TheOrient is a term referring to the East in relation toEurope, traditionally comprising anything belonging to theEastern world. It is the antonym of the termOccident, which refers to theWestern world.
In English, it is largely ametonym for, and coterminous with, the continent ofAsia – loosely classified intoSouthwest Asia,Southeast Asia,South Asia,Central Asia,East Asia, and sometimes including theCaucasus. Originally, the termOrient was used to designate only theNear East, but later its meaning evolved and expanded, designating also Central Asia, Southwest Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, or theFar East.
The termoriental is often used to describe objects and people coming from the Orient/eastern Asia.[1]
The term "Orient" derives from theLatin wordoriens, meaning "east" (lit. "rising" <orior "rise"). The use of the word for "rising" to refer to the east (where the sun rises) has analogues from many languages: compare the terms "Arevelk" inArmenian:Արեւելք (ArmenianArevelk means "East" or "Sunrise"), "Levant" (< Frenchlevant "rising"), "Vostok" Russian:Восток (< Russianvoskhod Russian:восход "sunrise"), "Anatolia" (< Greekanatole), "mizrah" inHebrew ("zriha" meaning sunrise), "sharq"Arabic:شرق (< Arabicyashriqيشرق "rise",shurūqArabic:شروق "rising"), "shygys"Kazakh:шығыс (< KazakhshyguKazakh:шығу "come out"),Turkish:doğu (< Turkishdoğmak to be born; to rise), "xavar"Persian:خاور (meaning east),Chinese:東 (pinyin:dōng, a pictograph of the sun rising behind a tree[2]) and "The Land of the Rising Sun" to refer to Japan. In Arabic, theMashriq literally means "the sunrise", "the east", the name is derived from the verbsharaqa (Arabic:شرق "to shine, illuminate, radiate" and "to rise"), from sh-r-q root (ش-ر-ق), referring to the east, where the sun rises.[3][4] Historically, the Mashriq was the southern part of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Many ancient temples, includingpagan temples,Hindu temples,Buddhist temples,Jain temples, and the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, were built with their main entrances facing the East. This tradition wascarried on in Christian churches.
The opposite term "Occident" derives from theLatin wordoccidens, meaningwest (lit.setting <occidere "fall/set"). This term meant the west (where the sun sets) but has fallen into disuse in English, in favour of "Western world".
Territorialization of the Roman termOrient occurred during the reign of emperorDiocletian (284–305), when theDiocese of the Orient (Latin:Dioecesis Orientis) was formed. Later in the 4th century, thePraetorian prefecture of the Orient (Latin:Praefectura Praetorio Orientis) was also formed, including most of theEastern Roman Empire, from theThrace eastwards; its easternmost part was the originalDiocese of the Orient, corresponding roughly to theregion of Syria.
Over time, the common understanding of "the Orient" has continually shifted eastwards, as European people travelled farther into Asia. It finally reached the Pacific Ocean, in what Westerners came to call "the Far East". These shifts in time and identification sometimes confuse the scope (historical and geographic) of Oriental Studies. Yet 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). Travellers may again take theOrient Express train from Paris to its terminus in the European part ofIstanbul, a route established in the early 20th century.
In Europeanhistoriography, the meaning of "the Orient" changed in scope several times. Originally, the term referred to Egypt, theLevant, and adjoining areas[5] as far west as Morocco. During 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 inTolstoy's 1869 novelWar and Peace, in whichNapoleon, upon seeing the "oriental beauty" of Moscow, calls it "That Asiatic city of the innumerable churches, holy Moscow!",[6] while in 1843 the American historianWilliam Prescott uses the phrase "barbaric pomp, truly Oriental" to describe the court life ofAztec nobility in his history of theconquest of the Aztec Empire.[7] As late as 1957Karl Wittfogel included Rome and theIncan Empire in his study of what he calledOriental Despotism, demonstrating the term still carries a meaning inWestern thought that transcends geography. By the mid-20th century, Western scholars generally considered "the Orient" as just East Asia, Southeast Asia, and eastern Central Asia.[5] As recently as the early 20th century, the term "Orient" often continued to be used in ways that included North Africa. Today, the term primarily evokes images of China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Mongolia, and peninsular Southeast Asia.[5] "The Orient" being largely a cultural term, large parts of Asia—Siberia most notably—were excluded from the scholarly notion of "the Orient".[5]
Equally valid terms for the Orient still exist in the English language in such collocations asOriental studies (now Asian Studies in some countries).
The adjectival term Oriental has been used by the West to mean cultures, peoples, countries, Asian rugs, and goods from the Orient. "Oriental" means generally "eastern". It is a traditional designation (especially when capitalized) for anything belonging to theOrient or "East" (for Asia), and especially of itsEastern culture. It indicated the eastern direction in historical astronomy, often abbreviated "Ori".[8] In contemporary American English,Oriental usually refers to things from the parts of East Asia traditionally occupied byEast Asians and mostCentral Asians andSoutheast Asians racially categorized as "Mongoloid". This excludesJews, Indians,Arabs, and most other South or West Asian peoples. Because of historical discrimination against Chinese, Korean and Japanese, in some parts of the United States, some people consider the term derogatory. For example,Washington State prohibits the word "Oriental" in legislation and government documents and prefers the word "Asian" instead.[9]
In more local uses, "oriental" is also used for eastern parts of countries such asMorocco's Oriental Region. "Oriental" may also be used as an synonym of "eastern", especially inRomance languages. Examples include the "oriental" and "occidental" provinces ofMindoro andNegros in the Philippines, and the Frenchdépartement ofPyrénées-Orientales.
Since the 19th century, "orientalist" has been the traditional term for a scholar ofOriental studies; however, the use in English of "Orientalism" to describe academic "Oriental studies" is rare: theOxford English Dictionary cites only one such usage, byLord Byron in 1812. "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. Artists, as well as scholars, were already described as "Orientalists" in the 19th century. In 1978, the Palestinian-American scholarEdward Said published his influential and controversial book,Orientalism, and used the term to describe a pervasive Western tradition, both academic and artistic, of prejudiced outsider interpretations of theArab andMuslim worlds that has been shaped by the attitudes of Europeanimperialism in the 18th and the 19th centuries.[10]
InBritish English, the termOriental 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, Singapore, Myanmar, Mongolia, Philippines and Indonesia).[11] Judges in the United Kingdom have been issued with guidelines to encourage political correctness whereoriental should be avoided because it is imprecise and may be considered racist or offensive.[12][13]
"Asian" in Great Britain sometimes refers to people who come specifically fromSouth Asia (in particular Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan, and Afghanistan), sinceBritish Asians as a whole make up approximately 9.3% of the population within the United Kingdom, and people of an ethnically South Asian background comprise the largest group within this category.[14] "Orientals" refers exclusively to people of East and Southeast Asian origin, who constitute approximately 0.7% of the UK population as a whole. Of these, the majority are of Chinese descent.[15]Orient is also a word for the lustre of a finepearl.[16] Hong Kong, a former British colony, has been called "Pearl of the Orient" along with Shanghai. In 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.
People in the United Kingdom fromSouthwest Asia,Asia Minor andNear East are often referred to by the term, "Middle Eastern". These can includeArabs,Kurds,Turks,Assyrians, West AsianArmenians,Yezidis, Egyptians (includingCopts),Mandaeans, among others.
In some specific contexts, for example the carpet and rug trade, the older sense of "oriental" to cover not just East Asia butCentral Asia,South Asia andTurkey may still be used; anOriental rug may come from any of these areas.
The termOriental may sound dated or even be seen as apejorative, particularly when used as a noun.[17]John Kuo Wei Tchen, director of the Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program and Institute atNew York University, said the basic criticism of the term began in the U.S. during a cultural shift in the 1970s. He has said: "With the U.S.A.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'",[18] by making a distinction between "Western" and "Eastern" ancestral origins.
This 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 formerDiocese of the Orient, as well as others lands sharing cultural legacies with theOriental Orthodox churches andOriental Catholic Churches. In 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.
In 2016, PresidentObama signed New York CongresswomanGrace Meng's legislation H.R. 4238 replacing the word withAsian American in federal law.[19][20]
The Chinese word 东方 (東方 dongfang, tungfang) is translated as "oriental" in the official English names of several entities, e.g.Oriental Art Center,Oriental Movie Metropolis. In other cases, the same word is more literally translated as "eastern", e.g.China Eastern Airlines.
The official name ofUruguay isOriental Republic of Uruguay, the adjectiveOriental refers to the geographic location of the country, east of theUruguay River.
The termOriental is also used as Uruguay'sdemonym, usually with a formal or solemn connotation. The 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 theBanda Oriental, the historical name of the territories that now compose the modern nation of Uruguay.
In German,Orient is usually used synonymously with the area between theNear East and East Asia, includingIsrael, theArab world, andGreater Persia.[citation needed]
The termAsiaten (English: Asians) means Asian people in general. Another word for Orient in German isMorgenland (now mainly poetic), which literally translates as "morning land". The antonym "Abendland" (rarely: "Okzident") is also mainly poetic, and refers to (Western) Europe.[citation needed]
