Rant about the misuse of the word "ASIAN" by Engla

bbchris

I find English people's use of th word "Asian" frightful!!!

I remember once being on British Airways from Hong Kong to London - plane is full of Chinese people. I asked the stewardess where's my vegetarian meal? SHe looks at me and apologises and says she's given them to the two Asians on board!! HUH? The whole flight is filled wth Asians!! I said who? And then said "This whole flight is filled wth Asians!", she then indicates two Pakistani women sitting further back the plane. Excuse me, those are PAKISTANI women. Apparently its racist to say "Pakistani" but ok to say "Asian". Talk about confusion for me!!

Hong Kong is a part of China, China is a part of Asia. So I would lump Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Philipinos, Taiwanese, Malaysians, Thais etc as ASIANS!

When did India and Pakistan become Asia?

When did the Middle East become Asia?

Stupid stupid.....

I used to promote myself on mp3.com as "Asian Wildflower" - which means English people would have thought I was some Arab....

I'm ASIAN! Osasma Bin Laden is NOT!
_________________
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Original Music for Original People
http://thinkingoutloud.com.hk
Possibly Hong Kong's best band....

Rev9Volts · Joined: 10 Jul 2003 Posts: 1327

http://go.hrw.com/atlas/norm_htm/asia.htm

Rev9Volts · Joined: 10 Jul 2003 Posts: 1327

This is a list of the Asian countries sorted by their Gross domestic product (GDP) at market or government official exchange rates. The data here is an estimation for the year 2005 produced by the International Monetary Fund in April 2005.

Asia is an economically diverse area; Japan accounts for nearly half of Asia's nominal GDP.

Rank World
Rank Country 2005 GDP (nominal)
millions of US dollars
— — World 44,168,157
— — Asia 11,046,708
1 2 Japan 4,571,314
2 4 People's Republic of China
2,406,021
3 10 South Korea 793,070
4 12 India 775,410
5 19 Turkey 362,461
6 21 Republic of China (Taiwan) 1 346,141
7 22 Saudi Arabia 307,770
8 26 Indonesia 276,004
9 31 Iran 196,409
10 34 Thailand 174,545
11 37 Malaysia 127,942
12 39 Israel 122,987
13 41 Singapore 116,326
14 45 United Arab Emirates 103,006
15 48 Philippines 92,586
16 51 Pakistan 90,282
17 55 Bangladesh 61,944
18 56 Kuwait 61,469
19 58 Kazakhstan 51,876
20 60 Vietnam 47,111
21 67 Qatar 31,550
22 72 Syria 25,694
24 74 Oman 25,038
23 77 Sri Lanka 22,351
25 79 Lebanon 20,699
26 81 Cyprus 17,144
27 88 Yemen 15,204
28 90 Turkmenistan 13,846
29 96 Jordan 11,928
30 99 Bahrain 11,781
31 98 Uzbekistan 11,002
32 99 Azerbaijan 10,751
33 108 Myanmar 8,867
34 114 Nepal 6,680
35 120 Brunei 5,721
36 132 Cambodia 4,583
37 135 Armenia 4,213
38 145 Tajikistan 2,338
39 147 Kyrgyzstan 2,290
40 153 Mongolia 1,400
41 159 Maldives 828
42 162 Bhutan 769
43 173 East Timor 332

chris it seems to me the

Rev9Volts · Joined: 10 Jul 2003 Posts: 1327

i duno chris according to everything i can find pakastan is in asia. mayhaps you confuse asians with orientals. people consider the places you listed as orientals. however i heard oriental is not a nice term so all countries in asian are aisens. perhaps you shoulde have corrected her and said" they are not asians they are dot heads oop rather camel jockeies"

droolymutt · Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:55 am Post subject:

I don't think North Americans have any confusion between "Middle Eastern" and "Asian"....

I'm surprised to hear you feel the English are that confused...

Could that have been an isolated incident? On the part of a dumb (or uneducated) stewardess?

droolymutt · Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 3:00 am Post subject:

Rev9Volts?

Are you on some kind of really heavy medication?

bbchris · Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 7:24 am Post subject:

No it's not an isolated incident Drooly. Just read some British newspapers and you'll see it's normal term there - English people who live outside of England dont use that meaning!

I thought India & Pakistan are on the Indian sub-continent?
Russia is both in Europe and Asia so Rev's map is a little inaccurate.

In England, they refer to Middle-Easterns and Arabs as "Asians". Which I think is damn confusing!

If someone says I'm going to travel around Asia - Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, SIngapore, PHillpines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, comes to mind.

If someone says I'm going to travel around the Middle East - Turkey, Iraq, Syria, etc. comes to mind.

Drooly, Americans DON'T have ths confusion, they are qute good and actually refer to the citizenship of people, eg an American Iraqi, Chinese, etc. Plus when North Americans say "Asian Babe" - it means a Chinese/Japanese/Singaporean/Malaysian/Korean/Thai/Phillipino hottie.

I think the British people think they are being 'non-racist' by using one term to refer to everyone non-Caucasian/African. Just annoys Asians or Orientals like me.
_________________
http://undergroundhk.com
Original Music for Original People
http://thinkingoutloud.com.hk
Possibly Hong Kong's best band....

MIKE BURN · Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 10:36 am Post subject:

droolymutt · Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 12:46 pm Post subject:

hahahaha.....!

Well, there's an excellent solution....!!!!

Just call all Middle-Easterners and Asians "Sunrisers".....

Hey - that's a VERY nice moniker, no?

Rev9Volts · Joined: 10 Jul 2003 Posts: 1327

ha ha drooler why do you ask?

waps, dagos, wetbacks, spics, frogs, kikes, limeys, carpet baggers, jigs, moobats, pinkofags, camel jockies, dot heads, i will think of more later

and "asian babes" where hottie goes without saying...