{"history":[],"article":{"id":"f4cdf24e-c6b3-4abe-b108-a7158078348f","title":"Orient","slug":"orient","content":":::summary\n:::\n\n# \nThe **Orient** is a term referring to the East in relation to [Europe](https://bliptext.com/articles/europe), traditionally comprising anything belonging to the [Eastern world](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-world).\nIt is the antonym of the term [Occident](https://bliptext.com/articles/occident), which refers to the [Western world](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-world).\nIn English, it is largely a [metonym](https://bliptext.com/articles/metonym) for, and coterminous with, the continent of [Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia) – loosely classified into Southwest [Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia), Southeast [Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia), South [Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia), Central [Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia), East [Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia), and sometimes including the [Caucasus](https://bliptext.com/articles/caucasus).\nOriginally, the term Orient was used to designate only the [Near East](https://bliptext.com/articles/near-east), but later its meaning evolved and expanded, designating also Central Asia, Southwest Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, or the [Far East](https://bliptext.com/articles/far-east).\nThe term **oriental** is often used to describe objects and people coming from the Orient/eastern Asia.\n# [300x300px | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/1800///Wilkinson///Map///of///the///4///Eastern///Churches///rectified.jpg]\n\n# Etymology\nThe term \"Orient\" derives from the [Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin-language) word oriens, meaning \"east\" (lit. \"rising\" < orior \" rise\").\nThe use of the word for \"rising\" to refer to the east (where the sun rises) has analogues from many languages: compare the terms \"Arevelk\" in (Armenian Arevelk means \"East\" or \"Sunrise\"), \"[Levant](https://bliptext.com/articles/levant)\" (< French levant \"rising\"), \"Vostok\" (< Russian voskhod \"sunrise\"), \"[Anatolia](https://bliptext.com/articles/anatolia)\" (< Greek anatole), \"mizrah\" in [Hebrew](https://bliptext.com/articles/hebrew) (\"zriha\" meaning sunrise), \"sharq\" (< Arabic **' يشرق \"rise\", '** \"rising\"), \"shygys\" (< Kazakh shygu \"come out\"), (< Turkish doğmak to be born; to rise), \"xavar\" (meaning east), (, a pictograph of the sun rising behind a tree ) and \"[The Land of the Rising Sun](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-land-of-the-rising-sun)\" to refer to Japan.\nIn Arabic, the [Mashriq](https://bliptext.com/articles/mashriq) literally means \"the sunrise\", \"the east\", the name is derived from the verb sharaqa ( \"to shine, illuminate, radiate\" and \"to rise\"), from sh-r-q root (ش-ر-ق), referring to the east, where the sun rises.\nHistorically, the Mashriq was the southern part of the Eastern Roman Empire.\nMany ancient temples, including [pagan temples](https://bliptext.com/articles/paganism), [Hindu temples](https://bliptext.com/articles/hindu-temple), [Buddhist temples](https://bliptext.com/articles/buddhist-temple), [Jain temples](https://bliptext.com/articles/jain-temple), and the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, were built with their main entrances facing the East.\nThis tradition was [carried on in Christian churches](https://bliptext.com/articles/orientation-of-churches).\nThe opposite term \"[Occident](https://bliptext.com/articles/occident)\" derives from the [Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin-language) word occidens, meaning west (lit. setting < occido fall/set).\nThis term meant the west (where the sun sets) but has fallen into disuse in English, in favour of \"[Western world](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-world)\".\n# [Administrative Dioceses of the Roman Empire, c. 300, including the original Diocese of the Orient | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Roman///Empire///with///dioceses///in///300///AD.png]\n\n# History of the term\nTerritorialization of the Roman term Orient occurred during the reign of emperor [Diocletian](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocletian) (284–305), when the [Diocese of the Orient](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocese-of-the-orient) ([Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin-language): Dioecesis Orientis) was formed.\nLater in the 4th century, the [Praetorian prefecture of the Orient](https://bliptext.com/articles/praetorian-prefecture-of-the-orient) ([Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin-language): Praefectura Praetorio Orientis) was also formed, including most of the [Eastern Roman Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-roman-empire), from the [Thrace](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocese-of-thrace) eastwards; its easternmost part was the original Diocese of the Orient, corresponding roughly to the [region of Syria](https://bliptext.com/articles/syria-region).\nOver time, the common understanding of \"the Orient\" has continually shifted eastwards, as European people travelled farther into Asia.\nIt finally reached the Pacific Ocean, in what Westerners came to call \"the Far East\".\nThese shifts in time and identification sometimes confuse the scope (historical and geographic) of Oriental Studies.\nYet there remain contexts where \"the Orient\" and \"Oriental\" have kept their older meanings (e.g., \"Oriental spices\" typically are from the regions extending from the Middle East to sub-continental India to Indo-China).\nTravellers may again take the [Orient Express](https://bliptext.com/articles/orient-express) train from Paris to its terminus in the European part of [Istanbul](https://bliptext.com/articles/istanbul), a route established in the early 20th century.\nIn European [historiography](https://bliptext.com/articles/historiography), the meaning of \"the Orient\" changed in scope several times.\nOriginally, the term referred to Egypt, the [Levant](https://bliptext.com/articles/levant), and adjoining areas as far west as Morocco.\nDuring the 1800s, India, and to a lesser extent China, began to displace the Levant as the primary subject of Orientalist research, while the term also appears in mid-century works to describe an appearance or perceived similarity to \"Oriental\" government or culture, such as in [Tolstoy](https://bliptext.com/articles/tolstoy)'s 1869 novel [War and Peace](https://bliptext.com/articles/war-and-peace), in which [Napoleon](https://bliptext.com/articles/napoleon), upon seeing the \"oriental beauty\" of Moscow, calls it \"That Asiatic city of the innumerable churches, holy Moscow!\", while in 1843 the American historian [William Prescott](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-h-prescott) uses the phrase \"barbaric pomp, truly Oriental\" to describe the court life of [Aztec](https://bliptext.com/articles/aztec) nobility in his history of the conquest of the [Aztec](https://bliptext.com/articles/aztec) Empire.\nAs late as 1957 [Karl Wittfogel](https://bliptext.com/articles/karl-wittfogel) included Rome and the [Incan](https://bliptext.com/articles/inca) Empire in his study of what he called [Oriental Despotism](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-despotism), demonstrating the term still carries a meaning in [Western thought](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-thought) that transcends geography.\nBy the mid-20th century, Western scholars generally considered \"the Orient\" as just East Asia, Southeast Asia, and eastern Central Asia.\nAs recently as the early 20th century, the term \"Orient\" often continued to be used in ways that included North Africa.\nToday, the term primarily evokes images of China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Mongolia, and peninsular Southeast Asia.\n\"The Orient\" being largely a cultural term, large parts of Asia—[Siberia](https://bliptext.com/articles/siberia) most notably—were excluded from the scholarly notion of \"the Orient\".\nEqually valid terms for the Orient still exist in the English language in such collocations as [Oriental studies](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-studies) (now Asian Studies in some countries).\nThe adjectival term Oriental has been used by the West to mean cultures, peoples, countries, Asian rugs, and goods from the Orient.\n\"Oriental\" means generally \"eastern\".\nIt is a traditional designation (especially when capitalized) for anything belonging to the [Orient](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-world) or \"East\" (for Asia), and especially of its [Eastern culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-culture).\nIt indicated the eastern direction in historical astronomy, often abbreviated \"Ori\".\nIn contemporary American English, Oriental usually refers to things from the parts of East Asia traditionally occupied by [East Asians](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-asian-people) and most [Central Asians](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-asians) and [Southeast Asians](https://bliptext.com/articles/southeast-asians) racially categorized as \"[Mongoloid](https://bliptext.com/articles/mongoloid)\".\nThis excludes [Jews](https://bliptext.com/articles/jewish-diaspora), Indians, [Arabs](https://bliptext.com/articles/arabs), and most other South or West Asian peoples.\nBecause of historical discrimination against Chinese, Korean and Japanese, in some parts of the United States, some people consider the term derogatory.\nFor example, [Washington State](https://bliptext.com/articles/washington-state) prohibits the word \"Oriental\" in legislation and government documents and prefers the word \"Asian\" instead.\nIn more local uses, \"oriental\" is also used for eastern parts of countries such as [Morocco's Oriental Region](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-morocco).\n\"Oriental\" may also be used as an synonym of \"eastern\", especially in [Romance languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/romance-languages).\nExamples include the \"oriental\" and \"occidental\" provinces of [Mindoro](https://bliptext.com/articles/mindoro-island) and [Negros](https://bliptext.com/articles/negros-island) in the Philippines, and the French [département](https://bliptext.com/articles/d-partement) of [Pyrénées-Orientales](https://bliptext.com/articles/pyr-n-es-orientales).\nSince the 19th century, \"orientalist\" has been the traditional term for a scholar of [Oriental studies](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-studies); however, the use in English of \"Orientalism\" to describe academic \"[Oriental studies](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-studies)\" is rare: the [Oxford English Dictionary](https://bliptext.com/articles/oxford-english-dictionary) cites only one such usage, by [Lord Byron](https://bliptext.com/articles/lord-byron) in 1812.\n\"[Orientalism](https://bliptext.com/articles/orientalism)\" is more widely used to refer to the works of the many 19th-century artists who specialized in \"Oriental\" subjects and often drew on their travels to North Africa and Western Asia.\nArtists, as well as scholars, were already described as \"Orientalists\" in the 19th century.\nIn 1978, the Palestinian-American scholar [Edward Said](https://bliptext.com/articles/edward-said) published his influential and controversial book, [Orientalism](https://bliptext.com/articles/orientalism-book), and used the term to describe a pervasive Western tradition, both academic and artistic, of prejudiced outsider interpretations of the [Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-world) and [Muslim worlds](https://bliptext.com/articles/muslim-world) that has been shaped by the attitudes of European [imperialism](https://bliptext.com/articles/imperialism) in the 18th and the 19th centuries.\n# [Late Roman Diocese of the Orient, c. 400 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Dioecesis///Orientis///400///AD.png]\n\n# Current usage\n\n## British English\nIn [British English](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-english), the term Oriental is sometimes still used to refer to people from East and Southeast Asia (such as those from China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore).\nJudges in the United Kingdom have been issued with guidelines to encourage political correctness where oriental should be avoided because it is imprecise and may be considered racist or offensive.\n\"Asian\" in Great Britain sometimes refers to people who come specifically from [South Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-asia) (in particular Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Iran, and Afghanistan), since [British Asians](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-asians) as a whole make up approximately 9.3% of the population within the United Kingdom, and people of an ethnically [South Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-asia)n background comprise the largest group within this category.\n\"Orientals\" refers exclusively to people of East and Southeast Asian origin, who constitute approximately 0.7% of the UK population as a whole.\nOf these, the majority are of Chinese descent.\nOrient is also a word for the lustre of a fine [pearl](https://bliptext.com/articles/pearl).\nHong Kong, a former British colony, has been called \"Pearl of the Orient\" along with Shanghai.\nIn the UK, and much of the commonwealth, it is not considered a pejorative term, with many East Asian people choosing to use it themselves - notably in the names of East Asian businesses such as restaurants and takeaway outlets.\nPeople in the United Kingdom from [Southwest Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/southwest-asia), [Asia Minor](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia-minor) and [Near East](https://bliptext.com/articles/near-east) are often referred to by the term, \"Middle Eastern\".\nThese can include Arabs, Kurds, Turks, Assyrians, West Asian Armenians, Yezidis, Egyptians (including Copts), Syriac Arameans, Mandeans, Shabakis and Turvomans among others.\nIn some specific contexts, for example the carpet and rug trade, the older sense of \"oriental\" to cover not just East Asia but [Central Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-asia), [South Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-asia) and [Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey) may still be used; an [Oriental rug](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-rug) may come from any of these areas.\n\n## American English\nThe term Oriental may sound dated or even be seen as a [pejorative](https://bliptext.com/articles/pejorative), particularly when used as a noun.\n[John Kuo Wei Tchen](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-kuo-wei-tchen), director of the Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program and Institute at [New York University](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-university), said the basic criticism of the term began in the U.S. during a cultural shift in the 1970s.\nHe has said: \"With the U.S.A. [anti-war movement](https://bliptext.com/articles/anti-war-movement) in the '60s and early '70s, many Asian Americans identified the term 'Oriental' with a Western process of racializing Asians as forever opposite 'others, by making a distinction between \"Western\" and \"Eastern\" ancestral origins.\nThis is particularly relevant when referring to lands and peoples not associated with the historic \"Orient\": outside of the former Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire and Sasanian Empire (Persia), including the former [Diocese of the Orient](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocese-of-the-orient), as well as others lands sharing cultural legacies with the [Oriental Orthodox churches](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-orthodox-churches) and [Oriental Catholic Churches](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-catholic-churches).\nIn contrast, regions of Asia further East, outside of the cultural domination of Abrahamic religions, do not share these same historical associations, giving way for the term \"oriental\" to have different connotations.\nIn 2016, President [Obama](https://bliptext.com/articles/barack-obama) signed New York Congresswoman [Grace Meng](https://bliptext.com/articles/grace-meng)'s legislation H.R. 4238 replacing the word with Asian American in federal law.\n# [Harem Pool by the Orientalist painter Jean-Léon Gérôme c. 1876; nude women in harem or bathing settings are a staple of much Orientalist painting | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/HaremPool.jpg]\n\n## China\nThe Chinese word 东方 is translated as \"oriental\" in the official English names of several entities, e.g. [Oriental Art Center](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-art-center), [Oriental Movie Metropolis](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-movie-metropolis).\nIn other cases, the same word is more literally translated as \"eastern\", e.g. [China Eastern Airlines](https://bliptext.com/articles/china-eastern-airlines).\n\n## Uruguay\nThe official name of [Uruguay](https://bliptext.com/articles/uruguay) is Oriental Republic of [Uruguay](https://bliptext.com/articles/uruguay), the adjective Oriental refers to the geographic location of the country, east of the [Uruguay](https://bliptext.com/articles/uruguay) River.\nThe term Oriental is also used as Uruguay's [demonym](https://bliptext.com/articles/demonym), usually with a formal or solemn connotation.\nThe word also has a deep historical meaning as a result of its prolonged use in the region, since the 18th century it was used in reference to the inhabitants of the [Banda Oriental](https://bliptext.com/articles/banda-oriental), the historical name of the territories that now compose the modern nation of Uruguay.\n\n## German\nIn German, Orient is usually used synonymously with the area between the [Near East](https://bliptext.com/articles/near-east) and East Asia, including [Israel](https://bliptext.com/articles/israel), the [Arab world](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-world), and [Greater Persia](https://bliptext.com/articles/greater-persia).\nThe term Asiaten (English: Asians) means Asian people in general.\nAnother word for Orient in German is Morgenland (now mainly poetic), which literally translates as \"morning land\".\nThe antonym \"Abendland\" (rarely: \"Okzident\") is also mainly poetic, and refers to (Western) Europe.","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T18:56:06.039Z","updated_at":"2025-01-25T18:56:06.039Z","search_vector":"'orient':1","search_content":" \n \n\n# \nThe **Orient** is a term referring to the East in relation to [Europe](https://bliptext.com/articles/europe), traditionally comprising anything belonging to the [Eastern world](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-world).\nIt is the antonym of the term [Occident](https://bliptext.com/articles/occident), which refers to the [Western world](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-world).\nIn English, it is largely a [metonym](https://bliptext.com/articles/metonym) for, and coterminous with, the continent of [Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia) – loosely classified into Southwest [Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia), Southeast [Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia), South [Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia), Central [Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia), East [Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia), and sometimes including the [Caucasus](https://bliptext.com/articles/caucasus).\nOriginally, the term Orient was used to designate only the [Near East](https://bliptext.com/articles/near-east), but later its meaning evolved and expanded, designating also Central Asia, Southwest Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, or the [Far East](https://bliptext.com/articles/far-east).\nThe term **oriental** is often used to describe objects and people coming from the Orient/eastern Asia.\n# [300x300px | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/1800///Wilkinson///Map///of///the///4///Eastern///Churches///rectified.jpg]\n\n# Etymology\nThe term \"Orient\" derives from the [Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin-language) word oriens, meaning \"east\" (lit. \"rising\" < orior \" rise\").\nThe use of the word for \"rising\" to refer to the east (where the sun rises) has analogues from many languages: compare the terms \"Arevelk\" in (Armenian Arevelk means \"East\" or \"Sunrise\"), \"[Levant](https://bliptext.com/articles/levant)\" (< French levant \"rising\"), \"Vostok\" (< Russian voskhod \"sunrise\"), \"[Anatolia](https://bliptext.com/articles/anatolia)\" (< Greek anatole), \"mizrah\" in [Hebrew](https://bliptext.com/articles/hebrew) (\"zriha\" meaning sunrise), \"sharq\" (< Arabic **' يشرق \"rise\", '** \"rising\"), \"shygys\" (< Kazakh shygu \"come out\"), (< Turkish doğmak to be born; to rise), \"xavar\" (meaning east), (, a pictograph of the sun rising behind a tree ) and \"[The Land of the Rising Sun](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-land-of-the-rising-sun)\" to refer to Japan.\nIn Arabic, the [Mashriq](https://bliptext.com/articles/mashriq) literally means \"the sunrise\", \"the east\", the name is derived from the verb sharaqa ( \"to shine, illuminate, radiate\" and \"to rise\"), from sh-r-q root (ش-ر-ق), referring to the east, where the sun rises.\nHistorically, the Mashriq was the southern part of the Eastern Roman Empire.\nMany ancient temples, including [pagan temples](https://bliptext.com/articles/paganism), [Hindu temples](https://bliptext.com/articles/hindu-temple), [Buddhist temples](https://bliptext.com/articles/buddhist-temple), [Jain temples](https://bliptext.com/articles/jain-temple), and the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, were built with their main entrances facing the East.\nThis tradition was [carried on in Christian churches](https://bliptext.com/articles/orientation-of-churches).\nThe opposite term \"[Occident](https://bliptext.com/articles/occident)\" derives from the [Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin-language) word occidens, meaning west (lit. setting < occido fall/set).\nThis term meant the west (where the sun sets) but has fallen into disuse in English, in favour of \"[Western world](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-world)\".\n# [Administrative Dioceses of the Roman Empire, c. 300, including the original Diocese of the Orient | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Roman///Empire///with///dioceses///in///300///AD.png]\n\n# History of the term\nTerritorialization of the Roman term Orient occurred during the reign of emperor [Diocletian](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocletian) (284–305), when the [Diocese of the Orient](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocese-of-the-orient) ([Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin-language): Dioecesis Orientis) was formed.\nLater in the 4th century, the [Praetorian prefecture of the Orient](https://bliptext.com/articles/praetorian-prefecture-of-the-orient) ([Latin](https://bliptext.com/articles/latin-language): Praefectura Praetorio Orientis) was also formed, including most of the [Eastern Roman Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-roman-empire), from the [Thrace](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocese-of-thrace) eastwards; its easternmost part was the original Diocese of the Orient, corresponding roughly to the [region of Syria](https://bliptext.com/articles/syria-region).\nOver time, the common understanding of \"the Orient\" has continually shifted eastwards, as European people travelled farther into Asia.\nIt finally reached the Pacific Ocean, in what Westerners came to call \"the Far East\".\nThese shifts in time and identification sometimes confuse the scope (historical and geographic) of Oriental Studies.\nYet there remain contexts where \"the Orient\" and \"Oriental\" have kept their older meanings (e.g., \"Oriental spices\" typically are from the regions extending from the Middle East to sub-continental India to Indo-China).\nTravellers may again take the [Orient Express](https://bliptext.com/articles/orient-express) train from Paris to its terminus in the European part of [Istanbul](https://bliptext.com/articles/istanbul), a route established in the early 20th century.\nIn European [historiography](https://bliptext.com/articles/historiography), the meaning of \"the Orient\" changed in scope several times.\nOriginally, the term referred to Egypt, the [Levant](https://bliptext.com/articles/levant), and adjoining areas as far west as Morocco.\nDuring the 1800s, India, and to a lesser extent China, began to displace the Levant as the primary subject of Orientalist research, while the term also appears in mid-century works to describe an appearance or perceived similarity to \"Oriental\" government or culture, such as in [Tolstoy](https://bliptext.com/articles/tolstoy)'s 1869 novel [War and Peace](https://bliptext.com/articles/war-and-peace), in which [Napoleon](https://bliptext.com/articles/napoleon), upon seeing the \"oriental beauty\" of Moscow, calls it \"That Asiatic city of the innumerable churches, holy Moscow!\", while in 1843 the American historian [William Prescott](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-h-prescott) uses the phrase \"barbaric pomp, truly Oriental\" to describe the court life of [Aztec](https://bliptext.com/articles/aztec) nobility in his history of the conquest of the [Aztec](https://bliptext.com/articles/aztec) Empire.\nAs late as 1957 [Karl Wittfogel](https://bliptext.com/articles/karl-wittfogel) included Rome and the [Incan](https://bliptext.com/articles/inca) Empire in his study of what he called [Oriental Despotism](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-despotism), demonstrating the term still carries a meaning in [Western thought](https://bliptext.com/articles/western-thought) that transcends geography.\nBy the mid-20th century, Western scholars generally considered \"the Orient\" as just East Asia, Southeast Asia, and eastern Central Asia.\nAs recently as the early 20th century, the term \"Orient\" often continued to be used in ways that included North Africa.\nToday, the term primarily evokes images of China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Mongolia, and peninsular Southeast Asia.\n\"The Orient\" being largely a cultural term, large parts of Asia—[Siberia](https://bliptext.com/articles/siberia) most notably—were excluded from the scholarly notion of \"the Orient\".\nEqually valid terms for the Orient still exist in the English language in such collocations as [Oriental studies](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-studies) (now Asian Studies in some countries).\nThe adjectival term Oriental has been used by the West to mean cultures, peoples, countries, Asian rugs, and goods from the Orient.\n\"Oriental\" means generally \"eastern\".\nIt is a traditional designation (especially when capitalized) for anything belonging to the [Orient](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-world) or \"East\" (for Asia), and especially of its [Eastern culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/eastern-culture).\nIt indicated the eastern direction in historical astronomy, often abbreviated \"Ori\".\nIn contemporary American English, Oriental usually refers to things from the parts of East Asia traditionally occupied by [East Asians](https://bliptext.com/articles/east-asian-people) and most [Central Asians](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-asians) and [Southeast Asians](https://bliptext.com/articles/southeast-asians) racially categorized as \"[Mongoloid](https://bliptext.com/articles/mongoloid)\".\nThis excludes [Jews](https://bliptext.com/articles/jewish-diaspora), Indians, [Arabs](https://bliptext.com/articles/arabs), and most other South or West Asian peoples.\nBecause of historical discrimination against Chinese, Korean and Japanese, in some parts of the United States, some people consider the term derogatory.\nFor example, [Washington State](https://bliptext.com/articles/washington-state) prohibits the word \"Oriental\" in legislation and government documents and prefers the word \"Asian\" instead.\nIn more local uses, \"oriental\" is also used for eastern parts of countries such as [Morocco's Oriental Region](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-morocco).\n\"Oriental\" may also be used as an synonym of \"eastern\", especially in [Romance languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/romance-languages).\nExamples include the \"oriental\" and \"occidental\" provinces of [Mindoro](https://bliptext.com/articles/mindoro-island) and [Negros](https://bliptext.com/articles/negros-island) in the Philippines, and the French [département](https://bliptext.com/articles/d-partement) of [Pyrénées-Orientales](https://bliptext.com/articles/pyr-n-es-orientales).\nSince the 19th century, \"orientalist\" has been the traditional term for a scholar of [Oriental studies](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-studies); however, the use in English of \"Orientalism\" to describe academic \"[Oriental studies](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-studies)\" is rare: the [Oxford English Dictionary](https://bliptext.com/articles/oxford-english-dictionary) cites only one such usage, by [Lord Byron](https://bliptext.com/articles/lord-byron) in 1812.\n\"[Orientalism](https://bliptext.com/articles/orientalism)\" is more widely used to refer to the works of the many 19th-century artists who specialized in \"Oriental\" subjects and often drew on their travels to North Africa and Western Asia.\nArtists, as well as scholars, were already described as \"Orientalists\" in the 19th century.\nIn 1978, the Palestinian-American scholar [Edward Said](https://bliptext.com/articles/edward-said) published his influential and controversial book, [Orientalism](https://bliptext.com/articles/orientalism-book), and used the term to describe a pervasive Western tradition, both academic and artistic, of prejudiced outsider interpretations of the [Arab](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-world) and [Muslim worlds](https://bliptext.com/articles/muslim-world) that has been shaped by the attitudes of European [imperialism](https://bliptext.com/articles/imperialism) in the 18th and the 19th centuries.\n# [Late Roman Diocese of the Orient, c. 400 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Dioecesis///Orientis///400///AD.png]\n\n# Current usage\n\n## British English\nIn [British English](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-english), the term Oriental is sometimes still used to refer to people from East and Southeast Asia (such as those from China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore).\nJudges in the United Kingdom have been issued with guidelines to encourage political correctness where oriental should be avoided because it is imprecise and may be considered racist or offensive.\n\"Asian\" in Great Britain sometimes refers to people who come specifically from [South Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-asia) (in particular Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Iran, and Afghanistan), since [British Asians](https://bliptext.com/articles/british-asians) as a whole make up approximately 9.3% of the population within the United Kingdom, and people of an ethnically [South Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-asia)n background comprise the largest group within this category.\n\"Orientals\" refers exclusively to people of East and Southeast Asian origin, who constitute approximately 0.7% of the UK population as a whole.\nOf these, the majority are of Chinese descent.\nOrient is also a word for the lustre of a fine [pearl](https://bliptext.com/articles/pearl).\nHong Kong, a former British colony, has been called \"Pearl of the Orient\" along with Shanghai.\nIn the UK, and much of the commonwealth, it is not considered a pejorative term, with many East Asian people choosing to use it themselves - notably in the names of East Asian businesses such as restaurants and takeaway outlets.\nPeople in the United Kingdom from [Southwest Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/southwest-asia), [Asia Minor](https://bliptext.com/articles/asia-minor) and [Near East](https://bliptext.com/articles/near-east) are often referred to by the term, \"Middle Eastern\".\nThese can include Arabs, Kurds, Turks, Assyrians, West Asian Armenians, Yezidis, Egyptians (including Copts), Syriac Arameans, Mandeans, Shabakis and Turvomans among others.\nIn some specific contexts, for example the carpet and rug trade, the older sense of \"oriental\" to cover not just East Asia but [Central Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-asia), [South Asia](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-asia) and [Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey) may still be used; an [Oriental rug](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-rug) may come from any of these areas.\n\n## American English\nThe term Oriental may sound dated or even be seen as a [pejorative](https://bliptext.com/articles/pejorative), particularly when used as a noun.\n[John Kuo Wei Tchen](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-kuo-wei-tchen), director of the Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program and Institute at [New York University](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-university), said the basic criticism of the term began in the U.S. during a cultural shift in the 1970s.\nHe has said: \"With the U.S.A. [anti-war movement](https://bliptext.com/articles/anti-war-movement) in the '60s and early '70s, many Asian Americans identified the term 'Oriental' with a Western process of racializing Asians as forever opposite 'others, by making a distinction between \"Western\" and \"Eastern\" ancestral origins.\nThis is particularly relevant when referring to lands and peoples not associated with the historic \"Orient\": outside of the former Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire and Sasanian Empire (Persia), including the former [Diocese of the Orient](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocese-of-the-orient), as well as others lands sharing cultural legacies with the [Oriental Orthodox churches](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-orthodox-churches) and [Oriental Catholic Churches](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-catholic-churches).\nIn contrast, regions of Asia further East, outside of the cultural domination of Abrahamic religions, do not share these same historical associations, giving way for the term \"oriental\" to have different connotations.\nIn 2016, President [Obama](https://bliptext.com/articles/barack-obama) signed New York Congresswoman [Grace Meng](https://bliptext.com/articles/grace-meng)'s legislation H.R. 4238 replacing the word with Asian American in federal law.\n# [Harem Pool by the Orientalist painter Jean-Léon Gérôme c. 1876; nude women in harem or bathing settings are a staple of much Orientalist painting | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/HaremPool.jpg]\n\n## China\nThe Chinese word 东方 is translated as \"oriental\" in the official English names of several entities, e.g. [Oriental Art Center](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-art-center), [Oriental Movie Metropolis](https://bliptext.com/articles/oriental-movie-metropolis).\nIn other cases, the same word is more literally translated as \"eastern\", e.g. [China Eastern Airlines](https://bliptext.com/articles/china-eastern-airlines).\n\n## Uruguay\nThe official name of [Uruguay](https://bliptext.com/articles/uruguay) is Oriental Republic of [Uruguay](https://bliptext.com/articles/uruguay), the adjective Oriental refers to the geographic location of the country, east of the [Uruguay](https://bliptext.com/articles/uruguay) River.\nThe term Oriental is also used as Uruguay's [demonym](https://bliptext.com/articles/demonym), usually with a formal or solemn connotation.\nThe word also has a deep historical meaning as a result of its prolonged use in the region, since the 18th century it was used in reference to the inhabitants of the [Banda Oriental](https://bliptext.com/articles/banda-oriental), the historical name of the territories that now compose the modern nation of Uruguay.\n\n## German\nIn German, Orient is usually used synonymously with the area between the [Near East](https://bliptext.com/articles/near-east) and East Asia, including [Israel](https://bliptext.com/articles/israel), the [Arab world](https://bliptext.com/articles/arab-world), and [Greater Persia](https://bliptext.com/articles/greater-persia).\nThe term Asiaten (English: Asians) means Asian people in general.\nAnother word for Orient in German is Morgenland (now mainly poetic), which literally translates as \"morning land\".\nThe antonym \"Abendland\" (rarely: \"Okzident\") is also mainly poetic, and refers to (Western) Europe.","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}