Granted, the headline is not really Washington State Senator Paull Shin‘s fault, but it’s still one of those things I file in “Korea: The Land Irony Forgot”:
Sen. Shin Dedicated to Making US Asians Proud
Senator Shin is particularly proud of ending the use of “Oriental” in state and local legislation:
The two-term senator backed a bill in 2001 to eliminate the use of the word “Oriental” in all state and local legislations. The bill was passed in 2002, lawfully stating that the word “Asian” must be used to describe people of Asian descent.
Shin made a lasting impact for all future Asian generations in the U.S, but what drove him to stand up for the change?
“‘Oriental’ is a juvenile word that’s linked to an era when Asians had a subordinate status,” said Shin, who remembers people labeling him an Oriental when he first ran for office. “I didn’t want to be discriminated, nor did I want my descendants to be judged simply by their skin color.”
Hey, great job on the linguistic front, but you know what might also help stop your descendants from being judged simply by their skin color? How about NOT apologizing when a Korean shoots up a university on the other side of the country?
State Sen. Paull Shin, D-Edmonds, apologized to fellow lawmakers and legislative staff members, first at a private prayer meeting, then in Senate chambers.
“It hurts me deeply, knowing what happened to Korea and how much the U.S. helped,” said Shin, an orphan who was adopted by an American soldier after the Korean War. “This is not the way to pay back the blessings we received.”
Although legislators told him he had no need to apologize, Shin, fighting his emotions, said he felt compelled to do so because of his acceptance in America and his leadership position in the Korean American community.
OK, let me get this straight — “Oriental” offends you, but guilt-by-ethnic-association doesn’t?
That’s downright inscrutable!
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Rob!
You act surprised! You’ve been in Korea long enough to know that Koreans do that. At least they are consistent. Koreas go ga ga over Hinds Ward and Koreas get embarrassed and apologize on behalf of Cho Seung-hui.
Oh, let me add a corollary. Unless it’s a gyopo who commits a crime in Korea, then the press release ususally says “citizen of U.S. [or Canada, or Australia, or NZ, etc.].”
… often times not mentioning the fact that the offender is ethnic Korean.
I want to put in my 2 cents on this as a Korean.
When I was growing up, whenever my mother told me to act properly, it was because it was the morally right thing to do or that it will make people uncomfortable. She almost always told me to behave because it was the way people would judge me and how it would reflect on my family and on my community. She scolded me whenever I did idiotic things as a child saying that when people see me act a certain way, the way people think, they’ll say worse things about my father and my mother and they’ll save the worst judgments on Korean people in general.
How true this is, I don’t know. But the issue you outline is two halves of the same coin. The way Koreans picture themselves is in a group in and against the world most of the time.
Every single Korean, through their singular actions, brings us collective pride and collective shame. And this way of thinking is transitive. Anything that insults or praises the group offends or illuminates individuals.
You may not get this if you’re the type who delineates the private and the public sphere like most westerners. It makes sense for you that the identity of the individual is different from the group. For most westerners, races and countries do not define individuals and vice versa. But for Koreans, it’s one and the same. Our race defines us as a person. And each person defines us as a whole.
Please try to consider this way of thinking.
I’m going to start referring to myself as Boreal.
Yes, Koreans do that. And in fact, I’ve been known to call for expats to reflect on our 동포’s misdeeds. But I (we) live in Korea. Sen. Shin does not, and in fact, has been in America long enough to know that expressing feelings of communal responsibility for the acts of a lone gunman is NOT the way a leader of any community should act (that is, unless there’s an actual reason to).
According to the story, Shin was first elected to the Washington State House of Representatives in 1992. But unless you’re referring to rugs, artwork, or medicine, “Oriental” has been recognized as a pejorative since at least the 1960s. So who, exactly, was labeling Shin an “Oriental” when he first ran for office?
DLB
Well, older people still use Oriental, just as they still use colored. Not delicate speech, but old habits die hard. I think my fiancee is an Oriental, according to my grandparents and people of their generation, so that’s probably what Shin’s talking about.
Oriental is what’s used in British English, and once in a while you’ll hear a Hyphenated-American get annoyed hearing it these days, not realizing the difference.
Could we put a kybosh on occidental whilst we’re at it? Almost no one uses it, but it suggests something menacing about those from the Occident. I’ve got the heebie jeebies thinking about the word now.
And in British English an Asian is one from the subcontinent. The rest of them are either Chinese or East Asian.
BTW, can we use Asiatic?
Language evolves, but, as Brian points out, not perfectly. One of the functions of this evolution is to distance ourselves from the thinking of the previous generation, who were awful, colonizing bastards or unenlightened heathens or whatever. It’s a real easy way for any politician to score an easy lay-up. It’s also incredibly freaking annoying.
There is no better example than Palin’s quest against pejorative use of the word “retarded.” The irony is, people with clinically low IQs were at one time referred to, clinically, as imbeciles, morons or idiots (depending on how low their IQ was). The word “retarded” came into use as a polite alternative when those previous terms came to take on a pejorative connotation. Wash, rinse, repeat.
To quote the ‘Retarded Policeman’ for Ms. Palin – “I might be mentally handicapped… but YOU’RE RETARDED!”
I doubt “Oriental” is derogatory in all settings. I still think “Oriental Doctor/Medicine” is far more appropriate than the alternatives. And I don’t think “Asian Express” has any romantic connotation.
On generational differences of language… I grew up in a neighborhood where white was a minority, I saw three generations use different vocabulary to describe themselves… the older folks used the word “negro” with pride. Parents of my classmates used “black.” My friends and I thought the word “nigger” meant “friend” (we had listened to too much rap music). My friend’s mom was not amused while my father tried to explain that a six-year-old couldn’t possibly load the word with meaning beyond the simple.
Rob,
I think all immigrants bring a little bit of the homeland into their value structure regardless of where they end up. Confucian shame associated with group affiliation has got to be one of the most basic values in Korea. Paull ended up in the states in what appears to be 17-18 years of age, plenty old enough to retain such values.
Hey, despite being a de facto immigrant yourself you can’t say that you haven’t retained some Long Island, NY values yourself despite spending all those years in Africa and Korea, right?..
I’m not saying Paull’s believes are right or wrong, I’m just saying why they would be residual.
… and sometime in the (distant?) future, there will be a Westerner elected to the National Assembly in Korea and when another Westerner does something very wrong this National Assembly member will remind Koreans that they shouldn’t associate this person’s actions with the rest of the non-Korean community…
There is s restaurant in Kangnam called The Oriental Spoon. Is that racist?
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