Origin of Everything

[intro music] (host) When did we start and is it wrong to still say "Oriental?"

We've all heard the word "Oriental," but it's probably safe to assume that, when the word pops up in conversation today, it's more likely referring to an object, like Oriental rugs, or the train line, the Orient Express, rather than to individual people or broader ethnic groups.

But outside of providing a word for the decorations in your great-aunt Ethel's parlor, or a setting for an Agatha Christie murder mystery, the word "Oriental" wasn't always such a rare occurrence.

In fact, it was only in 2009 and 2016 that former Governor Paterson of New York and President Obama had the word "Oriental" stricken from both New York State and federal laws, respectively.

And in the case of the removal of "Oriental" from federal laws in 2016, the bill was passed unanimously in both the House and the Senate.

And, since we all know how rare bipartisan support actually is, it was pretty clear that this term had to go.

So, when did this outdated identifier get changed, and why?

Well, to start off, we should first ask ourselves: What is the origin of the word "oriental," and how has it been used?

Well, the word "oriental" has a very long history, and was originally used to indicate countries or regions by direction.

So, "Orient" was the term for countries of the East, while "occident" referred to countries of the West, namely Europe, before later expanding to include countries in North America.

And "Occident," which has an even-less frequent use in the modern lexicon, and "Orient" have both been in use since the 14th century.

But the original use of "Oriental" wasn't limited only to countries such as China, Japan, and Korea, but included most countries east of Europe, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

So, that's how regions got names like the "Middle East" or the "Far East," because Europe was taken as the starting point and other countries were measured in comparison.

However, "Orient" and "Oriental" continued to be used until the 20th and 21st century and often in ways that implied racial othering or held connotations of negative difference.

But in his 1978 work, "Orientalism," scholar and theorist Edward Said notes that the Orient was not just a geographic term but also a mark of the history of colonial conquests in the Middle East, East Asia, and northern Africa.

Said writes, "The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; "it is also the place of Europe's greatest and richest "and oldest colonies, "the source of its civilizations and languages, "its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest "and most recurring images of the other.

"In addition, the Orient has helped to define Europe, "or the West, as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience."

And Professor Erika Lee, author of "Making of Asian America: a History," notes that in the late 19th through the mid 20th century in the U.S., the word "Oriental" was tied to anti-Asian sentiments, violence, and xenophobic legislation, such as the lynching of 17 Chinese migrants in California in 1871 and the Chinese Exclusion Act, which lasted from 1882 until 1943.

This rise in anti-Asian rhetoric, starting at the tail end of the 19th century, was often couched in the language of Orientalism, or the "Yellow Peril."

Although the phrase is often closely associated with the U.S., Lee traces the origin of the phrase "Yellow Peril" to German Kaiser Wilhelm II, not to be confused with the kaiser roll.

U.S. senators and European leaders expressed a misplaced panic that Oriental nations and cultures would eliminate their Western counterparts.

Professor Lee is quoted in an article for NBC saying, "The 1880s was a time when American anxieties "over the economy, race, and our place in the world "led to increased scrutiny of immigration as something harmful to the U.S." Other proponents of striking the word "Oriental" from common usage also note that it not only carries the baggage of historical harm and mistreatment, but also implies that people of East Asian descent, who are often generational U.S. citizens and resident, are not incorporated as full members of our society.

But it's important to note that not everyone is vehemently against the use of the use of "Oriental."

In her 2016 op-ed for the "LA Times," "The Term 'Oriental' Is Outdated, But Is It Racist?"

Dr. Jayne Tsuchiyama, who practices Oriental medicine, notes that "Oriental" is used frequently in her field of study.

So, while she agrees that the word is out of step with current practice, she also argues against the rebranding of her entire specialty.

And writer Kat Chow notes in her piece for NPR, "My Oriental Father: On the Words We Use To Describe Ourselves," her own mixed feelings towards the term.

On the one hand, it carries the weight of historical racism and contempt for people of East Asian cultures.

And on the other, it's still used by people of Asian descent today in ways that are not intended to be derogatory.

So, we've gotten a pretty good rundown on how the term "Oriental" arose and how it was used as a derogatory term and when it started to get phased out.

But that brings us to our final question: When did the term "Asian-American" first begin appearing in popular discourse?

Well, that occurred in the late 1960s and is credited to the late historian and activist, Yuji Ichioka, who worked in the field of Japanese-American history and was one of the founders of the UCLA Asian-American Studies Center in 1969.

In the backdrop of other struggles around questions of identity, Ichioka devised the term to promote Pan-Asian-American alliances.

The movement continued to grow throughout the 1960s and '70s, adding to the collective organizing that was already occurring around civil rights, Black power, anti-war protests, women's rights, and free speech, to name a few.

Protests on college campuses and the formation of Pan-Asian organizations, like the Asian-American Political Alliance, called for solidarity among Asian migrants and Asian-Americans from all backgrounds to promote justice.

And this movement often collaborated with other political awakenings of the same era.

Just check out our episodes on the etymology of the word "gay," how Martin Luther King, Jr., got his own holiday, the true story of Rosa Parks, and 18 as the age of adulthood in the U.S. if you want more context on how all of this ties together in the 1960s, because it's always the right time to binge-watch "Origin of Everything."

So, how does it all add up?

Well, in the case of legislation, both state and federal, the term "Oriental" is definitely out because of its connections to xenophobia and racism.

But it also still remains in use in certain specific cases because culture is very messy and evolving, and the terms that people use to describe their own identity are individual and unique.

But it's also worth pointing out here that when "Oriental" was removed from federal laws and replaced with "Asian-American" in 2016, it also included a replacement of the word "Negro" with "African-American."

"Negro" was also dropped from the U.S. Census in 2013.

So, it appears that both of these shifts are meant to indicate a hyphenated cultural understanding while eliminating language that is outdated, othering, and designed to note exclusion of certain people and cultures.

And the phasing out of "Oriental" in favor of "Asian," "Asian Pacific Islander," or "Asian American," depending on context, also allows for more cultural specificity than using a blanket term that is meant to cover every country to the east of Europe.

So, what do you think?

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