[The people have spoken]

From Wikipedia (Orient): Because of historical discrimination against Chinese and Japanese, in some parts of the United States, some people consider the term [Oriental] derogatory. For example, Washington state prohibits the word “Oriental” in legislation and government documents, preferring the word “Asian” instead.

[KarlInOhio]

From Wikipedia (Orient): Because of historical discrimination against Chinese and Japanese, in some parts of the United States, some people consider the term [Oriental] derogatory. For example, Washington state prohibits the word “Oriental” in legislation and government documents, preferring the word “Asian” instead.

Still silly. Asian can describe anyone from Turkey to Signapore, from Israel to Japan. Also this introduces the confusion in English where in the US Asian is now a code word for Eastern Asian (Japanese through Indonesian) while in Britain it is a code word for Indians and Pakistanis.

[Chuckster]

My Japanese friend tells me that “People are Asian. Carpets are oriental.”