Our new World

In Praise of the real East

While watching an old episode of I Love Lucy from the 1950s in which the Ricardos travel to Japan, the words Oriental and Orient were regularly used.

I have not seen these terms in print for a long time, and a quick check with Wikipedia shows that they are now considered derogatory if not outright racial slurs.

So what has replaced them? Not the equally old usage of Far East. It too has become passe as China, Japan and South Korea are no longer -- in the jet age - 'far, far away' and, economically speaking,are central to the world's economy.

Instead, what is being used are the words Asia and Asian -- in spite of the fact that Asia (i.e., the land mass east of the Ural Mountains) not only includes China, Japan,and the 2 Koreas but also 3/4 of Russia,Pakistan,India, Turkey and many, many more countries.

To me, using the terms Asia and Asian with such 'looseness' is irrational --whether discussing economics, trade or culture. The area east of the Ural Mountains is too vast and socially diverse. To refer to any or all these groups with the same 'Asian' term is to reduce clarity and distort and confuse what is being said or written. And this in particularly true when referring to countries of distinct Chinese-Japanese-Korean descent and culture. After all, these 4 countries alone account for 1 in 5 humans on the planet!

So what better, more precise terms should be used-- which makes clear the related ethnic background,overlapping value systems, religious beliefs and cultures of the old orient?

I suggest, as did a recent single line in a Globe and Mail article , the terms EAST ASIA and EAST ASIAN. These words are geographically correct and in line with the common usage of SOUTHEAST ASIA for the area of Pakistan and India.


Using precise language and classifying items is the norm in the sciences and essential everywhere.

Long live East Asia!