Asian/Oriental/etc

J Y S Czhang wrote at 2003-10-17 22:32:17 (EDT)
>
 >     It is not so much Political Correctness as geo-cultural
 > accuracy - hence the National Geographic's current policy of using
 > _Asian_ and _Asia_ versus "Oriental" and "[the] Orient."
 >
 >     Nowadays, use of the words "Oriental" and "[the] Orient"
 > smacks/smells of exoticism and "Orientalism" - European conceptions
 > and misconceptions of Asia and Asians. It also creates the false
 > dichotomy of "Orient" and "Occident."
 >

While I agree both that the dichotomy is false (as a description of
Eurasian civilization), and that "Oriental" carries too much baggage,
is _Asian_ really any better?  Hardly any useful generalization holds
across the whole of Asia, and this kind of use of the term "Asian"
doesn't, generally, refer to all of Asia, but to some specific subset
(and as we've seen, a different subset is usually implied in Britain
than in America).

Mind you, I don't have any ideas for a suitable replacement.