Not the most politically correct term I know but still in use to some extent today in pop culture so I was wondering..... usually when most people think "oriental" they probably think- if u excuse me for a moment- "slanty-eyed" Chinese and Japanese, then Korean and Vietnamese, and then se Asians etc.... but would other peoples who also have that "oriental" look but are not from the aforementioned places such as most notably indigenous siberians since they technically are but rarely mentioned as being Asian also be considered "oriental"??? Or is it purely a superficial term to begin with that simply conjures up all kinds of stereotypes about Asian peoples....???? Is there a difference between "Asian" and "Oriental"?

Oriental simply means "the east", doesn't mean "east Asia" at all. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oriental

In British English, the term "Oriental" refers to East Asians and some Southeast Asians (Vietnamese, etc.), whereas "Asian" refers to people from the Indian subcontinent. It's not pejorative at all in the UK.

I'm reading 'Vanity Fair' right now - people used to call Jews and Turks "Oriental," as well.
I don't think it was meant to be derogatory, just a convenient way to say "east of Europe."
And "Asian" means Asian, lol

delete.

Those are ascribed terms by Westerners.
No ones called themselves that.

I mean, I barely called myself "asian."

Thinking back, I remember when my parents asked me,
"What is Asian?" I was like, Asian people are black head like us.

Uruguay that small nation in South America is is officially named "the Oriental Republic of Uruguay".

During the Spanish era it was called "Banda Oriental" (Oriental Bank - meaning the East Bank). Then during the years of Independence it was called "Provincia Oriental" (Oriental Province).

The Oriental part has to do with it being located East (East Bank of the river) of the "Rio de la Plata" which in english is the "River Plate." It really should be called the "Silver River" but seems since "Plata" seems like the word "Plate" they left it like that in english.

Cuba use to have a Province called Oriente. People from there were called Orientales. Plenty of good music came out of that province.

Today Oriente province does not exist. It was so huge that they divided it up into smaller provinces. But some people still refer to that Eastern part of Cuba that way.

I remember getting to school and learning that Asians are a people and orientals were objects. Then immigrant asians would call themselves "Oriental" after I had spent years correct my friends who still used the term. Then I got the internet and on message boards when the English and other Britons would use the term "Oriental" my gentle correction would go out, "oriental means objects, people are Asians" and they reacted like I was crazy.

some of those ppl have a similar asian look to asians.... in Mexico they call people who look like that "chinos" (denoting a chinese-like look)

We don't call black people Negroes and we don't call Asians Oriental. It's that simple. Oriental was a word that was used when Charlie Chan was always played by a white guy, they were always the Houseboys in movies, every "Oriental" girl dreamed about a white guy rescuing her from her opium father, and every white guy no matter how puny could kick the @$$ of a Triad mobster. Negroes were used when every black guys was either retarded or a sex crazed lunatic going trying to rape White women.

Next time you think about using "Oriental", ask yourself, would you say that "We have a Negroe Pressident"? How does it sound? Pretty retarded huh?

Retarded? Perhaps not. Your battle was won in America decades ago, today I only hear recent Southeast Asian immigrants use the term. However in the UK Asian means from the Indian, Pakistan, Bangledesh and Sri Lanka, all people who were not thought of as "Asian" or Oriental in America until about the time Americans stop using Oriental and Negro as a common description. You have a fight ahead of you to change a culture, especialy since they have a greater proportion of South Asians and tighter ties to those South Asian nations then in America whose major ties are with East and Southeast Asian nations and peoples.

I live in the US and in the US, it's pretty retarded. I don't live in the UK so Ido not pretend to understand the cultural nuances. However, I tend to think that the word "Oriental" be cast away for the same reasons that it is being discarded in the US. IMHO, the words South Asian vs East Asian may be better words to use. Nevertheless, if I hear anyone call me an "Oriental" I would have no problems using the words "White Trash", "Redneck", or "Cracker" even if you are from the UK and don't know better. Honky does seem a little dated though.