 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 characters; as well as classical art, such as Hokusai’s “Great Wave” are emblematic of Asia. When used in context, such images are as essential as any other detail of reporting. When they are altered, however, problems can arise. When, for example, white political figures are dressed in a conical hat or depicted in a rickshaw in, say, an editorial cartoon criticizing U.S. dependence on China, they can suggest racial stereotypes. See FU MANCHU; DRAGON LADY; YELLOW PERIL.
Caution. A term as broad as “European.” In some usage, chiefly British, “Asian” refers to Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and others. In the United States, such ethnic groups would be known as South Asians, while Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and others would be known as East Asians. See ORIENTAL for other uses, and caution about certain uses. See ASIAN AMERICAN; SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORA.
ASIAN, Accents and direct quotation of: see DIALECT.
ASIAN, U.S. Census definition of:
On their website, federal demographers define Asian as “those having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.” Pacific Islanders are “those having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.” They note that both Asians and Pacific Islanders are “not a homogeneous group; rather, it comprises many groups who differ in language, culture, and length of residence in the United States.” (Source, “The Asian and Pacific Islander Population in the United States: March 2002: Population Characteristics.”)
Form the noun without the hyphen, as in “French Canadian.” In compound phrases, where the term is used as an adjective, a hyphen may be used, as in “French-Canadian folklore.” So, too, with Japanese American and Pakistani American. A few Asian Americans see a pejorative connotation to “Asian-American” with a hyphen, in part because of Theodore Roosevelt’s denunciatio