[KS] Does "the Orient" still exist?

[Eugene Y. Park]

Dear List Members:

It seems to me that we all more or less agree on one point: neither the 
term, "Oriental," nor "Asian" is perfect.  After all, labeling the Other 
entails so many subjectivities that one can rarely come up with a name 
that meets the needs or desires of everyone involved in the discourse-be 
it the labeling party or the party being labeled.  One can think of so 
many pairings of contrasting labels used depending on who's talking, 
whether or not the party being labeled is in presence, and other factors: 
Kankokujin/ChOsenjin, Caucasian gentleman/that white guy, and African 
American/black, just to list a few.  

When there is no perfect label for the Other, then I find it sensible to 
use the label that those falling under the Other category prefer.  At 
least based on my experience teaching and talking to English-speaking 
people of East Asian descent under age 40 and living in the U.S., the 
almost unanimous preference seems to be toward "Asian" rather than 
"Oriental."

Cheers,

Gene

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Eugene Y. Park
Assistant Professor
Department of History
200 Krieger Hall
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697
(949) 824-5275
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