Asia Vs. Oriental

[Locke]

My fellow co-worker and I had a completely random debate I whether India is considered Oriental.

His point - Oriental and Asia are one and the same; beginning in Arabia and ending in the furthest Isalnds in the East (idk the name).

My point - While I acknowledge that historically all these ppl living in the aforementioned area have been called Oriental. But that was based on a misconception made by European travelers. I believe Asia does encompassed a huge land mass from Arabia to the far eastern Asian Isl. but only those in East Asia are considered Oriental.

His sources: Merriam-webster online dictionary (proves my point) and self opinion.

My Sources: Wikipedia (proves his point, but anyone can edit that) and most importantly 2 co-workers of Indian descent (proves my point, both acknowledge they're Asia but do not consider themselves Oriental)

What are you thoughts???

[Lithium]

some +100 years ago EU used Orient term to describe Asia then later continents had their borders. asia starts from turkey to say japan.
Orient term was used mostly for the culture and the route of europe to china, following it these countries were Oriental, like turkey, india , china , japan, not sure if arabian were called oriental.
the term is old but its still in use , like oriental food etc

[moses]

Meh do not consider them oriental at all they just east indian to me hehe

and all muh brown town friends would say the same they are deffo not oriental and most hate being called asian

[Locke]

some +100 years ago EU used Orient term to describe Asia then later continents had their borders. asia starts from turkey to say japan.
Orient term was used mostly for the culture and the route of europe to china, following it these countries were Oriental, like turkey, india , china , japan, not sure if arabian were called oriental.
the term is old but its still in use , like oriental food etc

When I hear or think of Oriental food... I think of China, Japan etc...

Not Indian... Thats called Indian food

[moses]

Damn right mmmmm indian food when butter chicken and curry chicken is done right soooo damn good

[Locke]

Wikipedia source and map of Asia

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Dictionary Definition

I also just read that the term oriental maybe offensive to some ppl. If that is the case then I apologize. That was not my intent.

[Hitchkok]

"orient"="east".
as it is a Euoropean term, everything east to Europe (including russia, past the Ural mountain ridge), is originally considered oriental.
since development in travel and communication made Euoropeans more susceptible to subtler distinctions, subtler distinctions were made. now, the Indian culture is very different than the Chinese, but so is the Japanese. and most people will define both Chinese and Japanese as oriental.
to the point, both the philosophy and theology of India has much more in common with oriental traditions than with Euoropean ("western") ones.
as for oriental being offensive, i would just like to qoute something (i believe it was by richard pryor, i couldn't find the qoute by that's close):
"if the president would have walked around calling people "nigger", if he would have went in a meeting and call everyone "nigger", you could never make a 9 year old in the ghetto cry by calling him "nigger"".
my point being that people are not offended by words. they are offended by intentions behind words. and let me clarify, my intentions with using the word "nigger" was not to offend.

[Mordack]

Yes; according to Said.