See ILLEGAL ALIEN.
Caution. Not a synonym for white. Refers to the best high school and college athletes of the year. See CAUCASIAN; EXOTIC; FOREIGN-NESS; YELLOW SKIN.
A citizen, native-born or naturalized, of the United States. Some immigration advocates consider legal residents, who are taxpayers making the United States their permanent home, to be, in effect, Americans, as well. Not a synonym for white. See ASIA; ASIAN; ASIAN, U.S. Census definition of; ETHNIC GROUP; ETHNICITY, mention of; HAPA; ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS; PACIFIC ISLANDER; RACE, biological basis of; RACE, sociological construct of; RACISM, scientific.
The West Coast counterpart to Ellis Island in New York Harbor. A holding area in the San Francisco Bay, Angel Island was established in 1910 to clear Chinese and other Asian immigrants. During World War II, Japanese Americans were confined on the island. See EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066; INTERNMENT.
Derived from the Sanskrit “arya,” or “noble.” In scholarly usage, a member of a people speaking one of a family of Indo-European languages, the presumed predecessor of much later languages spoken in Europe and the Indian subcontinent. In the late 19th century, the term became part of the anti-Semitic ideology that led to Nazism. In the modern usage of white supremacists, an Aryan is a non-Jewish white person, especially of Scandinavian heritage. See CAUCASIAN; IRAN (“Land of the Aryans”); RACISM, history of; RACISM, scientific; YELLOW SKIN, Asian-ness of.
Caution, vague. About 60 percent of the world’s population, approaching 4 billion people (2012 estimate). Traditionally, EAST ASIA consists of China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and occasionally, the Philippines. SOUTH ASIA traditionally consists of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. SOUTHEAST ASIA (which is occasionally combined with East Asia) includes Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In American usage, “Asian” is generally used to refer to the entire continent of Asia; often, however, Asian is used as shorthand for East Asians, or East and Southeast Asians. British usage generally treats the term “Asian” as referring to South Asia. See ASIA, central; ASIA historians of; ASIAN; ASIAN AMERICAN; ASIAN EXCLUSION ACTS; FOREIGN-NESS; MODEL MINORITY; ORIENTAL; YELLOW SKIN. See also listings for individual countries of Asia.
Caution, vague. It includes Mongolia, but what else the term includes has varied over time. Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), a German naturalist, helped popularize the term and included large parts of Russia, Iran and Afghanistan. Others disputed his methodology. A more modern definition would include Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. See MONGOLIA.
ASIA, historians of:
There are many leading historians of Asia. These are a few. Most have centered their work on Japan, India and China. The Middle East, through Christianity and Islam, has also influenced Asia. On China: John King Fairbank (http://goo.gl/BYYjE), Jonathan Fenby (http://goo.gl/kWzLJ), Jonathan Spence (http://goo.gl/QWJwk). On Japan: Edwin O. Reischauer (http://goo.gl/GhBtg). On India: John Keay (http://goo.gl/OF2lq). On the Middle East: Bernard Lewis (http://goo.gl/4zc61) and Edward Said (http://goo.gl/A75bw). On Asian Americans: Ronald Takaki (http://goo.gl/dNkcT).
ASIA, perceptions of:
In the half-century since the end of colonialism in the 1960s, the Western view of Asia as economically underdeveloped has changed sharply. Nowhere is that change more vivid than in China, which has transformed from impoverished Cold War enemy to a major lender to the United States. In the past, such economic changes have led to racially charged tensions. See also JAPAN, FU MANCHU, SOUTH KOREA, YELLOW PERIL and individual entries for countries.
ASIA, use and abuse of images from: Caution. The Taj Mahal; the Ganges River; the Great Wall of China; pagodas; the cheongsam (traditional Chinese dress); the conical hat worn in Vietnam and elsewhere; rice paddies; rickshaws; samurais; geishas; Kabuki chara