Asian is now strongly preferred in place of Oriental for persons native to Asia or descended from an Asian people. Both terms are rooted in geography rather than ethnicity, but where Asian is neutral, Oriental sounds outdated and to many people even offensive.
1
The usual objection to Oriental—meaning “of or situated in the East”—is that it identifies Asian countries and peoples in terms of their location relative to Europe. However, this objection is not usually made of other terms, such as Near Eastern and Middle Eastern, stemming from the same accident of geography that led the earliest European travelers eastward rather than westward into Asia. The real problem with Oriental is more likely that it comes freighted with connotations from an earlier era, when Europeans viewed the regions east of the Mediterranean as exotic lands full of romance and intrigue, the home of despotic empires, fabulous cities, and mysterious customs. Such common expressions as “Oriental splendor” and “the inscrutable Orient” testify to the rich—and now generally offensive—associations that have attached to this term in previous centuries.
2
It is worth remembering, though, that Oriental is not an ethnic slur to be avoided in all situations. It is most objectionable in contemporary contexts and when used as a noun, as in the appointment of an Oriental to head the commission. In these cases Asian (or a more specific term such as Vietnamese, Korean, or Asian American, if appropriate) is the only acceptable term. But in certain historical contexts, or when its exotic connotations are integral to the topic, Oriental remains a useful term.
3
Asia is the largest of the continents with more than half the world’s population. Though strictly speaking any of the peoples indigenous to the continent can be termed Asian, in normal contexts this designation tends to be restricted to persons from East, South, and Southeast Asia. Indonesians and Filipinos are usually included under Asian as well, but not the Melanesians, Micronesians, and Polynesians of the central and southern Pacific Ocean, who are often known collectively as Pacific Islanders. The predominantly Muslim and Christian peoples of Southwest Asia and the former Soviet republics—including Turks, Arabs, Armenians, and Iranians—are usually designated Middle or Near Eastern rather than Asian.
