Asian = Oriental, etc.

[Beth Lee Simon]

In my Asian Folklore course, I have the students (Indiana) check their
families for three generations for use and application(s) of "Asia,"
"Asian" and "Oriental". I get almost no grandparents using "Asian" until
recently. No one included India or Bangladesh in Asia (although a number
will put Pakistan there). "Oriental" is Chinese and Japanese, and, for
grandparents and parents, Korean. Vietnamese is "Oriental", but not
Thai, not Burmese. Tibetans are Asian but not Oriental.

Everyone is clear on mainland Southeast Asia (because of post WWII U.S.
history?), but no one thinks of any island nations as "Asian."

Students had interesting questions about "Central Asia." Is it Turkey?
What is Iranian? What is Farsi? What is Persian? Where is Chechnya?
Where is Mongolia [sic] geographically? What is it culturally?

beth