"Sean Holland" <seanholland@pants.telus.net> wrote in message
news:BD6BDBCF.113B7%seanholland@pants.telus.net...
> in article hNi1d.15972$ZC7.11443@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com, Musashi at
> Miyamoto@Hosokawa.co.jp wrote on 9/13/04 8:12 AM:
>
> >
> > I am not left-wing, however I too am　反天皇制　and I can't go 10
seconds
> > into listening to
> > 君が代 without falling asleep. But I find it hard to believe that there
are
> > Japanese people
> > (whose thinking hasn't been formed by the surrounding environment- as in
> > living in the US)
> > who actually prefers being called "Asian" rather than "Oriental".
> > Could you please ask your wife how she would differentiate the words 東
洋人
> > 　and
> > アジア人？？
>
> Ok, I'll ask her. My prediction is that she will say that they are the
same,
> although I may be wrong. And even if she says they are the same, I suspect
> that even for people like her there is a different nuance.
>
> Ok, I just went and asked her and it led to a 15 minute discussion. Her
> first reaction was that they are the same. She was adamant that, in
English,
> she considers herself an Asian.
> But then I asked her スリランカ人は東洋人ですか。
> ＊ああ、それは微妙ですね。その国は漢字使わない国だから多分アジア人だろう。
> ＊ベトナム人は東洋人だろうか。
> ＊そうかな。漢字を使う国だけど。
> ＊使わないと思うんだけど。
> ＊そうか。でも、東洋人だね。
> And so on. So, what I gather is that is that she and her ilk proudly
define
> themselves as Asians, and feel a great deal of sympathy with other Asians,
> but, to her, 東洋人 has a nuance of East Asia, the countries that use or
> have until recently used 漢字, whereas アジア人 is a more encompassing
term
> that even includes Iranians, although when I asked her if Iranians were ア
ジ
> ア人 she frowned and pursed her lips and uttered uncertain noises before
> saying that yes, Iranians are アジア人. So clearly アジア人 and 東洋人 are
> not equivalent for her. All 東洋人 are アジア人, but not necessarily the
> other way around. The thing about which she was unequivocal is that she, a
> Japanese, is Asian, and she thought it ridiculous that any Japanese would
> object to being referred to as such.

You prompted me to try the same with my wife. I asked her if she considers
someone from India to be a 東洋人 and she said yes without hesitation. She
added a 微妙だけど but she also emphasized again that she considers 東洋人
to be the equivalent of the American English Asian. But she seemed to be
indicating degrees of 東洋人ness so I next asked her about someone who is
Thai. There she again unhesitatingly answered yes and when I asked 完全に?
She said yes. I then explained that some people think of 東洋人 as being
limited only to China, Korea and Japan いわゆる極東アシア and her response
was へ〜〜. Although she feels a very strong affinity with Korea and she and
I both agree that Korea and Japan are almost as similar as the U.S. and
Canada in many ways, I don't think she feels a particularly strong
connection with China, particularly after observing Chinese culture as it
exists here in San Francisco.

So there you have it, the world according to Neko.

Jeff