[quote name='dmaul1114']
And I don't think most Japanese and Korean would be offended at both being considered Asian. Most would be fine with that, and just not care much as they consider themselves to be Japanese and Korean and not care much about race. And I can verify that first hand from my Taiwanese friends who consider themselves and those from China as Asians, but more identify themselves as Taiwanese as their nationality/ethnicity means more to them than their race.
Race isn't such a big deal in Asia as most of the nations are mostly populated by people in the broad Asian racial group. So ethnicity/nationality means a ton more over there as that's the main distinguishing characteristic. Unlike a melting pot like the US or Western Europe where they're are multiple races in fairly sizable numbers, as well as lots of nationalities and ethnicity within each racial group. Here we focus more on Race, and downplay ethnic/national classifications. Over there race is downplayed, and nationality/ethnicity is the main focus.[/QUOTE]
Nobody ever said that japanese or koreans would be offended being classified asian. That's not the point but somehow you keep bringing it up. Of course they're all asians. Nobody disputes that. What I'm saying is that you keep telling me that koreans are NOT a different race than japanese. And I'm telling you that koreans, japanese, and chinese all consider themselves different races even if they understand they are classified as asians. It's such a simple concept.
The point is that you can't tell a japanese person that he's the same race as a korean person if he considers koreans and japanese different races. (And most do.) Who are YOU to judge what they should be offended by?
So if you tell a korean person he's the same race as a japanese person and he says "no, I'm korean, not japanese" because that's the level at which he classifies race, you tell them, "no you're an ignorant fool, I'm a social scientist and by current definition, race is the ubercategory of 'Asian'...."? Really? That's your response and justification for offending someone? because they are "ignorant?" Even though their definition of race is what traditionally has been defined in their culture as race and not whatever is the latest definition by social "scientists"?
Btw, race is a very big deal in asia. I don't know where you're getting your info from.
Look, I get your "I learned all these things and I want to show how smart I am" attitude regarding asian as the "race" category and not japanese and chinese. But sometimes these things don't work in the real world. In the real world, the definition of race amongst asians rests in the more specific level of japanese, korean, chinese, laotian, thai, vietnamese, etc.
(Btw, Taiwanese are completely different. Their nationality is Taiwanese, as distinguished from the Chinese nationality, but they are racially Chinese. Most of the population are descendants of mainland chinese. After all it hasn't been long since, as Roger Waters said, they changed Formosa into a shoe factory called Taiwan." And yes, Taiwanese and Chinese are still both asian.)
And since race is an english word, you would only count the opinions of english speakers. If you ask a chinese person what race they are in free form, they would say "I'm chinese." Perhaps they would answer "asian." If you said to them them "But racially, you're the same as the japanese?" they would reply "of course not." But of course, they are just ignorant right?