History Analysis / InterchangeableAsianCultures

This trope also exists in Britain, though with a difference ([[SeparatedByACommonLanguage to American and Australian eyes, at least]]). The British use "Asian" as a reference to South Asians like Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans. Immigrants from what, many years ago, was the British Indian Empire are the largest visible minority in the UK as are their British-born descendants. In the British census, "Asian" and "Chinese" are two different categories. People from the Far East (North, Southeast and East Asia) are not really called Asians; British people tend to refer to Chinese, Japanese, Siberians, Thai, etc. "Asians" are exclusively from the Indian subcontinent. Sometimes in rare informal contexts, "Asian" in the UK can refer to West Asian (Middle Eastern) people like Naseem Hamed, a boxer of Yemeni descent, who was usually cited as a notable British Asian athlete.

As for South Asia and West Asia (the latter is usually referred to as the Middle East and Caucasus instead), many people ignorantly lump together Arabs, [[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} Persians]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} Turks]], Indians, and [[UsefulNotes/SriLanka Sri Lankans]] as one race of brown-skinned Muslims even though most Indians are Hindu (though the number of their Muslim minority easily dwarfs even some Muslim majority countries' population), most Sri Lankans are Buddhists, and many Arabs are Christian even if they pray in Arabic to Allah, since that's just the Arabic word for God. Religion aside, these are all distinct cultures with little in common, and not all Middle Easterners and South Asians even look like that, with many Caucasian-looking Middle Easterners and East Asian-looking South Asians existing. Arabic is of course linguistically close to Hebrew, while Persians, Indians, and Sri Lankans speak Indo-European languages, of the same stock as English, German, Russian, etc. Turks, meanwhile, speak a language that is alien compared to their neighbors; they immigrated from Central Asia to the Middle East during the 11th century, bringing along a culture that has a very much "far eastern" feel. A lot of the confusion here has to do with many people in the Arabian Peninsula being South Asian expats (especially laborers) with the UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates even being majority South Asian in population, South Asia indeed having several Muslim-majority countries in UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Bangladesh}}, the UsefulNotes/{{Maldives}} and UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, the two regions bordering each other with some definitions of the Middle East even including Afghanistan and Pakistan in it, and the two regions being the biggest conflict zones in Asia, the Middle East currently having the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Syrian and Yemeni Civil Wars, and South Asia having the War in Afghanistan and UsefulNotes/TheIndoPakistanConflict, with both regions also dealing with problems of Islamic extremism. South Asia has also received Iranian influences through the Persian and Mughal Empires, with Afghanistan even speaking a dialect of Persian as one of their official languages along with another related language, Pashto, and the majority of their population being Iranian peoples, and Pakistan also using the Persian alphabet for their official language, Urdu, and having a significant Iranian minority.

As for South Asia and West Asia (the latter is usually referred to as the Middle East instead), many people ignorantly lump together Arabs, [[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} Persians]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} Turks]], Indians, and [[UsefulNotes/SriLanka Sri Lankans]] as one race of brown-skinned Muslims even though most Indians are Hindu (though the number of their Muslim minority easily dwarfs even some Muslim majority countries' population), most Sri Lankans are Buddhists, and many Arabs are Christian even if they pray in Arabic to Allah, since that's just the Arabic word for God. Religion aside, these are all distinct cultures with little in common, and not all Middle Easterners and South Asians even look like that, with many Caucasian-looking Middle Easterners and East Asian-looking South Asians existing. Arabic is of course linguistically close to Hebrew, while Persians, Indians, and Sri Lankans speak Indo-European languages, of the same stock as English, German, Russian, etc. Turks, meanwhile, speak a language that is alien compared to their neighbors; they immigrated from Central Asia to the Middle East during the 11th century, bringing along a culture that has a very much "far eastern" feel. A lot of the confusion here has to do with many people in the Arabian Peninsula being South Asian expats (especially laborers) with the UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates even being majority South Asian in population, South Asia indeed having several Muslim-majority countries in UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Bangladesh}}, the UsefulNotes/{{Maldives}} and UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, the two regions bordering each other with some definitions of the Middle East even including Afghanistan and Pakistan in it, and the two regions being the biggest conflict zones in Asia, the Middle East currently having the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Syrian and Yemeni Civil Wars, and South Asia having the War in Afghanistan and UsefulNotes/TheIndoPakistanConflict, with both regions also dealing with problems of Islamic extremism. South Asia has also received Iranian influences through the Persian and Mughal Empires, with Afghanistan even speaking a dialect of Persian as one of their official languages along with another related language, Pashto, and the majority of their population being Iranian peoples, and Pakistan also using the Persian alphabet for their official language, Urdu, and having a significant Iranian minority.

As for South Asia and West Asia (the latter is usually referred to as the Middle East instead), many people ignorantly lump together Arabs, [[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} Persians]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} Turks]], Indians, and [[UsefulNotes/SriLanka Sri Lankans]] as one race of brown-skinned Muslims even though most Indians are Hindu (though the number of their Muslim minority easily dwarfs even some Muslim majority countries' population), most Sri Lankans are Buddhists, and many Arabs are Christian even if they pray in Arabic to Allah, since that's just the Arabic word for God. Religion aside, these are all distinct cultures with little in common, and not all Middle Easterners and South Asians even look like that, with many Caucasian-looking Middle Easterners and East Asian-looking South Asians existing. Arabic is of course linguistically close to Hebrew, while Persians, Indians, and Sri Lankans speak Indo-European languages, of the same stock as English, German, Russian, etc. Turks, meanwhile, speak a language that is alien compared to their neighbors; they immigrated from Central Asia to the Middle East during the 11th century, bringing along a culture that has a very much "far eastern" feel. A lot of the confusion here has to do with many people in the Arabian Peninsula being South Asian expats (especially laborers) with the UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates and UsefulNotes/{{Qatar}} even being majority South Asian in population, South Asia indeed having several Muslim-majority countries in UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Bangladesh}}, the UsefulNotes/{{Maldives}} and UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, the two regions bordering each other with some definitions of the Middle East even including Afghanistan and Pakistan in it, and the two regions being the biggest conflict zones in Asia, the Middle East currently having the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Syrian and Yemeni Civil Wars, and South Asia having the War in Afghanistan and UsefulNotes/TheIndoPakistanConflict, with both regions also dealing with problems of Islamic extremism. South Asia has also received Iranian influences through the Persian and Mughal Empires, with Afghanistan even speaking a dialect of Persian as one of their official languages along with another related language, Pashto, and the majority of their population being Iranian peoples, and Pakistan also using the Persian alphabet for their official language, Urdu, and having a significant Iranian minority.

This trope also exists in Britain, though with a difference ([[SeparatedByACommonLanguage to American and Australian eyes, at least]]). The British use "Asian" as a reference to South Asians like Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans. Immigrants from what, many years ago, was the British Indian Empire are the largest visible minority in the UK as are their British-born descendants. In the British census, "Asian" and "Chinese" are two different categories. People from the Far East (North, Southeast and East Asia) are not really called Asians; British people tend to refer to Chinese, Japanese, Siberians, Thai, etc. "Asians" are exclusively from the Indian subcontinent. Soemtimes in rare informal contexts, Asian in the UK can refer to West Asian (middle eastern) people like British Yemeni Boxer Naseem Hamed was usually sited as a notably British Asian athlete and even searching British Asian Boxer would have British Yemeni Naseem Hamed or British Pakistani Amir Kham as the two more likely options to show up.

As for South Asia and the Middle East, many people ignorantly lump together Arabs, [[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} Persians]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}} Turks]], Indians, and [[UsefulNotes/SriLanka Sri Lankans]] as one race of brown-skinned Muslims even though most Indians are Hindu (though the number of their Muslim minority easily dwarfs even some Muslim majority countries' population), most Sri Lankans are Buddhists, and many Arabs are Christian even if they pray in Arabic to Allah, since that's just the Arabic word for God. Religion aside, these are all distinct cultures with little in common, and not all Middle Easterners and South Asians even look like that, with many Caucasian-looking Middle Easterners and East Asian-looking South Asians existing. Arabic is of course linguistically close to Hebrew, while Persians, Indians, and Sri Lankans speak Indo-European languages, of the same stock as English, German, Russian, etc. Turks, meanwhile, speak a language that is alien compared to their neighbors; they immigrated from Central Asia to the Middle East during the 11th century, bringing along a culture that has a very much "far eastern" feel. A lot of the confusion here has to do with many people in the Arabian Peninsula being South Asian expats (especially laborers) with the UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates and UsefulNotes/{{Qatar}} even being majority South Asian in population, South Asia indeed having several Muslim-majority countries in UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Bangladesh}}, the UsefulNotes/{{Maldives}} and UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, the two regions bordering each other with some definitions of the Middle East even including Afghanistan and Pakistan in it, and the two regions being the biggest conflict zones in Asia, the Middle East currently having the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Syrian and Yemeni Civil Wars, and South Asia having the War in Afghanistan and UsefulNotes/TheIndoPakistanConflict, with both regions also dealing with problems of Islamic extremism. South Asia has also received Iranian influences through the Persian and Mughal Empires, with Afghanistan even speaking a dialect of Persian as one of their official languages along with another related language, Pashto, and the majority of their population being Iranian peoples, and Pakistan also using the Persian alphabet for their official language, Urdu, and having a significant Iranian minority.

This trope also exists in Britain, though with a difference ([[SeparatedByACommonLanguage to American and Australian eyes, at least]]). The British use "Asian" as a reference to South Asians like Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans. Immigrants from what, many years ago, was the British Indian Empire are the largest visible minority in the UK as are their British-born descendants. In the British census, "Asian" and "Chinese" are two different categories. People from the Far East (North, Southeast and East Asia) are not really called Asians; British people tend to refer to Chinese, Japanese, Siberians, Thai, etc. "Asians" are exclusively from the Indian subcontinent. Soemtimes in rare informal contexts, Asian in the UK can refer to West Asian (middle eastern) people like British Yemeni Boxer Naseem Hamed was usually sited as a notably British Asian athlete and even searching British Asian Boxer would have Naseem Hamed or British Pakiatani Amir Kham as the two more likely options to show up.

This trope also exists in Britain, though with a difference ([[SeparatedByACommonLanguage to American and Australian eyes, at least]]). The British use "Asian" as a reference to South Asians like Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans. Immigrants from what, many years ago, was the British Indian Empire are the largest visible minority in the UK as are their British-born descendants. In the British census, "Asian" and "Chinese" are two different categories. People from the Far East (North, Southeast and East Asia) are not really called Asians; British people tend to refer to Chinese, Japanese, Siberians, Thai, etc. "Asians" are exclusively from the Indian subcontinent.

The problem is even bigger in Southeast Asia. Many countries in the region have big Chinese minority populations (the majority of Vietnamese and a large proportion of Thais have at least some Chinese ancestry, however distant, and of course, there's UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}} which is three quarters ethnic Chinese), but culturally they are a mixed bag. The [[UsefulNotes/ThatSouthEastAsianCountry Burmese]], Thais, [[UsefulNotes/{{Laos}} Lao]], and [[UsefulNotes/{{Cambodia}} Khmers]] owe their foreign influence more to UsefulNotes/{{India}}, from where they imported UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} and Brahmi script, though the Burmese language is a Sino-Tibetan one like Chinese. [[UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}} Indonesians]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Malaysia}} Malaysians]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Brunei}} Bruneians]] also have a long history of Indian influence and are currently [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Muslim]] by religion. [[UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} Filipinos]] are much the same, except that they have more European influence and are Christians, same with the [[UsefulNotes/TimorLeste East Timorese]] who have additional Melanesian influences. Don't even get started with language; 5 different families, including the aforementioned Sino-Tibetan and Austroasiatic. The languages of the Polynesians (Hawaiians, Maori, Samoans, and friends) are actually the eastern extension of the Austronesian languages spoken by the Filipinos, Indonesians, and Malaysians. This language family originated in Formosa before the island was colonised by Han Chinese settlers and renamed UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} with indigenous Formosans or Taiwanese Aboriginals now forming a minority of the population.

The problem is even bigger in Southeast Asia. Many countries in the region have big Chinese minority populations (the majority of Vietnamese and a large proportion of Thais have some Chinese ancestry however distant and of course, there's UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}} which is three quarters ethnic Chinese), but culturally they are a mixed bag. The [[UsefulNotes/ThatSouthEastAsianCountry Burmese]], Thais, [[UsefulNotes/{{Laos}} Lao]], and [[UsefulNotes/{{Cambodia}} Khmers]] owe their foreign influence more to UsefulNotes/{{India}}, from where they imported UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} and Brahmi script, though the Burmese language is a Sino-Tibetan one like Chinese. [[UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}} Indonesians]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Malaysia}} Malaysians]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Brunei}} Bruneians]] also have a long history of Indian influence and are currently [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Muslim]] by religion. [[UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} Filipinos]] are much the same, except that they have more European influence and are Christians, same with the [[UsefulNotes/TimorLeste East Timorese]] who have additional Melanesian influences. Don't even get started with language; 5 different families, including the aforementioned Sino-Tibetan and Austroasiatic. The languages of the Polynesians (Hawaiians, Maori, Samoans, and friends) are actually the eastern extension of the Austronesian languages spoken by the Filipinos, Indonesians, and Malaysians. This language family originated in Formosa before the island was colonised by Han Chinese settlers and renamed UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} with indigenous Formosans or Taiwanese Aboriginals now forming a minority of the population.

This trope also exists in Britain, though with a difference ([[SeparatedByACommonLanguage to American and Australian eyes, at least]]). The British use "Asian" as a reference to South Asians like Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans. Immigrants from what, many years ago, was the British Indian Empire are the largest visible minority in the UK as are their British-born descendants. In the British census, "Asian" and "Chinese" are two different categories. People from the Far East (North, Southeast and East Asia) are not really called Asians; British people tend to refer to Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc. "Asians" are exclusively from the Indian subcontinent.

This trope also exists in Britain, though with a difference ([[SeparatedByACommonLanguage to American and Australian eyes, at least]]). The British use "Asian" as a reference to South Asians like Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans. Immigrants from what, many years ago, was the British Indian Empire are the largest visible minority in the UK as are their British-born descendants. In the British census, "Asian" and "Chinese" are two different categories. People from the Far East (Southeast and East Asia) are not really called Asians; British people tend to refer to Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc. "Asians" are exclusively from the Indian subcontinent.

Finally, it's often debated whether Russia itself, which encompasses a large part of Eastern Europe and the whole of North Asia, is [[RussiaIsWestern a Western country which has territories in Asia]] (similar to British Overseas Territories) or an Asian country. On one hand, the majority of the country is in Asia, it is part of UsefulNotes/TheFarEast along with Southeast and East Asia (and is in fact the easternmost country in Asia), has notable Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic minorities (as well as Yukaghir, Aleut and Eskimo peoples, the latter two notably also being found in Alaska, Canada and Greenland), has some Central and East Asian influences from it's neighbors and the native Siberian minorities, has had influence on Central, East and Southeast Asia and is a member of the UsefulNotes/ShanghaiCooperationOrganisation along with China, India, Pakistan and Central Asia with the exception of UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}}, but on the other hand, it's politically associated with Europe, its culture is a part of Western culture, its capital and largest city, Moscow, is in the European part of the country, the majority of the population lives in the European part of the country and the majority of the population are ethnic Russians, who are an East Slavic people and have a common ethnic and cultural origin with Belorussians and Ukrainians. UsefulNotes/TheCaucasus finds itself in a similar situation, where they are in Western Asia like the Middle East and have been influenced by neighboring Turkey and Iran (with more Azerbaijanis living in Iran than in UsefulNotes/{{Azerbaijan}} itself), but are debated whether they are actually Asian or Europeans in Asia due to their culture (with UsefulNotes/{{Armenia}} and [[UsefulNotes/GeorgiaEurope Georgia]] being heavily influenced by Orthodox Christianity) and politics.

Finally, it's often debated whether Russia itself, which encompasses a large part of Eastern Europe and the whole of North Asia, is [[RussiaIsWestern a Western country which has territories in Asia]] (similar to British Overseas Territories) or an Asian country. On one hand, the majority of the country is in Asia, it is part of UsefulNotes/TheFarEast along with East and Southeast Asia (and is in fact the easternmost country in Asia), has notable Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic minorities (as well as Yukaghir, Aleut and Eskimo peoples, the latter two notably also being found in Alaska, Canada and Greenland), has some Central and East Asian influences from it's neighbors and the native Siberian minorities, has had influence on Central, East and Southeast Asia and is a member of the UsefulNotes/ShanghaiCooperationOrganisation along with China, India, Pakistan and Central Asia with the exception of UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}}, but on the other hand, it's politically associated with Europe, its culture is a part of Western culture, its capital and largest city, Moscow, is in the European part of the country, the majority of the population lives in the European part of the country and the majority of the population are ethnic Russians, who are an East Slavic people and have a common ethnic and cultural origin with Belorussians and Ukrainians. UsefulNotes/TheCaucasus finds itself in a similar situation, where they are in Western Asia like the Middle East and have been influenced by neighboring Turkey and Iran (with more Azerbaijanis living in Iran than in UsefulNotes/{{Azerbaijan}} itself), but are debated whether they are actually Asian or Europeans in Asia due to their culture (with UsefulNotes/{{Armenia}} and [[UsefulNotes/GeorgiaEurope Georgia]] being heavily influenced by Orthodox Christianity) and politics.

This trope also exists in Britain, though with a difference ([[SeparatedByACommonLanguage to American and Australian eyes, at least]]). The British use "Asian" as a reference to South Asians like Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans. Immigrants from what, many years ago, was the British Indian Empire are the largest visible minority in the UK as are their British-born descendants. In the British census, "Asian" and "Chinese" are two different categories. People from the Far East (East and Southeast Asia) are not really called Asians; British people tend to refer to Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc. "Asians" are exclusively from the Indian subcontinent.

The problem is even bigger in Southeast Asia. Many countries in the region have big Chinese minority populations (the majority of Vietnamese and a large proportion of Thais have some Chinese ancestry however distant and of course, there's UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}} which is three quarters ethnic Chinese), but culturally they are a mixed bag. The [[UsefulNotes/ThatSouthEastAsianCountry Burmese]], Thais, [[UsefulNotes/{{Laos}} Lao]], and [[UsefulNotes/{{Cambodia}} Khmers]] owe their foreign influence more to UsefulNotes/{{India}}, from where they imported UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} and Brahmi script, though the Burmese language is a Sino-Tibetan one like Chinese. [[UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}} Indonesians]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Malaysia}} Malaysians]] also have a long history of Indian influence and are currently [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Muslim]] by religion, as well as [[UsefulNotes/{{Brunei}} Bruneians]], who have additional Arabic influences. [[UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} Filipinos]] are much the same, except that they have more European influence and are Christians, same with the [[UsefulNotes/TimorLeste East Timorese]] who have additional Melanesian influences. Don't even get started with language; 5 different families, including the aforementioned Sino-Tibetan and Austroasiatic. The languages of the Polynesians (Hawaiians, Maori, Samoans, and friends) are actually the eastern extension of the Austronesian languages spoken by the Filipinos, Indonesians, and Malaysians. This language family originated in Formosa before the island was colonised by Han Chinese settlers and renamed UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} with indigenous Formosans or Taiwanese Aboriginals now forming a minority of the population.

Finally, it's often debated whether Russia itself, which encompasses a large part of Eastern Europe and the whole of North Asia, is [[RussiaIsWestern a Western country which has territories in Asia]] (similar to British Overseas Territories) or an Asian country. On one hand, the majority of the country is in Asia, it is part of UsefulNotes/TheFarEast along with Southeast and East Asia (and is in fact the easternmost country in Asia), has notable Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic minorities (as well as Yukaghir, Aleut and Eskimo peoples, the latter two notably also being found in Alaska, Canada and Greenland), has some Central and East Asian influences from it's neighbors and the native Siberian minorities, has had influence on Central, East and Southeast Asia and is a member of the UsefulNotes/ShanghaiCooperationOrganisation along with China, India, Pakistan and Central Asia with the exception of UsefulNotes/{{Turkmenistan}}, but on the other hand, it's politically associated with Europe, its culture is a part of Western culture, its capital and largest city, Moscow, is in the European part of the country, the majority of the population lives in the European part of the country and the majority of the population are ethnic Russians, who are an East Slavic people and have a common ethnic and cultural origin with Belorussians and Ukrainians. UsefulNotes/TheCaucasus finds itself in a similar situation, where they are in Western Asia like the Middle East and have been influenced by neighboring Turkey and Iran (with more Azerbaijanis living in Iran than in UsefulNotes/{{Azerbaijan}} itself), but are debated whether they are actually Asian or Europeans in Asia due to their culture (with UsefulNotes/{{Armenia}} and [[UsefulNotes/GeorgiaEurope Georgia]] being heavily influenced by Orthodox Christianity) and politics.