[KS] Does "the Orient" still exist?

[???]

Are "Asia" and "the Orient" really the same thing? Apparently some Americans
think so. The Middle Eastern countries and many of the old Soviet republics
are in Asia, but should we consider them Oriental? To me, the Orient seems to
include Asian countries from India eastward, but I don't think of Siberia as
being Oriental. On the other hand, some Victorian writers seem to be referring
to the Levant when they use the term "Orient." I guess by the time of my school
days in the '50s and early '60s the Orient had moved farther East. Now it appears
to have dropped off into the ocean.

Gary Rector