It’s rather Victorian, quite ethnocentric, and, as you say, not very PC.

Technically, it isn’t derogatory (at least, that’s how I feel about it, apparently it’s different in American English according to wikipedia). However, it’s somewhat outdated and actually doesn’t say much. Depending on how you use it, I could be Oriental if I were Japanese, Korean, Indian, Sri Lankan, maybe even Middle Eastern.

As @pdworkin said above me (curse you for answering before I could finish this), it’s quite outdated too.

I also just realised that the term ‘Asian descent’ is in itself technically very vague

My Asian friends tell me that things are oriental whereas people are Asian. You would use oriental to describe a building or a painting but not an Asian person. That’s what they say so I guess it’s true.

Probably not acceptable.
I don’t do it, but it does make sense to me. “Asian” is vague, Asia is massive. If you were to call someone Oriental, I would know that they aren’t Russian, Middle Eastern, Indian, Pakistani, etc. Sure this still leaves a lot of countries to pick from, but it’s a start.

Just be glad your parents aren’t calling them gooks, chinks, etc.

Your friend is Asian. Your rug (the one on the floor, that you walk on, before any of you pervs make a comment about slang) is oriental.

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Avenue Q kinda mentions this in the song Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist.

It seems as if it is not safe to call anybody anything until you research it extensively. I am not in the least bit bigoted but according to a lot of the questions asked in Fluther I would be considered a flaming racist because I don’t speak PC.

Would a person of Asian descent be offended if I referred to them as oriental, or would it just not be sufficiently specific?

@MacBean Gotta love Avenue Q!

I’m asian and it’s not offensive as long as you don’t call us chinks, ching chongs.etc…

@rooeytoo: ”Would a person of Asian descent be offended if I referred to them as oriental, or would it just not be sufficiently specific?”

Depends on the person, I’d say. I know some people who would be very offended, but it seems @MrGeneVan wouldn’t be. You probably wouldn’t actually be considered a flaming racist unless you used a term, were asked not to, and refused to comply.

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@Leanne1986: I was just in NYC last Tuesday and saw it. :D Had to get in there before it closes next month.

@MacBean silly people these days will take anything as an offensive word to get attention or start drama

You could use East Asian…

We actually had an incident at work related to this. Two employees had a disagreement and by the end of the conversation the Asian girl said, “Julie has always been prejudiced against me she calls me Oriental.” Julie explained that she uses that only to describe her if a customer is trying to figure out who was helping them. Finally, we got to that it was specifically that Julie was using Oriental and not Asian. Seemed the Asian woman took great offense to this.

Personally, I think the Asian girl should have just corrected Julie a long time ago, that’s what I do if someone uses a derogatory word around me, I don’t assume they are prejudiced, just maybe ignorant about what they are saying, and don’t even realize is might be offensive.

In the US we use Asian synonomously with Oriental, but really Asia is a BIG continent, includes the middle east, parts of Russia I think?? India. My geography skills aren’t great.

Nobody ever wanted to see Murder on the Asian Express.

When I was a kid, in my family, we always referred to Asians as Orientals. It wasn’t until I started meeting Asian kids that I realized that “Asian” is generally preferred over “Oriental.” So, I know that when people close to me say Oriental, they do not mean anything derogatory, but I have switched to “Asian.” I think that part of the problem with the term Oriental is that it has connotations of European imperialism, especially the colonizing of Asian lands. I agree with @pdworkin that it is something of an ethnocentric term, since it refers to a way of looking at directions (or geographical orientation) where Europe is the center of everything and all else is seen in relation to it. Rugs can still be Oriental, though!

@NaturalMineralWater That is my understanding too, but I have always thought it polite to refer to people in the way they like, like not calling Harold Hal uness he asks you to. Most people I know think they shouldn’t be primarily by their ethnicity but the consensus is Oriental has to do with things. Never mind, how would I know, I’ve only lived in San Francisco for 30 years.

I like being referred to as Asian better. Being in Ohio (cultural center of the known Universe) there is still the occasional person (read fool) who will actually ask me “Are you a JapaNeez or a Chinaman? Kind of irritating. I tend to think of Oriental relating to objects and Asian referring to people too.

@majorrich http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I622QkXLk-Y

LOL

The idea that “Oriental” is only used to refer to “non-human” objects is a uniquely American contrivance.

We in the rest of the world pour scorn in the general direction of their idiotic and self-defeating “racial” version of the euphemism treadmill.

“Oriental”, today, is generally taken to mean East Asian.
“Asian” is a yet more absurdly general term, which refers to anyone from Asia.
That means most of the people in the world.

Here, I attach an excerpt from this morning’s group email from my good friend, Dan Wong, our new President of the Chinese Society of Sheffield:
Guys, only two more days left till our biggest event this week! ChiSoc’s VERY FIRST out of city TRIP. We will be taking you out to Kream Entertainments ORIENTAL FRESHERS PARTY. Kream is a veteran when it comes to providing the oriental population in Birmingham with some of the most fun nights out. This will be their 5th year doing a freshers party and this time Sheffield ChiSoc is going in for a piece of the action!

But yeah, in America you should carry a pocketbook of ‘terms presently considered offensive’, else you may accidentally become a racist.