> About 6 years ago I began work as a Slide Curator and used the term
> "Oriental Art" and was kindly corrected by the art historians.  "Asian" is
> certainly the preferred term in use today.
 
Why do we have to put up with all this cringing political correctness?
The term 'oriental' never used to be pejorative, and I still do not
believe that it is.  Who decided that it was unacceptable to call items
and people from the Orient 'oriental'.  Is it going to unacceptable to
refer to items from the world's smallest continent as 'Australian' (how
about 'Microcontinental Art' - that ought to ensure no-one knows what
we are talking about).  Have the Pacific Islands been dealt with in a
similar manner and is that why we have collections of 'Oceanic Art' all
the items of which were made on the land?
 
Why is it that people feel uncomfortable with _any_ term used to
describe cultures/people/places different to the common caucasian?  I
have heard the word 'Asian' used in a derogatory sense that made me
feel decidedly squeamish - is this word soon to join the vocabularly of
the unacceptable as well?  What will you call the collections then?
 
Are we going to go down the route of 'Occidentally Challenged Art' or
'Westerly Impaired Art'?
 
Sorry that a two-line quip turned into a one-screen rant, but
obsequious political correctness is a pet peeve.  In my tool shed there
are both spades and shovels and I do not need people claiming that they
should be referred to as 'soil rearrangement facilitators'.
 
jim
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Jim Croft           [Herbarium CBG]               internet: [log in to unmask]
Australian National Botanic Gardens                  voice:  +61-6-2509 490
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