Asian

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. A person who comes from the continent of Asia can be described as someone whose identity is linked to its cultures, languages, and peoples, as well as related to the varied ethnicities and traditions present in Asia
2. An individual whose background or cultural affiliation is rooted in Asia is associated with the continent's rich diversity of cultures, languages, and ethnic groups, reflecting its broad range of identities
3. Pertaining to the continent of Asia or the diverse groups living there

Etymology: The name itself is ancient and geographic. It comes from Latin "Asianus," which derives from "Asia," the name the Greeks and Romans gave to the lands east of the Aegean, and the "-an" ending simply marks belonging to or coming from that place. The adjective was always a plain geographic label, and it was never a category of people with a shared identity. The sense that matters today is much newer and more contested. In North America and Australasia, "Asian" now usually means East and Southeast Asians collectively. That usage is generally traced to 1968, when students at the University of California, Berkeley, Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee founded the "Asian American Political Alliance" to unite Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino American students. The term was a deliberate political coalition-building label, and it replaced "Mongoloid," though it kept the same broad racial grouping. In Britain and former colonies such as South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, the word tends to mean South Asians, reflecting who made up most immigrants from the continent to those places. Elsewhere in the Anglosphere it is sometimes used for South and Central Asians, but rarely for people from the Near East.