I duno how it is like in the uk but in north america you are either asian, white, brown or black. Asian refers specifically to oriental looking people such as chinese japanese and koreans. Brown people are indians and persians etc. White and black are obvious.violet said:It's ridiculous, of course the term Asian isn't exclusive to Chinese and Japanese. And sure maybe in America 'Asian' means Chinese and Japanese but in Britain 'Asian' refers EXACTLY to Afghanis, Indo-Pakistanis, etc. The Middle East is geographically in Southwest Asia, so of course Lebanese/Arabs are Asians.
And frankly I find the term Caucasian ludicrous and I would hope anyone who knows the etymology of the word would too. The only true Caucasians are those from the Caucasus (Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Georgians), which is incidentally the geographically accepted definition of Eurasia.
Galviggo I don't see why it would be baffling as to why a person would define themself by their continental origin. Having a high-bridged nose or tall build does not equate to being 'Caucasian'. I hope you don't believe that as no physical traits are exclusive to any ethnic group.
You cant deny though, that non-oriental asian asians look more caucasian than oriental asian people. Some oriental asian people dont have high nose bridge, they dont have double eyelids, they dont have curly or textured hair. Caucasian people almost always have double eyelids, do have higher nose bridges, do have more facial depth, are generally taller and larger in build, etc. These traits while they may not be classified 'caucasian', they can certainly be classified as 'not very typical asian features' and hense the short people say is 'caucaisan' features because those are traits that they do posses much mroe generally.
Now I read that in the upper northern part of china, you can start finding people with blondish hair and some with natural green and blue eyes. That however may be the result of generations of mixing with caucasians and asian people (bordering russia and neighboring arab coutnries). In fact it is used to believe that there are three major types of people, caucasiod, mongoloid and negroid types. There are a lot of sub groups within each group but those are the main groups.