"necoandjeff" <spam@schrepfer.com> wrote in message
news:kpk0d.13892$QJ3.8005@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com...
> "Musashi" <Miyamoto@Hosokawa.co.jp> wrote in message
> news:gfj0d.9584$ZC7.1446@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com...
> >
> > "Kevin Gowen" <kgowenNOSPAM@myfastmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:2qcmltFtp9kgU3@uni-berlin.de...
> > > Curt Fischer wrote:
> > >
> > > > necoandjeff wrote:
> > > >
> > > >>"Musashi" <Miyamoto@Hosokawa.co.jp> wrote in message
> > > >>news:%610d.14217$FV3.7873@newssvr17.news.prodigy.com...
> > > >>>"Just for your information, the term Eskimo is now considered
> > > >>>derogatory and has been
> > > >>>replaced by the more acceptable term Inuit. Eskimo is used in this
> > > >>>website only as a reference
> > > >>>term for our international customers who may not be aware of the
term
> > > >>>Inuit."
> > > >>
> > > >>On the scale of racially derogatory terms, where the "N" word is at
> > > >>the high end (i.e. the most widely understood to be derogatory), I
> > > >>think the word Eskimo would be at the low end, below even the words
> > > >>Oriental and Black (both of which are still widely used) but
probably
> > > >>a little bit higher than the word White.
> > > >>
> > > >>Jeff
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > What's so offensive about "Black"?  Is it the unneeded capital
letter?
> > >
> > > I never understood the big deal about "oriental", either. Neither does
> > > my oriental wife.
> > >
> > > The New York Times demonstrated its attention to ethnic sensitivities
> > > yesterday:
> > > http://tinyurl.com/5lvha
> > > "All of this adulation because Liu Xiang, a high hurdler, has proved
> > > what many Chinese have long felt was not possible: that yellow men can
> > > jump, and sprint, too."
> > >
> > > Three cheers for yellow men! (and monkeys!)
> >
> > I have never understood this either. I consider myself an oriental, a
> > touyoujin (東洋人） as do all
> > Japanese people.
>
> But the question is whether oriental is an appropriate translation for 東
洋
> 人. I suspect that whether you consider yourself Oriental or Asian has a
lot
> to do with the English and region you have been exposed to. I would be
> surprised if a 東洋人 who has spent any significant time recently in
> California referred to themselves as Oriental, for example. You might be
> more comfortable considering yourself Oriental if you have spent time in
the
> Midwest or the South, or if your primary exposure to English was several
> decades ago.

I see your point. But I was not thinking so much in terms of being
influenced by the
surrounding area, but in the case of a Japanese person who arrives in LA for
example
and hears himself being refered to as an "asian". I think that if he or she
were called
"Japanese" or "Oriental" it would make more sense. I think that many if not
most
Japanese people in Japan when hearing アジア人　would think of people on the
Asian continent.

> The word Oriental comes from Orient which originally meant to
> point toward the east. Geographically it used to refer to what we now call
> the Middle East, plus Iran.
>

Yes, I saw the movie Lawrence of Arabia and I am aware that in England at
least "orient"
meant the "near east". The term WOG means Wiley Oriental Gentleman, no?
In the US of course the term "orient" meant the Far East, China and
vicinity.

> > And since Japanese generally think in terms of nihonjin and
> > gaikokujin
>
> Yes, and as everyone here probably already knows, gaikokujin or gaijin has
> nothing whatsoever to do with your citizenship or nationality. It simply
> means non-Japanese, or sometimes a little more specifically non-Asian,
> primarily white people, regardless of where you happen to be. The throngs
of
> Japanese walking around Europe and the United States referring to everyone
> around them as "gaijin" should put to rest any notion that this word
> actually means "foreigner."
>
> > and in terms
> > of Touyoujin and Seiyoujin
>
> Don't forget the other major classification: 黒人. I doubt that European
and
> American blacks are thought of by most Japanese as being 西洋人. And I
think
> Southeast Asians are a separate category as well that wouldn't fit into 東
洋
> 人, which I think refers generally to East Asians.
>

That is true, 黒人　are not considered 西洋人with the possible exception
of アフリカ系米国人　as Black GIs have been around in Japan for the last 60
years.
Also as you say Filipinos, Thai, Indonesians, etc aren't generally
considered
東洋人 but rather　アジア人。

ムサシ