I hear some object to the term oriental, but that term infers Japanese, Chinese, etc. I don't--?

Question

want to say Asian and have people think I mean Indians or people living in the Asian parts of Russia, so isn't oriental the most accurate term, and what's wrong with it anyway?

Answer 1

As I understand it, the objection is that there is no such place as "the orient" - that was a term coined by westerners during the years when western nations were "colonizing" as much of the rest of the world as they could, and so using it as an adjective ("oriental") when referring to peoples of eastern countries became considered a form of imperalistic condescension.

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with it, just passing on the explanation I was told.

Answer 2

Oriental refers to objects. You could use East Asian to clarify Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc.

Answer 3

I always thought Oriental is applied to objects, not people. But you still get the ignorant PC police even when you call an antique vase an "Oriental vase". Go figure. You can't make PC types happy. They live to make themselves feel better by putting others down because of semantics.

Answer 4

Oriental should be used for inanimate objects that come from Asia like soups or rugs. People should be referred to as Asian or more specifically by their nationality if you know it.

Answer 5

Oriental refers to anything such as people, products or land associated with Asia.

Answer 6

Some people are just too sensitive.