Asian vs. Oriental

This is what I read about it. OK, so a long time ago, people in Europe used to refer to everything to the east of them as the Orient, including for example the Middle East, since orient means "east". So far, so good. This mysterious area was the source of all sorts of wonderful things like silk and spices, so the Europeans attached also sorts of exotic, mysterious connotations to the Orient. As Europeans gained a better concept of world geography, they eventually used "the Orient" and "Oriental" to refer to East and Southeast Asia, where people look "Oriental" in our current usage. Anyway, that usage of "Oriental" has survived a long time, and it still frequently carries all of the exotic/foreign/inscrutable/mysterious connotations. These connotations happen to coincide with many of the stereotypes held of Asian Americans. Furthermore, by definition, the word "Oriental" is Eurocentric, referring to things east of Europe. For these reasons, some Asian American activist types decided that "Oriental" was a Bad Word, and that "Asian" was more accurate, less Eurocentric, and less loaded with strange connotations.

It's my understanding that "Asian" refers to a person who was born in or who is living in Asia, as well as the characteristics of this region and its people. The term "Oriental" refers to the region that includes Asia south of the Himalayas, the Phillipines, and the East Indies... or specifically, it includes natives of the East... the Turks, Arabs, Iranians, Indians, Japanese and Chinese. Sometimes people use the word "oriental" to refer to an Asian person in a not-so-friendly way. Other than that, I'm not aware of additional distinctions between the two terms. I hope this helps?

Oriental simply means "Eastern". "Asian" localizes the place to the specific set of countries that we associate with this part of the world. In general, when speaking of a person's ethnic origin, the more specific you can be, the better, since it shows that you know him/her and are not just stereotyping him/her. So, for example, it is better to say that he/she is Chinese, not just Asian, or that he/she was born in Xiamen, Fujian province, China. If you aren't sure what country a person is from, the next most specific term is Asian, since it refers to a certain group of countries. Oriental is much more vague, and has become a term that is acceptable only when talking about things, not people. Sharon

A couple of my friends are from Japan, and it used to drive them crazy when people referred to them as "Oriental". She always said people are Asian, things are Oriental. I hope that helps. Good question by the way.