My impression had always been that for most
Americans, the default "
Asian"
ethnicity in the minds of dumbass
Americans was
Chinese. Maybe it's regional?
The problem with "
Oriental", in the
US anyway, is that most
Americans think it's an exact
synonym for "
Asian". I used to work for an
Israeli who often referred to the
Middle East, especially the food, as "
Oriental". This is correct usage: They're east of here (some people think they're west as well, but those daffy
Round Earthers are best ignored). Still, some cretin (from
Baltimore, not
Crete) in
tech support digested that for a while and concluded that
souvlaki is
Chinese (this is part of my "impression" as seen in paragraph 1). He
clung like grim death to the idea and would not be dissuaded! He decided that the local
Chinese restaurant "wasn't for real" because they wouldn't give him any
souvlaki, but he got over it because
for some bizarre reason the
Greek place would. Heh heh.
All sniderei aside, if you use the word "
Oriental" (or any other word with more than one
syllable) correctly in the
US, you'll just confuse people. Have a heart! We're confused enough already.