When an Indian television station insists on titling a finance program “Oriental and Occidental,” it is time for me to expend no more energy on protesting such terms’ use as racial descriptives. 
I had thought that having American Heritage Dictionary recognize “oriental” as problematic was a step forward, but I suppose I can count on the thick-brown-skinned folks at CNBC-TV18 to maintain the status quo. Nonetheless, I will complain that the subject of the show doesn’t even seem relevant to the name; what does foreign investment in India have to do with that old binary of “Oriental” versus “Occidental”? Particularly when some of the global market gurus include non-Occidentals like Ayaz Ebrahim, the Asia-Pacific CEO for Asia-based HSBC. The explorers of the exotic East, at least when it comes to the international flow of capital, no longer are solely Caucasians.
The prompt for an economics writing competition when I was an undergraduate was something like, “Free trade contributes to peace.” I don’t know if that is true, but I would think that genuinely free trade — in contrast to the protectionist economies of 18th and 19th century imperialism, against which Adam Smith wrote — might erase some of the old ways of Orientalist thinking.
I wonder they’re as loaded terms for native resident Indians as they seem in the west. When I came to study in teh states, I was literally FOB, unaware of the race/class/gender/ethnicity politics that I would soon be subjected to, simply because I was coming from a land in which i was the hegemony, I was the default. Edward Said and Orientalism didn’t seem relevant, because the ‘other’ was the west (however much we seem to want to be them). For us, Oriental will still be ‘chinky’ people (I know its racist in the states, but its a simple description, get over it already), and not the near east or a state of mind that we’re subjected to by the West. I’ll pass the article on to a friend who works there and see what she says! Maybe the very idea of a binary (us and them – whichever side of the equation one is on), is a default human trait? That’s a dangerous assumption because it could be used to justify a lot of vile acts.
If you study any Asian language at Oxford, you’ll still get a degree in “Oriental Studies.” It shows up on my degree certificate, and I put it on my resume.
Much of the rest of the world simply isn’t as cursed with our PC obsessions, having (mostly) been absent the blessings of Said & Co, PC Investigators. Frankly, the objection to the word is a little tiresome. I’d expect that an Indian TV network will pay more attention to the OED (which omits the whining) and ignore American Heritage, for obvious reasons.
When I was in school, a friend from Taiwan once had these wise words for me: “Remember, when you use the word Oriental, you are describing a rug or a vase and not a human being.”
I get immensely confused when in London, because desis are “Asian” and people from the Far East are “Oriental”. It’s terrifying, the constant awareness of a potentially non-PC misstep, especially here.
Hi, Since I work on the show “Oriental and Occidental” felt the need to defend the same.The show not the title.Sorry,people..but sumtimes in a drive to find a catchy name ( especially amongst ho-hum business shows)one goes to crazy lenghths.The above is just a case in point. The title is just meant to reflect the fact tht most of the interviews are being shot at and based on Asian market leaders and the emerging Asian markets.
And from what i’ve been told u need to cme up wid such stuff for hard core business news viewers of CNBC.
If you watched the show, the words are meant to symbolise East and West as in (Oriental and Occidental) and that the search for good investors in not local but global. People need to be a bit more thick skinned. Some one is offended by something always. Get a life, as another TV programme on that channel says.