Not been to either countries, but from what I have seen, Americans refer to East Asians as Asians and the British refer to South Asians as Asians

by Gibsondale 10 hours ago

Here is an article describing the issue. It is a name imposed by others. There is a primal potency to the act of naming oneself, which has long been denied us. The members of a community with any amount of self-respect should confer, and choose and designate and insist upon the name that they feel describes them best. It is with that in mind that we prefer to name ourselves Asian Americans. Asian, because we proudly trace our ancestry back millennia of history and culture and civilization to any one of several countries on the continent called Asia. And American, by birth or naturalization or perhaps even sheer love of this country. "Oriental" is outdated and obsolete, just like Eurocentrism. We are re-defining ourselves and re-visioning the concept of what it means to be "American." We ask that others respect this struggle by addressing us by the name that we have chosen for ourselves

by joaquinblanda 10 hours ago

Asia is also a name "imposed by others". It's Greek and originally referred to lands in their reach like Turkey and such. No need to be offended by the question if it's valid. If you dislike the term "Oriental" specifically, offer something different in return.

by Anonymous 9 hours ago

What is the term one should use to talk about Asians not from Russia or the Middle East or southern Asian though? I've heard some People try to use Asian as a blanket term for that but that pretends that well over a billion people in Asia don't exist either.

by Anonymous 9 hours ago

You probably don't see anything wrong with it because you've never been called oriental

by Anonymous 9 hours ago

If someone just uses it to describe your ethnicity I don't see why you would have an issue with it. If you didn't already know it was considered racist against you, you'd not think anything of it. The person just said you're from east Asia

by Pleasant-Level-4670 8 hours ago

Just say East Asian or better yet specify the country. You literally just called it East or South Asians specifically, so why don't you just continue referring to them by using geographic context? Why tf do you think it's better to describe them using a word you know is generally looked down upon and seen to be problematic?

by Hot_Past8420 8 hours ago

Everything you said are the reasons for not lumping everyone together as if everyone is the same.

by Anonymous 8 hours ago

The meaning of that term has shifted farther and farther east over they years for some reason. Mesopotamia used to be considered "the orient" once upon a time. It's derived from the latin word for east, so I guess that's no surprise. I think the wrongness of the term is the innate otherness. There's our world, and then there's the lands to the east filled with weird people with strange traditions. Yadda yadda yadda. It's not difficult to see how someone might find that offensive.

by Dry_Fig_382 8 hours ago

Maybe it'll change in a few generations, but if someone calls me an oriental I'd just assume they're making a jab at my race. Oriental is typically used to described items, not people. I personally find it dehumanizing, similarly to the way the term "colored" was historically used. It's not a slur outright, but it definitely has some historically racist connotations behind it. It's not one of those, "You're worthless" type connotations but a, "You're not one of us" type feel to it.

by Aggravating-Note 7 hours ago

If you walk into a room see another guy and say "hey Jim how are things" and the man turns to you with a flat expression and says "my name is Bob please don't call me Jim" the correct response is to apologise and call him bob not to jump into a monologue about how being called Jim is super great and they should feel respected by it. Just call people the names they want to be called by bro.

by Anonymous 7 hours ago