In surveys and hospital forms etc there’s usually an option for Chinese/British-Chinese so I’ll tick that. Other times there’s only British-Asian and I used to tick that until a while ago my Korean friend told me that we’re not supposed to because we’re East Asians and “British-Asian” only refers to South Asians, eg Indian or Pakistani. This was a shock to me as I always assumed that Asian was anyone from Asia but now I’m just confused.
12 comments
How do I put this?
Your friend is talking shit.
It is more usual that Asian is used to mean S Asian, yes.
You can do what you like on the form. It is for anonymised stats, not for personall linking to you.
FWIW I do what your friend does, I don’t tick Asian and if there is no Chinese option I tick ‘other’…
Depends on the form, but the most recent census forms had this listing
– Asian or Asian British
– Indian
– Pakistani
– Bangladeshi
– Chinese
– Any other Asian background
Weirdly enough, the first census to include ethnicity questions had a pretty similar grouping.
But by the 2000s, the form split ‘Asian’ into one category, covering the Indian sub continent, and ‘Chinese’ into a separate one.
Before reverting back to ‘Asian’ as one group, consisting of the Indian sub continent, China and *others* in the most recent one.
https://history.blog.gov.uk/2019/03/07/50-years-of-collecting-ethnicity-data/
In terms of everyday speech, if you hear British people referring to an ‘Asian area’ or ‘Asian market’, they probably mean Indian/Pakistani
This is how you describe yourself. There’s no wrong answer.
Wrong.
British Asian refers to any Asians that have British citizenship.
If you don’t have British citizenship and you can’t choose Chinese, just take Asians or others. Because British Asians implies you have British citizenship.
What your friend misunderstood is that formally, “Asian” still includes East Asians. The definition of “Asians” he is referring to only applies to casual settings.
I know because I’ve been here for more than two decades now.
TBH, I’ve always ticked “Asian”. Filipino here. Some have recommended me to write “Pacific Islander” tho
Bring back ‘far eastern’. When I grew up oriental was still used, an interesting word because it shifted further and further east over time, having started out to refer to Eastern parts of England and then the areas immediately east of Europe, and finally the areas on the Eastern edge of Asia.
I’ve always taken Asian to mean someone ethnically from Asia. China is in Asia so surely it is accurate…
You can tick whatever you want, ethnicity is self-defined so choose whatever you think best describes you. There are no right or wrong answers
You can tick whatever you’re most comfortable with. If you consider yourself to be British Asian then you tick it.
To some extent it’s an unhelpful term because, yes, in general, people think of British Asians as British people whose heritage is from the Indian subcontinent. However, there’s nothing saying that that’s strictly the definition they’re using and you are indeed British and Asian if you’re British and have Chinese heritage.
Demographic data like this is used to see where more resources are needed for issues that particularly affect particularly populations – diabetes is a particular problem for people in the British Asian (Indian subcontinent) community, for instance. As one person you’re unlikely to skew that data, so I would say tick what you think best describes you.
Is China in Asia? Yes. So you’re entitled to use Asian
Your Korean friend is dumb
What you normally get is British Asian which is anyone who is British but ethnically from the continent of Asia.
Many forms then have a sub section underneath which expands further. Indian, Pakistan, Bangladeshi, Chinese, etc.