Source
r/ireland•
LegitCockroach

If you heard someone described as 'Asian', would you assume they were from East Asia or the Indian sub-continent?

The UK considers 'Asian' to mean from India/Pakistan etc.

I've always considered Asian to mean East Asian and I've never really noticed other Irish people assuming Indian origin.

Has this always been the case in Ireland or is it influenced by our substantial East Asian migrant population growth in recent times compared to the UK's large Indian and Pakistani population.

Posted Jan 9, 2019, 12:59 AM UTC

2169
MrBrianWeldon•

Asian means Chinese, Japanese or Korean to me for the most part. Indian means Indian.

36
Porrick•

How about Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, and the like? Or the Central Asian Republics like Kyrgyzstan?

I wonder if Russians from Vladivostok think of themselves as Asian - and if not, why not?

6
RddtKnws2MchNewAccnt•

Southeast Asian to me. Although having spent a considerable time in Asia, I generally don't use the "Asian" term, I usually aim to be more specific, if not by country, then at least by region (East Asia for me would Japan, the Korean countries and everything East of Lhasa/Tibet in China)

5
Porrick•

I guess context is important. If someone says via text "That person is Asian", I'll probably think "Somewhere East of the Indian subcontinent, but probably not Pacific Islander", unless I know for a fact that the speaker is British. I think Irish people use the term in vaguely the same way that Americans do.

3
RddtKnws2MchNewAccnt•

The question I have is do people from Nepal, India and Sri Lanka refer to themselves as Asians?

2
MrBrianWeldon•

Some are Asian to me.

2
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
AWalkInTheGraveyard•

I mean, I'm half asian and I just think both

22
Uigaedail•

which half though? east or west?

6
AWalkInTheGraveyard•

East

5
Burillo•

East half of you or East half of Asia?

17
AWalkInTheGraveyard•

what

4
[deleted]•

[deleted]

22
nkrera•

The UK considers 'Asian' to mean from India/Pakistan etc.

I always assumed that this was related to the fact that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were under British rule and a key part of the British Empire, links evolving from which led to significant Indian and Pakistani immigration to the UK in the second half of the 20th century.

That is, for several of the most recent generations of British people, the Asians they would most frequently encounter would be of Indian or Pakistani extraction or descent.

15
Amb_12•

I'm the same as you I generally take the term Asian to mean East Asian in colloquial terms.

I think using it to primarily describe people of Indian subcontinent birth or descent is a British thing.

14
hogalot•

It makes fuck all sense too. The Indian subcontinent and the rest of Asia comprise something like 60% of the world population, and are vastly different in terms of culture and ethnic constitution

3
CDfm•

Cuisine. Our experience and contact with them is usually restaurant or retail based. If it says Indian over the door of restaurants then that’s what we will call them as it’s how they describe themselves.

Same with Chinese.

Regional variations don’t really matter to us so far. I’d be hard pressed to distinguish many British accents other than the main ones of Scottish and Welsh and vaguely some English.

I’d not really have much interest in learning more.

2
Driveby_Dogboy•

great bunch of lads

13
[deleted]•

[deleted]

12
Burillo•

Quite so. Technically, i'm asian as well, since Siberia is in fact in Asia.

12
Warthog_A-10•

How did you escape the Gulag? /s

4
Burillo•

Who said i escaped it? My cellmate smuggled in a Wifi router.

8
Warthog_A-10•

Good on him :)

2
kikimaru024•

100% East-Asian. Indian/Indian sub-continent feel like a totally separate ethnicity & culture.

8
TheDunnanGall•

The ones who do the Chinese food whoever they are.

8
MrBrianWeldon•

That would be Irish.

11
RddtKnws2MchNewAccnt•

Everyone knows the best spice bags and 3-in-1s are found in the ancient city of Nanking.

7
MrBrianWeldon•

They certainly won't be found in China. Nor in real Chinese restaurant like the ones in parnell st.

1
RddtKnws2MchNewAccnt•

I think I should have added a /s there.

3
kikimaru024•

Capel St > Parnell St

Fight me.

1
CDfm•

Meat , veg , gravy = Irish stew . That’s the trick isn’t it.

1
PurpleWomat•

I get an urge to haul them along to my local asian market for a 'what the fuck does this do and how do i eat it?' shopping trip.

5
kikimaru024•

how do i eat it

With your mouth.

1
PurpleWomat•

I have discovered that many things in Asian markets do alarming things in your mouth if not carefully prepared first.

2
Nine_Hostages•

East Asia

4
Light-Hammer•

East Asia.

4
Porrick•

I confess I first think of East Asia, but technically Israelis and most Turks are Asians too.

4
Fugitiveofkarma•

Asia to me is everything after Turkey below russia and above australia

2
Burillo•

Technically, majority of Russian territory is in Asia.

4
murtpaul•

Always east Asian -- anything beyond India really -- mid and west Asians I tend to regard as being from their individual countries - and the "Middle East" doesn't really seem Asian at all. More like an extension of North Africa, and I'm never really sure about Armenia or Georgia.

2
Sultan_of_Sass•

East Asian

2
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
DarthTempus•

Oriental

1
RddtKnws2MchNewAccnt•

Isn't that an unacceptable term now?

-3†
DarthTempus•

No, sure I was only in the Oriental Emporium yesterday getting the dinner.

Why would it be an unacceptable term?

5
RddtKnws2MchNewAccnt•

Factually there is nothing wrong with the term the Orient (it just means east) , but I know for a fact Obama signed a bill making it illegal to be used in all federal documents. Rep. Grace Meng, the New York congresswoman who sponsored the legislation celebrated by saying "at long last this insulting and outdated term will be gone for good."

​

But it's like all things; given enough time, all terms become unacceptable via repeated use, just like how moron & cretin were medical terms before being replaced by handicapped and retarded which were then replaced by mental disability, which has since been replaced with whatever we are supposed to use today.

-1†
DarthTempus•

Lovely but what has Obama got to do with us?

5
SemperVenari•

That's retarded though.

0
Warthog_A-10•

The former is the first that comes to mind alright.

1
SemperVenari•

Most people don't consider that Asian means India/Pakistan. Look at any discussion on their subs about the "Asian" rape gangs and you'll see plenty of comments giving about the Orwellian newspeak. Asian used to mean East Asian, the same as it does here. There was a concerted effort to alter that in the public conciousness.

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
SemperVenari•

Neither did the Brits until relatively recently.

3
AmEirecan•

This is the thing. Cause of all the rape gangs and terrorists they started saying “Asian” on the news and in police reports instead of saying Pakistani to try calm the upset down a bit. I seen it on r/uk with links to the policy.

1
SemperVenari•

Precisely. It was a deliberate strategy

2