Asian (people)

The term "Asian" refers to people with ancestral origins in East Asia, Southeast Asia or South Asia. This definition thus does not include all people with origins in the continent of Asia; while many people of Middle Eastern descent live in Asia, they are not classified as Asian. The term's application varies by region, but people described as Asian generally inhabit or have origins in the following countries:
* East Asia: China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan.
* Southeast Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar(Burma), Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.
* South Asia: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal.

Under the definition above, around four billion people, or more than 60 percent of the world's population, can be described as Asian. The region to which the term applies includes the two most populous countries in the world: the People's Republic of China and the Republic of India. It also includes the largest single ethnic group in the world, the Han Chinese, who number over 1.3 billion.Image:BobbyJindal.jpg| Bobby Jindal, who is of Indian descent, would be considered an Asian by the UK Census and the USA Census.Image:DavidWu.jpg| David Wu, who is of Chinese descent, would be considered Asian in the USA Census but not in the UK Census.Image:Mixed race boy.jpg|This person, of mixed Japanese and British descent, would be "mixed" on the UK Census, but both White and Asian on the USA Census.Image:Spabe.jpg| Spencer Abraham, who is of Lebanese and Syrian descent, would not be Asian on the USA Census or the UK Census, even though his nations of origin are on the continent of Asia.

"Asian" in Western countries

"Asian" in the UK and Anglophone Africa

In the United Kingdom and certain parts of Anglophone Africa, especially East Africa, the term "Asian," though it can refer to the continent of Asia as a whole, is more commonly associated specifically with the people and cultures of South Asia. This includes modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Those of East Asian origin, such as the Chinese or Koreans (historically and commonly referred to as Oriental in the UK and the Commonwealth), are usually not included in the term. This is reflected in the "ethnic group" section of UK census forms and other government paperwork, which treat "Asian" and "Chinese" as separate (see British Asian).

The term "Desi" is also often used by the South Asian diaspora around the world, including in the UK, US, and Africa, to refer to another South Asian person.

Many Chinese South Africans dislike the label "Asian," which they associate with being Indian or South Asian.

The United Kingdom and Anglophone Africa are two places in the Western world where the word "Asian" is used primarily to identify people from the Indian subcontinent. South Asians are usually not seen as "Asian" by appearance in North America in much the same way that East Asians are not seen as "Asians" by appearance in the United Kingdom. Of course, in Asia, the word "Asian" has a more localized definition when describing people by face, and is more inclusive when describing Asians by culture.

"Asian" in Canada

The colloquial term "Asian" in Canada is similar in usage to that of the United States. Since about 1990, it refers to people from East Asia and Southeast Asia such as those from China, Japan, and Korea. It also sometimes includes South Asians. "Asian" is often considered to be a more polite (or, some would say, a more politically correct) alternative to "Oriental." This is partially due to the perception among academics that the term "Oriental" hearkens to a long-outdated, Eurocentric worldview, one in which Europe is Occidental (Western), and Asia is Oriental (Eastern). As a further subclassification, West Asia is the "Near East" (or Middle East) and East and South Asia comprise the "Far East." These terms are set geographically in relation to Europe, and hence are often considered controversial for their Eurocentricity.

To avoid confusion, the term "East Asian" is used to denote people from Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and Korea. This clarification is usually only needed when a distinction between ethnic groups is necessary. They are considered formal and are not often used in everyday speech. In recent years, South Asians, often labeled collectively as Indian, have come to see themselves as a distinct part of Asian America.

"Asian" in the United States

[[Image:3 Regions Far East Southeast Asia Indian Subcontinent.png|200px|right|thumb|On the {{Race (United States Census)|2000 US Census}} {{Asian American}}s are from

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For purposes of the U.S. Census, the term "Asian" is defined as "people who have origins in the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian Subcontinent". Respondents can also report more specific ancestry, such as Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Malaysian, Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Burmese, Pakistani, Laotian, Thai, Bhutanese, and so on, including "Other Asian". Someone reporting these ancestries but no race will be classified as "Asian". Turks, Iranians, Arabs of the Mashriq, Israelis, Central Asians, and the indigenous peoples of Siberia, are "Asians" in the continental sense, but are not currently classified as "Asian" in the U.S. Census.

United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind 261 U.S. 204 (1923) was a case in which the United States Supreme Court decided that Bhagat Singh Thind, a native of India, could not be a naturalized citizen of the United States, despite the fact that a number anthropologists had defined members of the Indian subcontinent as being members of the Caucasian race. Currently, in American parlance Caucasian American does not include people with origins from the Indian Subcontinent. The ruling followed a decision in Takao Ozawa v. United States where the same court had ruled that a light-skinned native of Japan could not count as "white", because "White" meant "Caucasian", establishing White and Caucasian to be interchangeable terms for a single people of whom neither Japanese Americans nor Indian Americans are included. Although the restrictions on immigration and naturalization of East and South Asians were later repealed, the practice of classifying East and South Asians in an "Asian" category, but West Asians (whose immigration and naturalization was never restricted) in the "White" category probably has its roots in this period.

"West Asians"

The term "West Asian" is now sometimes used to refer to people from Middle Eastern nations. Note that while Middle Easterners are rarely considered "Asian" in most western societies, the name Asia is probably derived from ancient Assyrian. It therefore originally referred to the regions now called "West Asia" and "Central Asia", the Sinai Peninsula to Persia and Asia Minor to Arabia.

The term "West Asia" is popular with those who argue that the term "Middle East" is a Eurocentric moniker denoting the region between Europe and East Asia. In East Asia, Western Asians like Iranians and Arabs, and the Central Asians of the former Soviet Republics are not referred to as "Asian".

In Australia, the definition of "Asian" includes people from the continent of Asia as a whole for cultural, study, and government purposes.

Orientals and the Orient

The term "Oriental" (from the Latin word for "Eastern") was originally used in Europe in reference to the Near East. It was later extended to the rest of Asia, but came to refer to East Asians in the 19th and 20th century US, where most Asians were Chinese (and later Japanese and Filipino). By the late 20th century, the term had gathered associations in North America with older attitudes now seen as outmoded, and was replaced with the term "Asian" as part of the updating of language concerning social identities, which critics have derided as political correctness. Elsewhere in the English-speaking world, "Oriental" does not have such associations (except perhaps in Australia and among those exposed to the US use of the term).

Asian Russians (Kalmyks, Tuvans, and others)

Most of Russia's huge territory is in Asia, though the majority of its population is in Europe and ethnically Slavic. Depending on context, Russian people may be considered European or mixed according to their individual ethnic nationality, ancestry, or appearance. They may be considered European or Asian based on their current or recent place of residence or just by the state in which they happen to reside (and whether it extends into Europe or Asia).The word Eurasian is also often used to describe Russia's position in the world.See also Transcontinental nation.

When "Asian" is used as a shorthand for "East Asian" or "South Asian", Russians are usually not included; one exception being the Kalmyks, the only Buddhist Asians living in East Europe in the republic of Kalmykia, which is a federal subject of the Russian Federation.

Pacific Islanders

Sometimes, Pacific Islanders, such as Native Hawaiians or Samoans, who do not technically belong to the continent of Asia, may be classified or "clumped together" with Asians as a group, often in censuses, surveys or studies. This is derived from the origination of many Pacific islands' peoples from Southeast Asia, specifically Java, Indonesia.

Thus, occasionally, the term "Asians and Pacific Islanders" or "Asia/Pacific" may be used. However, in the 2000 US Census, many Pacific Islanders did not consider themselves the same social identity as Asians, and classified themselves separately.

"Asian" in Asia

Probably the best answer to the question "Who is an Asian?" is "whomever calls themselves Asian". Russians, "Southwest Asians" and Middle Easterners may not consider themselves Asians; however they do participate in the Asian Cup and West Asian Games. There are many conflicting dynamics in regards to very specific identity affiliation. The only people who actually call themselves Asians without dispute are the original people from East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Subcontinent .

External links

* Mel-jol An online community for South Asians living in South West(Devon), UK
*Asia Society - This multinational site with headquarters in the US, Hong Kong, Australasia, etc. is an "Asian" resource for everything from food to politics.
*Asia Friends Network - An online global Asian friends community for all-things Asian
* On Asian and Oriental, essay by Alan Hu on "Asian" vs. "Oriental"
* Asian Identity
* Y chromosome lineages of the world
* [https://www5.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html Genographic Project]

Asian (people): Encyclopedia BETA

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