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Off-topic, but when mainstream American press uses the word "Asian", why does it typically mean the yellow half of Asia?
by mavelikara 15y ago
Off-topic, but when mainstream American press uses the word "Asian", why does it typically mean the yellow half of Asia?
- sliverstorm 15y agoWhat do you consider to be the non-yellow half?
- barkingcat 15y agomaybe brown skinned 1.15 billion people? Or the blue eyed, blond haired northern Asians who live in northern China (who are ethnically Chinese) or in Russia? Those are asians too.
- w1ntermute 15y agoHe's referring to South Asia. The answer to his question is that "Asian" implies "East Asian" in American English because the majority of Asian Americans are East Asian. In the UK, "Asian" implies "South Asian" (for the same reason).
- 54hh 15y agoIndia, Russia, etc.?
- weicool 15y agoRussia?
- underwater 15y agoAmericans and Australians only refer to people from east Asia as "asian". I've noticed those from the UK call people from the Indian Subcontinent "asians". I never noticed how they reference people from East Asia.
- Pooter 15y agoLarge swaths of Russia, Central Asia, and most of the Indian Subcontinent?
- wahnfrieden 15y agoIndia?
- trout 15y agoThe middle east, the .*stans, India, Russia. Yeah, Arabs are Asian, who knew?
- giardini 15y agoSo here we are, halfway through the posts, when we realize that we're each using a different definition of "Asian"!
- Aloisius 15y agoWhen "oriental" became un-PC, Americans started using Asian as a replacement even though there are many non-oriental Asian countries.
- Duff 15y agoOriental not a PC term, but many Americans cannot tell the difference between Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, Filipino, etc by language, appearance or other factors. So instead of sitting through millions of awkward moments, whomever makes up these things came up with "Asian", which basically can apply to anyone.
- enjo 15y agoThe same thing applies to "Mexicans".. it infuriates my South American friends:)
- vacri 15y agoWhy does "European" typically mean the western half of Europe? Why does "American" almost always ignore all the non-USA countries on the two 'America' continents?
- yummyfajitas 15y agoWhy does "European" typically mean the western half of Europe? It doesn't. Russians are certainly counted as European. Why does "American" almost always ignore all the non-USA countries on the two 'America' continents? People from the "United States of America" are described as "Americans". Similarly, people from the Federated Republic of Brazil are described as "Brazilian". Or if you want to talk about continents, people from South America are often described as South Americans.