, and acknowledge that East Asia can encompass others like Mongolia, but will not be talking about these 'other countries'.

I've checked out Wikipedia's definition on "East Asia" and "Far East" and they are pretty much skewed.

I never use Wikipedia for research papers.

Answer 6

Russians and Indians and others are not actually asian. They Live IN Asia, but they are not ethnically considered asian.

When I first moved to the states from the middle-east, I was pretty confused and just wrote (on applications and such) that I am asian..well just because that is the continent in which i lived. But actually, my race is 'aryan' (in it's original definition, persians were actually the aryan race before it got all german and racist). I SAY and identify myself as persian.

I dunno, you can say "far-east asian", i think that would be understandable. Indians are southeast asian i think (but i could be wrong).

But yeah you're right, Oriental is harsh. Don't use that.

Oh hey I just found an article about it. look bellow:

Answer 7

Hey I got one! how about calling a Japanese person... Japanese or maybe calling a korean person Korean etc. You are called Americans, Canadians, Britons, Australians etc. why can't they be called by thier country of origin?

also i read another one where i person said Russia is a part of Europe, Only a small part is in Europe the majority is in Asia.

Answer 8

Its so funny when u mention asian, people will immediately think of Japanese,chinese or Korean..but what about us..the Malaysian, Vietnamese,Phillipines..those people in the south east?...
I agree with Josh...just call them by their origins...thats better n easy...

Answer 9

Id go for Asians. Russia is part of Europe.