The Orient is a term which simply means the "east". It originated in Western Asia to describe the parts of the world that were in the "far east" of their known world at the time. It is now used in English as a metonym to describe Eastern Asia, and depending on nationality, in reference to certain Southeastern Asian minorities as well.
Welcome to CWAnswers
CWAnswers is your guide to the sprawling world wide web. The directory aims to provide a useful guide made by users. You can share your knowledge as well - simply sign up and edit your first entry. For questions just contact the team at support - at - cwanswers.com.
Weblinks for Oriental
Top 10 for Oriental
Things about Oriental you find nowhere else.
Select content modules
The Orient is a term which simply means the "east". It originated in Western Asia to describe the parts of the world that were in the "far east" of their known world at the time. It is now used in English as a metonym to describe Eastern Asia, and depending on nationality, in reference to certain Southeastern Asian minorities as well.
In the United States, Oriental refers to objects and material goods such as rugs, teapots, and party mix. In the United Kingdom, however, the term Oriental carries no pejorative connotations and describes Eastern Asian people of Chinese/Japanese/Korean descent and some Southeastern Asian groups such as Vietnamese, wheras the term Asian generally describes people of Indian/Bangladeshi/Pakistani/Sri Lankan descent. (These latter people are called South Asians in the United States.)
Derivation
The term "Orient" is derived from the Latin word oriens meaning "east" (lit. "rising" < orior "rise"). The use of the word for "rising" to refer to the east (where the sun rises) has analogs from many languages: compare the terms "Levant" (< French levant "rising"), "Anatolia" (< Greek anatole), "mizrahi" in Hebrew ("zriha" meaning sunrise), "sharq" (< Arabic yashroq "rise", shrooq "rising") and "The Land of the Rising Sun" to refer to Japan.
The opposite term "Occident" is derived from the Latin word occidens meaning "west" (lit. "setting" < "occido" "fall/set"). This term was once used to describe the West (where the sun sets) but is falling into disuse in English.
Usage of term
In time, the common understanding of 'the Orient' has continually shifted eastwards; as Europe learned of countries farther East, the defined limit of 'the Orient' shifted eastwards, until it reached the Pacific Ocean, in what Westerners came to call 'the Far East'.
Initially, the "Orient" referred primarily to the cultures and countries of what are now considered the Middle East. This particularly included regions that used to be known as Persia, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Egypt. As awareness of other Asian countries grew in European consciousness, the term often came to mean South Asia, Southeast Asia or East Asia. By the late 19th century, the term usually referred to China, Japan, Korea and surrounding nations while the British colonists frequently used it when speaking of India. Remnants of the older conception of the Orient still exist in the English language in such collocations as Oriental studies (now largely replaced by Asian studies), Oriental rug and Oriental harem. It has taken on a specific usage since the publication of Edward Said's influential book, "Orientalism" (1980).
"Oriental" has been used by the West as a term to describe cultures, countries, peoples and goods from the Orient. Oriental is also used as an adjective akin to "eastern", especially in the Spanish-speaking world. For example, the Philippine islands of Mindoro and Negros are each divided into two provinces whose titles include the words "oriental" and "occidental" respectively. The official name of Uruguay is the República Oriental del Uruguay or Oriental Republic of Uruguay because it is east of the Río de la Plata.
