What are Asians called in your country?

[Torrasque]

This is the companion to <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.352318-What-are-African-Americans-called-in-your-country?page=7#13970506>this thread.

So, what do you call Asians in your country?
I usually call em Asians, but if I get to know the person, I always make it a point to ask exactly what part of Asia they hail from. I would hate to confuse a Japanese person with a Chinese person, or a Malaysian person with a Taiwanese person. It is like confusing Americans with Canadians (something you just don't do, lol).

 

[SckizoBoy]

Define 'Asian'...

In the States, 'Asian' usually denotes 'Oriental' (i.e. Chinese/Japanese/Korean/South-East Asian), while in most parts of the UK, 'Asian' almost exclusively means Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi (hell, even our damned Census forms agree). If I, as an ethnic Chinese, walk into a group of Indians and declare myself Asian, they'll look at me as if I'm a fucking moron.

Go figure...

 

[DoPo]

We call them..."Asian". And by that we mean Japanese, Chinese, etc. So, that's how we call the Oriental but not Indian or Iranian. Indian and Iranian (and so on) are called...Indian and Iranian (and so on).

More informally, the Oriental can be called "yellow" but it's not too offensive, just informal.

 

[JoJo]

As SckizoBoy mentioned, here in the UK "Asian" on it's own is usually taken to mean someone from the Indian Subcontinent rather than someone from the rest of Asia, who will normally just be referred to as "Chinese" or "Turkish" etc depending on where they come from. There are exceptions though, in Exeter "Asian" takes on the U.S. meaning of an East Asian person since there are so many of them here compared to relatively few of any other ethnic minority.

If I want to be specific, I usually use "South Asian" and "East Asian" to avoid any confusion.

Also inb4 any silly "we call them people" replies. Describing a dark-browned skinned person as "black" is no more dehumanising or separatist than someone describing me as "male" or "brown-eyed", it's a physical attribute.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

Define 'Asian'...

In the States, 'Asian' usually denotes 'Oriental' (i.e. Chinese/Japanese/Korean/South-East Asian), while in most parts of the UK, 'Asian' almost exclusively means Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi (hell, even our damned Census forms agree). If I, as an ethnic Chinese, walk into a group of Indians and declare myself Asian, they'll look at me as if I'm a fucking moron.

Go figure...

As SckizoBoy mentioned, here in the UK "Asian" on it's own is usually taken to mean someone from the Indian Subcontinent rather than someone from the rest of Asia, who will normally just be referred to as "Chinese" or "Turkish" etc depending on where they come from. There are exceptions though, in Exeter where I study "Asian" takes on the U.S. meaning of an East Asian person since there are so many of them here compared to relatively few of any other ethnic minority.

Also inB4 any silly "we call them people" replies.

I never got that because my friends who are Indian-American call themselves "Desi", and they don't identify with East/South-East Asian-Americans. What about people who are from West Asia(i.e. what we in the US call the "Middle-East")? Are they Asian too? lol, does that mean that Israeli's(and by extent Jews) are also "Asian"?

 

[JoJo]

Define 'Asian'...

In the States, 'Asian' usually denotes 'Oriental' (i.e. Chinese/Japanese/Korean/South-East Asian), while in most parts of the UK, 'Asian' almost exclusively means Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi (hell, even our damned Census forms agree). If I, as an ethnic Chinese, walk into a group of Indians and declare myself Asian, they'll look at me as if I'm a fucking moron.

Go figure...

As SckizoBoy mentioned, here in the UK "Asian" on it's own is usually taken to mean someone from the Indian Subcontinent rather than someone from the rest of Asia, who will normally just be referred to as "Chinese" or "Turkish" etc depending on where they come from. There are exceptions though, in Exeter where I study "Asian" takes on the U.S. meaning of an East Asian person since there are so many of them here compared to relatively few of any other ethnic minority.

Also inB4 any silly "we call them people" replies.

I never got that because my friends who are Indian-American call themselves "Desi", and they don't identify with East/South-East Asian-Americans. What about people who are from West Asia(i.e. what we in the US call the "Middle-East")? Are they Asian too? lol, does that mean that Israeli's(and by extent Jews) are also "Asian"?

I can understand why Asians don't identify as one, technically the division between Europe and Asia is just a culturally invented one so us white people get our own continent. From a purely geographic point of view there's one massive continent of Eurasia with about four or so major cultures (Western, Islamic, Indian, East Asian) existing in various parts. The latter three are no more similar to each other than they are to us.

 

[Wintermoot]

aziaaten a simple translation of asians

 

[HollaAtchABoi]

In this work Imma address the half of the asian population I care about, the females:


All the asian ladies in the house

Holla at me and have no doubt

That I got yellow fever

Fuck you Justin Beiber

I wanna get in that far east blouse


-Holla

 

[Zen Toombs]

By their last name. Their first name if you're close to them.

 

[Jadak]

Asians... Guess we're not very creative...

 

[Smiley Face]

Usually, whatever country/ethnicity they're from, unless I can't tell, in which case, Asian. Pretty much everyone else does that too.

That said, it's usually limited to people from Southeast Asia - never heard of it being applied to folks from the Indian Subcontinent

 

[Arakasi]

Most people in my country refer to those who appear to be Asain as, well Asian.
I generally try to be more specific, I.e. Korean if they are korean, Japanese if they're from Japan, etc.

 

[SwagLordYoloson]

By their last name. Their first name if you're close to them.

This guy just owned this shit, good work

 

[Li Mu]

Asian.

But it's better than when I lived in China and Japan where every white person was called American. It made me want to punch people in the face.
The entire Caucasian race is classed as American...that's pretty damn racist!

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

When i lived in the north of England 'Asian' Pretty much meant from India or there abouts. Makes sense given the large number of immigrants from the region.
Here in Glasgow though 'Asian' generally means from East Asia - China, Japan etc but can include those from India.

However if im actually talking to someone or about a specific thing, i'll try learn the actual country that they/it are from.

 

[infohippie]

Here in Australia we would normally just say "Asian". This usually refers to East Asians, but most everybody understands it to refer to the rest of Asia too, such as India and Pakistan.

 

[SamuelT]

As SckizoBoy mentioned, here in the UK "Asian" on it's own is usually taken to mean someone from the Indian Subcontinent rather than someone from the rest of Asia, who will normally just be referred to as "Chinese" or "Turkish" etc depending on where they come from. There are exceptions though, in Exeter where I study "Asian" takes on the U.S. meaning of an East Asian person since there are so many of them here compared to relatively few of any other ethnic minority.

If I want to be specific, I usually use "South Asian" and "East Asian" to avoid any confusion.

Also inb4 any silly "we call them people" replies. Describing a dark-browned skinned person as "black" is no more dehumanising or separatist than someone describing me as "male" or "brown-eyed", it's a physical attribute.

I'm just nitpicking now...

But did you just indicate people of Turkish descent are Asian? 0_o

 

[Puddleknock]

As others have pointed out in the UK 'Asian' means people from the Indian Subcontinent, or least on the ethnicity forms it does.

I've never known what to put on those damn forms. I'm part white part South East Asian, but that is not an option on the forms. There is mixed white/chinese or mixed white/asian (which I assume means mixed white/Indian subcontient), no mixed white/other part of Asia. So I just put UK white and be done with it.

Interestingly enough the term Asian food does not mean Indian food (which would be called Indian food or just curry), Asian food can mean pretty much any food in eastern Asia. A little inconsistent but hey that's language for you.