Oriental massage or Asian massage?
Me and my business partner had an argument about the use of the phrase: ‘Asian massage’ or ‘Oriental Massage’. I saw many businesses use ‘Asian massage’ as their business name while others chose ‘Oriental Massage’, so what is the different between Asian and Oriental exactly?
Does it being racialism when use the word ‘oriental’ ? (I don’t believe so) I check on internet and find some interesting explain about Asian and oriental.
The word “Oriental” comes from the Latin “orient,” meaning Eastern. This term originates from the Eurocentric view that all Asian peoples are located to the East in relation to the speaker. Using such terminology puts European culture at the center of the world, naming all other cultures in terms of their relation to Europe.
As a result, “Oriental” is considered an outdated and politically incorrect word to describe people from East and Southeast Asia as of 2015. Current usage describes other cultures in the terms they use to describe themselves. This ensures that the speaker demonstrates respect for other cultures.
The more acceptable way to describe someone is by their country of origin. Using the term “Chinese” for a person known to be from China is more acceptable than calling that person “Oriental.” Both New York State and Washington have eliminated the term “Oriental” from all official government documents and forms because of its loaded implications.
More explain…
Oriental simply means “Eastern”. “Asian” localizes the place to the specific set of countries that we associate with this part of the world.
In general, when speaking of a person’s ethnic origin, the more specific you can be, the better, since it shows that you know him/her and are not just stereotyping him/her. So, for example, it is better to say that he/she is Chinese, not just Asian, or that he/she was born in Xiamen, Fujian province, China.
If you aren’t sure what country a person is from, the next most specific term is Asian, since it refers to a certain group of countries.
Oriental is much more vague, and has become a term that is acceptable only when talking about things, not people.
After consider all the argument we’ve came across…we think that if we talk about masseuse and therapists, we should use Asian, and when we talk about massage skills/types, we need to use ‘oriental’ as it is term for things…
So what should we use when we have a business of Asian massage therapists offering ‘oriental style’ massage?
Still very hard to decide…
So finally we use ‘Relaxing Asian oriental massage‘ for our business name.
