I tell ya Watching these Olypics and Kill Bills I;m just so into the Oriental Men..I find them very Strong and Sexy....Like Bruce Lee all Cool...

Isn't the term Oriental kinda imperialistic/offensive?

J0eyC0c0 said:

I would guess so

Jet Li


Ken Watanabe


Jason Scott Lee

let's try ASIAN?

I'm pretty proud to be Filipino and of my culture, but it took a while. There weren't a lot of Asian male role models to be proud of when I was growing up. It was always looked upon as something to be ridiculed. It wasn't until I got to college where I became exposed to my culture and other Asians was I able to establish a sense of self pride. Feels good though.

Anxiety said:

there ya go

I can see Prince as an ASIAN GUY...Imagine?

I'm into the culture, but not the men.

I'm an occidental by the way.

My kids are half Filipino and they know both cultures which is great.

The word Oriental is most definitely not okay. Oriental is used to describe objects - rugs, vases, etc. People are Asian.

I know most definitely that this applies in the US, but the UK is different - they still call Asians Oriental. But for the most part, it is an offensive term.

btw, I was reading an article for my film class today, and thought this to be interesting:

"To paraphrase Vito Russo's tag line from The Celluloid Closet, there are no people of color in the mass media, there are only cartoons, caricatures and stereotypes.

...

RED: Pocahontas, braves (see tomahawk chop/Ted Turner), "the only good Indian...,"

BLACK: Butterfly McQueen, Amos 'n' Andy, the Cosby oreos shuffling over the opening credits, "Dy-no-mite!" juvenile deliquents, crackheads - the mythos of the underclass etched in granite on our tv screens.

BROWN: Chico and the Man, the Sharks (what can you say when the most sympathetic and fully realized Latino couple in film history was Anita and Bernardo in West Side Story?), Jaime Escalante and Richie Valens' martyred exceptions proving the rule.

YELLOW: Charlie Chain, Fu Manchu, Mr. Moto - all teeth and no character - did any of these creatures ever have sex? Bruce Lee's brief blaze of hot, shirtless glory; China dolls, geisha girls and dragon ladies; Connie Chung clones on the nightly news proving that Asian American women are the least threatening people of color available to mouth the platitude of the corporate U.S.

ARAB: Need we mention Rambo, Not Without My Daughter, or anything produced by Israeli movie moguls Golum/Globus? A variation on the noble savage (Omar Sharif) popped up in Lawrence of Arabia, but mostly there's soulless swarthy terrorists with AK-47s and plastic explosives. Long before Desert Storm, Arabs were made into evil incarnate in movies and television, perfectly priming us for the "new Hitler" propagande of the Gulf War."

From Paper Tiger Guide to TV Repair

...
[This message was edited Thu Aug 19 0:18:31 2004 by Natsume]

I am... (Just the cultureS and history though)

I have an aunt who has used da "oriental" phrase beforez 2 describe an Asian...within what context i won't say, it isn't bad but..it won't surprise me if it were an imperialistic term as such...anywayz.

The thing about the word "Orientalism" is that it kinda has roots in Edward Said's writing, which basically said that the term "Orientalism" was used by the Occidental West to describe the very much exoticized and fetishized "East." The problem is that most people today think of the "Orient" to mean Japan, China, Korea, when it's actually more Middle East - like Persia, Iran, etc.

Anyway, the "Orient" does NOT exist. It's very much an imperialistic term. If anyone is interested in learning more, just pick up Said's book.

Natsume said:

Said was indeed influential and makes good points, but he sees imperialism wherever he looks. His book was an attack as much on Western scholars of the East (traditionally called Orientalists) as it was on the fetishism of the East in literature and the popular imagination.

But these scholars were (and are) doing important work in translating texts and understanding the complex recorded history of the many diverse lands and peoples under their purview. Yet Said tars them all with the same imperial brush. The history of Islam and other Eastern traditiions/cultures/religions is important to the West (and in itself) precisely because of the way that the knowledge was so catholic (if I may lol), meaning all-encompassing, and how it gained steam precisely according to how successfully it disseminated as quickly and as far as it did.

Said accuses Western scholars (such as Bernard Lewis, a brilliant Orientalist) of simplifying what the Orient means (as you rightly say, Nat), but at the same time, he diminishes it even further, for political purposes, to Palestine.

Maybe I've just read to much bad PoCo writing.

But anyway...Asian women...

Anxiety said:

In the U.K. if you describe a person or group as "Asian", "Joe Bloggs" would assume you're unambiguously talking of people of South East Asian decent .i.e. Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan or Pakistani folks.

I know in the U.S., South East Asian folks don't fall under that header.

What do you guys call folks from the Indian subcontinent ?

senik said:

Wankers.

2the9s said:

Oh really. I think you may have been winding and grinding for way too long with EWM.

See ya around "pal"

senik said:

Yeah, we're going to start our own think tank.

Natsume said:

Interesting Nat

Never knew the 'term' extended or rather more accurately pigeon holed the Middle East.

Will have to look into that bud'

Zelaira said:

Keep this up and we're going to remove your account.
[This message was edited Thu Aug 19 7:13:16 2004 by CCII]

CCII said:

Exactly, we won't accept women treating us as a piece of meat!

senik said:

We call them "Indian" and the people that once occupied the US we call "Native Americans".


Now can a moderator change the offensive title of this thread.
Oriental is a rug, Asian describes the people from Asia.

CCII said:

"Oriental" makes me cringe. *shudder*

Jet Li could be my baby daddy. That Ken Watanabe is hot too!

For as long as I can remember, I've ALWAYS had Asian friends. I don't go seeking them out, either, it just happens. I took a class on Japanese culture and was the only black person in it. I took a class on Chinese cinema (I don't mean no "Crouching Tiger." These movies were in Mandarin and Cantonese, with English subtitles). I really enjoyed it. I started listening to Chinese classical music after taking this class.

I have nothing against Asian men, but I'm not turned on by them. I do love Asian culture and Asian food. I also enjoy reading books by Asian authors or books that are set in Asia. I would love to visit many of the Asian countries one day too.

Natisse said:

Slave2daGroove said:

Simple as that hey

What about the folks from the other countries in that region, the ones who are labelled as "Asian" in the U.K. ?