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OrientalThe Orient is a term traditionally used to refer to Near, Middle and Far Eastern countries. The term is derived from the Latin word oriens, which is the present participle of "orior": to rise. The implication is the rising sun, hence the use of orient to describe the "land of the rising sun", ie the Far East. The opposite term "Occident" - derived from the Latin word occidens, from the verb "occido": I fall - was once used to describe the western world, ie the "land of the falling (setting) sun", but has fallen into disuse. "Oriental" is sometimes used by certain regions in the West as a term to describe people, cultures and goods from the Orient. For example, Mizrahi Jews (native to the Middle East) are often referred to as Oriental Jews and the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies focuses on the Middle East, East Asia and Africa. Oriental is also used as an adjective akin to "eastern": for example, the Philippine island Mindoro is divided into two provinces whose titles include the words "oriental" and "occidental" respectively. Traditionally, the Orient referred primarily to the cultures and countries of what are now considered Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Western Asia. This particularly included Persia, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Egypt. As awareness of the countries of Eastern Asia grew in Western European and American consciousness in the late 19th century, the term came to refer primarily to China, Japan, and the surrounding nations. Remnants of the older conception of the Orient still exist in the English language in such collocations as "Oriental rug" and "Oriental harem". In popular usage, the Orient is most often used in reference to the countries of East Asia, including China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, and sometimes the rest of Southeast Asia. The term "Oriental" refers to people, goods and culture from those areas. Asian countries such as India, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka are no longer generally considered by some people to be part of the Orient. Some people think the term "Oriental" is derogatory, largely because of its connection to imperial 19th century Europeans and Americans who are thought to have held a patronising attitude towards the region. Many of these people saw the East as backwards, while the West was seen as logical, rational and more modern. Furthermore, it is claimed that some courses in "Oriental studies" were riddled with inaccurate information that was used to justify colonization of these countries. Some Asian Americans see parallels between the word "oriental" and "nigger", though many see it as simply old-fashioned and functionless, as many African Americans see the word "Negro". The main criticism of the term is that it is overly vague, referring to a category of peoples with widely divergent cultural and ethnic backgrounds and no clear division between which groups belong to the term and which do not. In the USA, the location where most of the objections to usage of "oriental" occur when describing people, the term is often replaced with "Asian", which is also criticised as overly vague and confusing. Check out the following recipes that are tagged "Oriental":
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