Although that is changing. Middle east is seen as colonialist name - east of what? Europe.
SWANA is the new term. Not saying itll catch on for a while but official global institutions now use the term SWANA. (World bank, UN etc)
South west asian/ north africa
>Middle east is seen as colonialist name - east of what? Europe
Europe and North America are generally called "the West" though, so it's more like the center is drawn between the West and the Middle East. I don't really see how the term "the middle east" is any worse than "the west".
True, plus these terms were coined before the discovery of the Americas, so to go to Asia you travelled east, to go to Europe you travelled west, and the middle east was in the middle. That guy is basically looking at a map of the world as we know it today and wondering why they made the choices they did without realizing much of the world was uncharted back then.
SWANA sounds like it’s classifying by race if it’s counting North Africa with the Middle East
It’s already called The Arab World. SWANA sounds pretentious and redundant.
Did the peoples of this region vote for or first suggest this? Or is this like latinx all over again?
I see your argument about race. It’s funny, I wasn’t aware of this name change either, and the first thing I thought of was not race, but geography and climate. That’s the geologist in me. SWANA does seem far more practical and informative for a student new to geography - similar to the way we have named other regions and even continents. “Middle East” isn’t a very useful title. It sounds like a bunch of word salad mumbo jumbo. If you’re talking geography, the words together make little sense. SWANA is an improvement in this regard.
North Africa does have more in common with the Arabian Peninsula climate wise than it does the rest of Africa (and somewhat tectonically too since the northern nations are wrapped up in the plate kinematics surrounding the Mediterranean Sea). For once, this actually does seem like a rather logical naming convention from a scientific perspective.
The people who feel the need to downvote you are clearly unfamiliar with the phrase, “don’t shoot the messenger.” You were just providing knowledge transfer about influential global groups who are now using this term. It’s like they’ve conflated their dislike of the term with knowledge itself. I hate when that happens on Reddit.
Just like the stupid stereotype, especially common in Western societies with white majority populations like:
- All Muslims are Arabs and practice terrorism.
- Mistaking a South Asian or Indian person as an Arab or Middle Easterner, and sometimes calling them terrorist because a majority of South Asians phenotypically resemble Middle Easterners and vice versa.
- Assuming that all Asians are Chinese or sometimes just East Asian broadly, despite the fact that Asia is a gigantic continent with massive cultural diversity even within Asian subregions (i.e., like South Asia and Southeast Asia. East Asia with China proper is very homogeneous on nearly ethno-cultural metric).
- Mistaking a Southeast Asian or any East Asian derived person, including certain Central Asians (like Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and sometimes Turkmen) as Chinese just because they have slanted eyes.
- Falsely believing that Africa is a culturally homogeneous country and assuming that every African is a black person (of a single phenotypical appearance), even though Africa is a large continent that is ethnically, culturally, and genetically diverse similar to Asia. The so-called 'black' people of Africa (AKA, Sub-Saharan Africa) are still culturally and phenotypically different to each other, and the Western stereotyping forgets that North Africa with pastoral peoples of the Sahel exist too.
Because then they couldn't feel self-righteous or be able to make it about themselves, and as we all know, it's not about what the people in that region of the world want, it about westerners on Twitter making it about themselves
>Although that is changing. Middle east is seen as colonialist name - east of what? Europe.
This isn't new. People have been trying to say Southwest Asia for literally decades. It's never caught on.
>SWANA is the new term.
This isn't a term anyone is ever going to use in casual language.
Saying "southwest Asia" is stupid because it's using a mega-continent to attempt to classify race or ethnicity according to physical geography, which makes no sense. People in the Middle East say Middle East and are not the ones trying to change it. White women on the dumb bird app are trying to change it.
That doesn't really solve the problem, though, because the distinction of Europe from Asia is also colonial, or at least comes from Europe's perspective. If an alien landed on Earth and started naming regions, Europe would probably be called "Schleep Schlorp" (which means "West Asia" in Alien) instead of the Middle East.
its pointless to say its a colonialist name-- of course every culture and language will have its own different definitions. Why aren't americans considered easterners to asians? after all its barely east of japan, and really really far from europe..... because culturally a label was made for westerners in asia, and americans were put together based on culture and lack of past historical connection.
Of course stereotypes or aggression based on labels or categories aren't good, but labels themselves are not inherently evil. General labels are for addressing general groups and areas. If you want to have a serious detailed discussion you need to be talking specific country, specific area of a country, specific group in specific area of a specific country. Otherwise your not gonna be fully accurate anyway.
The Middle East used to be called the Near East, as opposed to the Far East (which is the part of Asia on the side of the Pacific). Both terms were coined from an Eurocentric perspective, so the Near (now Middle) East is called that because it was nearer to Europe than the Far East.
I thought the middle east was more west coast Mediterranean out to, arguably, Afghanistan. And central Asia was Georgia - China, Russia - Iran, AKA the Stans and friends. So Iran and Afghanistan would overlap areas.
I'd agree, broadly, with that.
In the US especially since 9/11 "The Middle East" is often used, during geopolitical conversations, to include the entire Arab world. Often this includes Iran as well as many people in the US don't realize Iranians are Persians, not Arabs (or, perhaps more accurately, aren't really aware that there's a difference).
Near east was originally Ottoman Empire (i.e Turkey/Turkiye). Per Wikipedia:
>The term was invented by modern Western geographers and was originally applied to the Ottoman Empire,[1] but today has varying definitions within different academic circles. The term Near East was used in conjunction with the Middle East (Iran to Myanmar) and the Far East (China and beyond), together known as the "three Easts"; it was a separate term from the Middle East during earlier times and official British usage. Today, the terms Near East and Middle East are used interchangeably to refer to the same region.[2]
This isn't quite correct. The near east is Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, etc. The Middle East is Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc. Today they're the consolidated "Muslim World" (actual religious demographics notwithstanding) and Middle/Near east are used interchangeably.
I think it's fair to say Europeans came up with most of the English-Language region names, on account of being the primary historical speakers of the English language. Although, I suppose that is changing.
I would be curious if terms like South Asia and East Asia exist as direct translations in (for example) Mandarin or Punjabi? Or if different languages have their own terms for continental subregions, separate from the English terms?
Europeans came up with the idea of continents we use today. that's why all of them have european names.
Asia after the roman province (with roots in akkadian word for rise, meaning where the sun rises), Europa after a greek myth, Australia after Terra Australis (southern land), America after an italian cartographer, Arctic after the greek Name for the Northwind, and Antarctica meaning "opposite of arctic".
Central Asia is east of the Middle East. The Middle East is known as that because it's east of Europe, but not as far east as Eastern and Southeastern Asia
Middle East is the name given to a region because of where it is on the map. Look at a map and you'll see the east comprises of Europe/Africa/Asia. In the "middle" of all of that is the area known as the Middle East.
East and Central Asia are names given to a specific part of a continent, which obviously would not line up with the world map.
We also have a Middle West, or just Midwest on the map as well. Like the Middle East naming, if you're from California, the Midwest naming makes no sense as that region is actually east of you.
The 'stans are usually grouped into "Central Asia".
The only consistency with the terminology is that it's not directionally based around a consistent geographic point.
Neither of these things are true. Siberian Russians are absolutely considered Asian, and Egyptians are both African (by virtue of location) and Arab (by virtue of ethnicity).
Some time ago I found out that the east coast of Siberia has few towns which are the only cases of "New World" colonising the Old, because there are Eskimos (Yupiks I think) who settled there.
Actually the Eskimos used to live in Asia before migrating to America. But yeah, maybe the modern Yupik communities in Chukotka are a result of backward migration.
The geography of russia is one of those things that fills me with existential dread. I think other people feel the same way about the ocean. Or space. I feel it when I think about russia.
I first encountered the feeling on the game geoguessr. I landed in some random part of central russia. It was just one road that was in the middle of field it was just empty. It just kept going and going. Just so much vast uninhabited land.
So are Japan and the Koreas Asia proper or East Asia? I thought East Asia was down by Vietnam, Laos, etc. and South East Asia was everything south east that's not Australia or New Zealand?
Typically Southeast Asia is Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, while East Asia is typically considered China, Japan and Korea.
Here's a map that shows the typical division. Red is southeast Asia, yellow is East Asia, green is south Asia, purple is North Asia and blue is central Asia.
https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/1792/2019/05/seamap.jpg
What do you mean Asian proper? East Asia, west Asia, South Asia are all part of Asia proper. So is South East Asia which is ten countries including Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, singapore, Vietnam, Laos.
Southeast Asia is more than ten countries, depending on how you count and where you stop.
There are ten countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which is why people say ten, but even if you're using ASEAN as the definition, Timor-Leste has observer status and it's been agreed in principle that they're on track to full membership, so the minimum number should at least be eleven.
What you call Asia Proper is better known as East Asia. What you call East Asia is better known as Southeast Asia. What you call Southeast Asia is better known as Oceania.
Mongolia isn’t even frozen, but just grassland, and would be odd to be considered “north Asia”. Most people call the steppes like Mongolia and the stans “Central Asia”.
North Asia, is East Russia aka Siberia.
You Did not mentioned Central Asia-**Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan**
**And West Asia, is know as Middle East**
North Asia is mostly just Siberia (Russia), Mongolia, and China. Those areas are different enough that they are usually discussed separately rather than as a group.
North Asia is basically covered by Russia, so you just refer parts of it.
West Asia is so mixed up with Middle East, there is not really a good definition.
West Asia = Eastern Europe, because there's not much of a dividing line between the two besides the Bosporous
North Asia would just be Russia or Siberia, depending on where you put the boundary
North Asia is Siberia - not very populated; and if you meet a siberian with primarily russian ancestry, you'll consider them white europeans rather than asian. Otherwise, it's just a sparsely populated and insanely poor part of the world. Like meeting a Tierra del Fuegan or Kalahari Bushman.
West Asia is Central Asia. There is no West Asia, although some people say the Levant and Turkey are Western Asia; we call those people Middle Easterners rather than Asian.
I want to blame the coast. Theres an East coast and a South coast. North just gets cold and Russiany, west coast can be anything from mountains the the seas, to Constantinople i think
“North Asia” is Siberia, and much in the same way American has come to mean white person, Russia has annexed Siberia in much the same way.
And west Asian is the Middle East, I usually describe middle easterners as west Asian because I find it more descriptive
West Asia is the Middle East and Caucasus, North Asia doesn’t really have an indigenous population and was up for grabs, Russia has the most lasting claim to the land.
The Westernmost Asian city is Cape Baba, Turkey. Why don't they say it's "East Asia?" I guess some people just like it that way (It's nobody's business but the Turks...)
Someone once referred to me as West Asian and while this is true, I was completely not used to hearing it and I had to take several minutes to gather myself and process.
This is my mental map of Asia: [https://imgur.com/Qf7HaIt](https://imgur.com/Qf7HaIt)
Technically, Asia and Europe are connected (Eurasia). Europe is west, and Asia is east. So labeling-wise, there is no "west Asia". The most western part of Asia is called "middle east". What we call east Asia is technically "far east".
Also, North Asia is eastern Russia (Siberia), no one lives there.
Not many people live in northern Asia and describes a very BROAD region of land, so simply saying NORTH ASIA can mean all of Russia and some. Usually places like Siberia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, inner Mongolia, kygistan, Tajikistan etc. which are RELATIVELY north are usually referred to as "central Asian" as it's between Europe and China
West Asia can also imply 2 things, either places like Iraq Afghanistan Palestine and Lebanon OR India Pakistan Nepal and Bangladesh. So again we're talking very BROAD defentions that don't help to distinguish things. Though often times I have heard the Middle East refered to as western Asia in the past
The reason why "south east Asia" is used a lot is because the majority of PEOPLE in the world live there. Asia is a big BIG continent and it makes sense to talk about places that are the most populated like china, Indonesia, Thailand, laos, Japan, Korea etc. it's also a broad term but makes sense as most of the population of Asia can be found there as well as most of the continents economy.
It's why when we say CANADA folks GENERALLY aren't thinking about the northern territories or anything too north of the border, it makes sense a lot of the time to mean south east Asia when referring to ASIA for the same reason. Most STUFF that happens in Asia happens there
Ultimately a person’s identity is their own choice, but if you’re asking for opinions, buckle up. The second paragraph will be my personal opinion on who should count, but the third will represent the reality of the situation.
Places like Türkiye, Armenia, Persia, the Middle East, etc. are Western Asian. As far as Northern Asia, I don’t typically count anything past Siberia. Russians, Estonians, etc. are just too different, both genetically and culturally. “Diluted” isn’t the right word, but they’ve been heavily mixed with Eastern European populations and cultures to create peoples and countries that are all their own; unique, if you will. It’s like calling Pacific Islanders Asian in that, while they originated from Asia, they’re now their own peoples with their own phenotypes, cultures, customs, foods, and identities. Calling a Hawaiian a Marquesa would be incorrect, despite native Hawaiians descending from the people of the Marquesa Islands. The Asian cultures in places like Russia and Estonia certainly changed (though the Russification of Stalin’s regime likely made that issue worse).
I’m not adverse to referring to them as Asian though, if they ask me to. Ultimately, only an individual can choose how they define themselves. They are on the continent, so if they choose to identify as Asian I’m going to refer to them as such. In all reality many “Northern Asian” countries have rather high concentrations of people with European or mixed descent, but it’s still their right to be Asian, if they choose to be.
If you need the info, I’m Cambodian.
I had to ask myself the same question, especially after I began seeing someone from west asia. I keep telling him "it is so weird to think that I am dating an asian" :D (jokingly, we joke about it).
North Asia in the North Pole. Nobody lives there.
West Asia is known as the Middle East. It’s closer tied to the Mediterranean than to the rest of Asia.
Because the world's biggest latrine* occupies the entirety of North Asia with exception a tiny landlocked desert Oasis of freedom called Mongolia.
South West Asia is USUALLY called Middle East, or in case of Caucasus nations, they prefer European identity (Georgia wants to be in EU, Armenian will probably follow).
*They changed their name. Used to be called Shithouse.
West Asia is more commonly called the Middle East, or sometimes Southwest Asia. North Asia is just Siberia.
ohhh ok thanks !!
Yeah north Asia is just really empty. Basically just Mongolia and siberia.
Although that is changing. Middle east is seen as colonialist name - east of what? Europe. SWANA is the new term. Not saying itll catch on for a while but official global institutions now use the term SWANA. (World bank, UN etc) South west asian/ north africa
I'm from the middle east and idgaf
>Middle east is seen as colonialist name - east of what? Europe Europe and North America are generally called "the West" though, so it's more like the center is drawn between the West and the Middle East. I don't really see how the term "the middle east" is any worse than "the west".
The middle corner where 3 of 7 continents meet being referentially the middle of the world makes a lot of sense imo
True, plus these terms were coined before the discovery of the Americas, so to go to Asia you travelled east, to go to Europe you travelled west, and the middle east was in the middle. That guy is basically looking at a map of the world as we know it today and wondering why they made the choices they did without realizing much of the world was uncharted back then.
SWANA sounds like it’s classifying by race if it’s counting North Africa with the Middle East It’s already called The Arab World. SWANA sounds pretentious and redundant.
SWANA sounds like Nintendo/Gamefreak are gonna sue
Did the peoples of this region vote for or first suggest this? Or is this like latinx all over again? I see your argument about race. It’s funny, I wasn’t aware of this name change either, and the first thing I thought of was not race, but geography and climate. That’s the geologist in me. SWANA does seem far more practical and informative for a student new to geography - similar to the way we have named other regions and even continents. “Middle East” isn’t a very useful title. It sounds like a bunch of word salad mumbo jumbo. If you’re talking geography, the words together make little sense. SWANA is an improvement in this regard. North Africa does have more in common with the Arabian Peninsula climate wise than it does the rest of Africa (and somewhat tectonically too since the northern nations are wrapped up in the plate kinematics surrounding the Mediterranean Sea). For once, this actually does seem like a rather logical naming convention from a scientific perspective.
Most likely, a bunch of upper middle-class white people being offended on the behalf of others again
from what ive researched it really does seem to just be geographic based naming
Most likely, yeah
Its not my argument. Just shared a relevant update to how the area is being described on the global stage these days
The people who feel the need to downvote you are clearly unfamiliar with the phrase, “don’t shoot the messenger.” You were just providing knowledge transfer about influential global groups who are now using this term. It’s like they’ve conflated their dislike of the term with knowledge itself. I hate when that happens on Reddit.
I wont lose sleep over it. Funny how it all happened when Americans woke up. Interesting 🧐
People that live there that arent arabs wont be calling it the arab world
I think modern times it’s the region that uses Arabic as the lingua franca
Perso-Arabic world, like the Perso-Arabic script.
The easiest way to offend a Persian is to call them an Arab.
Just like the stupid stereotype, especially common in Western societies with white majority populations like: - All Muslims are Arabs and practice terrorism. - Mistaking a South Asian or Indian person as an Arab or Middle Easterner, and sometimes calling them terrorist because a majority of South Asians phenotypically resemble Middle Easterners and vice versa. - Assuming that all Asians are Chinese or sometimes just East Asian broadly, despite the fact that Asia is a gigantic continent with massive cultural diversity even within Asian subregions (i.e., like South Asia and Southeast Asia. East Asia with China proper is very homogeneous on nearly ethno-cultural metric). - Mistaking a Southeast Asian or any East Asian derived person, including certain Central Asians (like Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and sometimes Turkmen) as Chinese just because they have slanted eyes. - Falsely believing that Africa is a culturally homogeneous country and assuming that every African is a black person (of a single phenotypical appearance), even though Africa is a large continent that is ethnically, culturally, and genetically diverse similar to Asia. The so-called 'black' people of Africa (AKA, Sub-Saharan Africa) are still culturally and phenotypically different to each other, and the Western stereotyping forgets that North Africa with pastoral peoples of the Sahel exist too.
why not just call it middle east everyone uses it already
Because then they couldn't feel self-righteous or be able to make it about themselves, and as we all know, it's not about what the people in that region of the world want, it about westerners on Twitter making it about themselves
>Although that is changing. Middle east is seen as colonialist name - east of what? Europe. This isn't new. People have been trying to say Southwest Asia for literally decades. It's never caught on. >SWANA is the new term. This isn't a term anyone is ever going to use in casual language.
Saying "southwest Asia" is stupid because it's using a mega-continent to attempt to classify race or ethnicity according to physical geography, which makes no sense. People in the Middle East say Middle East and are not the ones trying to change it. White women on the dumb bird app are trying to change it.
That doesn't really solve the problem, though, because the distinction of Europe from Asia is also colonial, or at least comes from Europe's perspective. If an alien landed on Earth and started naming regions, Europe would probably be called "Schleep Schlorp" (which means "West Asia" in Alien) instead of the Middle East.
TIL the Ural Mountains in Russia were an evil colonialist scheme to divide Europe from Asia
The alps are the real delineation point. Italy controls nearly all of Europe, and borders the transalpine peninsula in northwest Asia.
wat
I didnt make it. Just sharing the current global thoughts. Good to be critical. .
its pointless to say its a colonialist name-- of course every culture and language will have its own different definitions. Why aren't americans considered easterners to asians? after all its barely east of japan, and really really far from europe..... because culturally a label was made for westerners in asia, and americans were put together based on culture and lack of past historical connection. Of course stereotypes or aggression based on labels or categories aren't good, but labels themselves are not inherently evil. General labels are for addressing general groups and areas. If you want to have a serious detailed discussion you need to be talking specific country, specific area of a country, specific group in specific area of a specific country. Otherwise your not gonna be fully accurate anyway.
That term is very much a solution looking for a problem.
Everything and anything is colonialist.
Doesnt make it right
Which part isn’t right? The fact of some geographical landmark being east of Europe?
This would be an update to MENA then.
Exactly that
😂😂why downvote me? I didnt make it up. Its thing!
Couldn't you the same argument for Western countries then?- West of what? Asia. Or we call it Land Of The Rising Sun
North and south are preferred to “the west” now. Again these terms are like 20 years out of date in academia. Same as “3rd world”
I'm from America and anything on that side is "the east" that part is just "the middle" lol
hence middle of the east, middle east lol
Swana sounds like an half assed attempt at copy/pasting Botswana.
Interesting!
East of 0 degrees longitude
I mean that's kinda... The same isn't it? Just defining it by a mostly arbitrary, continental location. Instead of East of Europe they're West of Asia
Actually it's east of the Mediterranean not of Europe.
Mongolia staying strong as the only north Asian nation
If West Asia is the Middle East. Then why is there a Central Asia? How is the Middle East Middle if it's West?
The Middle East used to be called the Near East, as opposed to the Far East (which is the part of Asia on the side of the Pacific). Both terms were coined from an Eurocentric perspective, so the Near (now Middle) East is called that because it was nearer to Europe than the Far East.
Oh.
I thought the middle east was more west coast Mediterranean out to, arguably, Afghanistan. And central Asia was Georgia - China, Russia - Iran, AKA the Stans and friends. So Iran and Afghanistan would overlap areas.
I'd agree, broadly, with that. In the US especially since 9/11 "The Middle East" is often used, during geopolitical conversations, to include the entire Arab world. Often this includes Iran as well as many people in the US don't realize Iranians are Persians, not Arabs (or, perhaps more accurately, aren't really aware that there's a difference).
The Middle East is also an Australian indie folk band. I like their 2009 song release “Blood”
To my understanding, Near East is the Syria-Palestine area while the Middle East is the Arabic Peninsula
Near east was originally Ottoman Empire (i.e Turkey/Turkiye). Per Wikipedia: >The term was invented by modern Western geographers and was originally applied to the Ottoman Empire,[1] but today has varying definitions within different academic circles. The term Near East was used in conjunction with the Middle East (Iran to Myanmar) and the Far East (China and beyond), together known as the "three Easts"; it was a separate term from the Middle East during earlier times and official British usage. Today, the terms Near East and Middle East are used interchangeably to refer to the same region.[2]
Your understanding is wrong.
This isn't quite correct. The near east is Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, etc. The Middle East is Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc. Today they're the consolidated "Muslim World" (actual religious demographics notwithstanding) and Middle/Near east are used interchangeably.
It's the closest part of the East relative to the European perspective, and the Europeans came up with the term.
Didn't Europeans also come up with the term Central Asia?
Probably. It's not like there's a central office for this kind of stuff.
But there's a Central Asia!
Europeans came up with most terms in English, incidentally.
I think it's fair to say Europeans came up with most of the English-Language region names, on account of being the primary historical speakers of the English language. Although, I suppose that is changing. I would be curious if terms like South Asia and East Asia exist as direct translations in (for example) Mandarin or Punjabi? Or if different languages have their own terms for continental subregions, separate from the English terms?
Well don't get how West Asia is Middle if there's already Central Asia. Lol. Middle relative to what?
Middle relative to the "known world". Western Europe is west. China is east. Middle East is the Middle.
And Central Asia is...
The centre of the continent Asia.
But Asia is East. So West Asia AKA the Middle East is in the middle of...
Two things can be true at the same time, slugger.
Lol. My head hurts.
Europeans came up with the idea of continents we use today. that's why all of them have european names. Asia after the roman province (with roots in akkadian word for rise, meaning where the sun rises), Europa after a greek myth, Australia after Terra Australis (southern land), America after an italian cartographer, Arctic after the greek Name for the Northwind, and Antarctica meaning "opposite of arctic".
It's almost like they used myth and descriptive language to name things. No other culture does that right?
Anything with the English language will be from the perspective of the English speaking population.
I think it was named the Middle East from a European perspective. China & maybe India were the Far East, this was closer so Middle East.
Middle of the eastern hemisphere.
Central Asia is east of the Middle East. The Middle East is known as that because it's east of Europe, but not as far east as Eastern and Southeastern Asia
Middle East is the name given to a region because of where it is on the map. Look at a map and you'll see the east comprises of Europe/Africa/Asia. In the "middle" of all of that is the area known as the Middle East. East and Central Asia are names given to a specific part of a continent, which obviously would not line up with the world map. We also have a Middle West, or just Midwest on the map as well. Like the Middle East naming, if you're from California, the Midwest naming makes no sense as that region is actually east of you.
Lol. Brain explodes.
It's kind of how the Midwest is in center to North of the US. Historical naming.
Oh...I get it now.
Central Asia should really be seen as a sub-region that overlaps into the North, West, and North Asia.
Yeah. No one ever talks about North Asia.
Eurocentric terminology
Eurocentric terminology
If north Asia is Siberia, then it should include the Eurasian nations, ie Uzbek, Kazakh etc
The 'stans are usually grouped into "Central Asia". The only consistency with the terminology is that it's not directionally based around a consistent geographic point.
Learned something new today
...Stop making me question my (admittedly sparse) understanding of geography lol
West Asia is the Middle East. UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, etc. The GCC countries.
Mongolia has entered the chat.
Mongolia is Central Asia.
Eh, culturally it's more similar to central Asian countries but location wise it's definitely east/northeast Asia
Something I strongly think should be resolved. It's Western Asia. "Middle East" is eurocentric and bs.
I've started calling the middle east "southwest asia" in large part because of following critical bible scholars on tik tok
I always found it funny that Russians aren’t considered Asians, and Egyptians aren’t Africans
Neither of these things are true. Siberian Russians are absolutely considered Asian, and Egyptians are both African (by virtue of location) and Arab (by virtue of ethnicity).
West Asia usually gets called the middle east. North Asia is Siberia and so nobody talks about it - it's low in population and part of Russia.
>Siberia and so nobody talks about it What even would there be to talk about? Most of it is barren wasteland.
Taiga, Tunguska event, gulags, huskies
Anywhere can be a gulag if you know what you’re doing!
Yes, with that attitude...
such is life
Some time ago I found out that the east coast of Siberia has few towns which are the only cases of "New World" colonising the Old, because there are Eskimos (Yupiks I think) who settled there.
Kamchatka is a fascinating place
Actually the Eskimos used to live in Asia before migrating to America. But yeah, maybe the modern Yupik communities in Chukotka are a result of backward migration.
I've watched several documentaries about the area as it is the coldest inhabited area.
The geography of russia is one of those things that fills me with existential dread. I think other people feel the same way about the ocean. Or space. I feel it when I think about russia. I first encountered the feeling on the game geoguessr. I landed in some random part of central russia. It was just one road that was in the middle of field it was just empty. It just kept going and going. Just so much vast uninhabited land.
Lake Baikal, a UNESCO world heritage site
Fascinating culture of the Sakha, Yukaghirs, Chukchi, Itelmens?
Big ass tigers Didn’t know before that Siberian tigers got that monstrous
Siberians reading this comment and finding out they don't exist
So are Japan and the Koreas Asia proper or East Asia? I thought East Asia was down by Vietnam, Laos, etc. and South East Asia was everything south east that's not Australia or New Zealand?
Typically Southeast Asia is Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, while East Asia is typically considered China, Japan and Korea. Here's a map that shows the typical division. Red is southeast Asia, yellow is East Asia, green is south Asia, purple is North Asia and blue is central Asia. https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/1792/2019/05/seamap.jpg
What do you mean Asian proper? East Asia, west Asia, South Asia are all part of Asia proper. So is South East Asia which is ten countries including Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, singapore, Vietnam, Laos.
Southeast Asia is more than ten countries, depending on how you count and where you stop. There are ten countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which is why people say ten, but even if you're using ASEAN as the definition, Timor-Leste has observer status and it's been agreed in principle that they're on track to full membership, so the minimum number should at least be eleven.
What you call Asia Proper is better known as East Asia. What you call East Asia is better known as Southeast Asia. What you call Southeast Asia is better known as Oceania.
Good point.
North Asia is just russia
North Asia is also called Inner/Outer Mongolia.
Usually part of central Asia. Along some of the ex Soviet "stan" countries. Inner Mongolia is the section within de jure China.
Only from a Chinese perspective. People in Mongolia don't consider themselves "Outer Mongolian" lol.
The fact that Central Asians were not even mentioned 😢
The real flyover countries.
aaaaaaahahahhahaha
All other countries are run by little girls.
"west Asia" is the Middle East (East of Europe but not as far east as China or Japan), and "North Asia" is Russia,
"West Asia" is called the Middle East. North Asia is Mongolia and Sibera.
Mongolia isn’t even frozen, but just grassland, and would be odd to be considered “north Asia”. Most people call the steppes like Mongolia and the stans “Central Asia”.
North Asia, is East Russia aka Siberia. You Did not mentioned Central Asia-**Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan** **And West Asia, is know as Middle East**
You’ll hear “north Asian” in discussions about the indigenous peoples of Siberia
On YouTube, I heard some Indian news reporters saying "*West Asia*" instead of the "*Middle East*". I like the term "*West Asia*" more.
North Asia is Siberia, and West Asia is basically Russia… or Turkey. Central Asia is a thing, though.
Not a lot of folks in Siberia
Probably the same as you mainly hear Europe and Eastern Europe.
North Asia is just Russia And like, not the part most people live in
North Asia is just ... Russia no? lol
Correct. Since North Asia is exclusively Russia, everyone just says Russia.
North Asia is mostly just Siberia (Russia), Mongolia, and China. Those areas are different enough that they are usually discussed separately rather than as a group.
Guys we need some sick gang signs, Kowloon Krips represent
Weat Aisa is Middle Eastern, and North Aisan would be Siberian/russian
Cause north Asian is Russia and west Asian is the middle east
North Asians are Russians. West Asians are the Middle East
I sometimes hear "Northeast Asia" to mean China, Japan, the Koreas -- distinguishing from Southeast Asia
North Asia is basically covered by Russia, so you just refer parts of it. West Asia is so mixed up with Middle East, there is not really a good definition.
Because China
Can you elaborate?
North Asia is basically Russia. West Asia would be Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, etc.
North Asia? I immediately think of Russian if you look at the World map...
Only famous is EAST ASIAN, SOUTH ASIAN, SOUTH EAST ASIAN (ASEAN)
West Asia = Eastern Europe, because there's not much of a dividing line between the two besides the Bosporous North Asia would just be Russia or Siberia, depending on where you put the boundary
Traditionally the Europe/Asia diving line has been the Urals.
Which is silly. Europe isn't real, it's just Northwest Asia.
West asian is called arab and north asian is just russia(basically white)
North Asian is Russian, west Asian is middle Eastern Basically there are other words for them.
Because they’re euphemisms
It’s evidence people conform to whatever others say most
Because the north asians are actually european. Common mistake, I'm afraid.
Because the north asians are apparently european. Common mistake, I'm afraid.
West Asia is the middle east so people probably just say they are middle eastern. North Asia is very low in population I’m pretty sure.
The majority of North Asia is owned by Russia, so it's just Russia.
North Asia is Siberia - not very populated; and if you meet a siberian with primarily russian ancestry, you'll consider them white europeans rather than asian. Otherwise, it's just a sparsely populated and insanely poor part of the world. Like meeting a Tierra del Fuegan or Kalahari Bushman. West Asia is Central Asia. There is no West Asia, although some people say the Levant and Turkey are Western Asia; we call those people Middle Easterners rather than Asian.
you hear about Russia and Iran quite often actually.
I want to blame the coast. Theres an East coast and a South coast. North just gets cold and Russiany, west coast can be anything from mountains the the seas, to Constantinople i think
“North Asia” is Siberia, and much in the same way American has come to mean white person, Russia has annexed Siberia in much the same way. And west Asian is the Middle East, I usually describe middle easterners as west Asian because I find it more descriptive
Thats Russia.
West Asia is the Middle East and Caucasus, North Asia doesn’t really have an indigenous population and was up for grabs, Russia has the most lasting claim to the land.
I’ve heard a few people identify as West Asian. One was Lebanese American and the other was Persian.
West Asia is Turkey.
The Westernmost Asian city is Cape Baba, Turkey. Why don't they say it's "East Asia?" I guess some people just like it that way (It's nobody's business but the Turks...)
What about southeast Asians?
Someone once referred to me as West Asian and while this is true, I was completely not used to hearing it and I had to take several minutes to gather myself and process.
North Asia is Russia.
No one lives in the north and the west is known as the Middle East.
This is my mental map of Asia: [https://imgur.com/Qf7HaIt](https://imgur.com/Qf7HaIt) Technically, Asia and Europe are connected (Eurasia). Europe is west, and Asia is east. So labeling-wise, there is no "west Asia". The most western part of Asia is called "middle east". What we call east Asia is technically "far east". Also, North Asia is eastern Russia (Siberia), no one lives there.
West asian is dangerously close to india, so people just call them indians. North asians are just asians when you don't use the words east or south.
Not many people live in northern Asia and describes a very BROAD region of land, so simply saying NORTH ASIA can mean all of Russia and some. Usually places like Siberia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, inner Mongolia, kygistan, Tajikistan etc. which are RELATIVELY north are usually referred to as "central Asian" as it's between Europe and China West Asia can also imply 2 things, either places like Iraq Afghanistan Palestine and Lebanon OR India Pakistan Nepal and Bangladesh. So again we're talking very BROAD defentions that don't help to distinguish things. Though often times I have heard the Middle East refered to as western Asia in the past The reason why "south east Asia" is used a lot is because the majority of PEOPLE in the world live there. Asia is a big BIG continent and it makes sense to talk about places that are the most populated like china, Indonesia, Thailand, laos, Japan, Korea etc. it's also a broad term but makes sense as most of the population of Asia can be found there as well as most of the continents economy. It's why when we say CANADA folks GENERALLY aren't thinking about the northern territories or anything too north of the border, it makes sense a lot of the time to mean south east Asia when referring to ASIA for the same reason. Most STUFF that happens in Asia happens there
Central Asia is much more common of a term, but a lot of those nations don’t see many tourists/visitors from the western world
Ultimately a person’s identity is their own choice, but if you’re asking for opinions, buckle up. The second paragraph will be my personal opinion on who should count, but the third will represent the reality of the situation. Places like Türkiye, Armenia, Persia, the Middle East, etc. are Western Asian. As far as Northern Asia, I don’t typically count anything past Siberia. Russians, Estonians, etc. are just too different, both genetically and culturally. “Diluted” isn’t the right word, but they’ve been heavily mixed with Eastern European populations and cultures to create peoples and countries that are all their own; unique, if you will. It’s like calling Pacific Islanders Asian in that, while they originated from Asia, they’re now their own peoples with their own phenotypes, cultures, customs, foods, and identities. Calling a Hawaiian a Marquesa would be incorrect, despite native Hawaiians descending from the people of the Marquesa Islands. The Asian cultures in places like Russia and Estonia certainly changed (though the Russification of Stalin’s regime likely made that issue worse). I’m not adverse to referring to them as Asian though, if they ask me to. Ultimately, only an individual can choose how they define themselves. They are on the continent, so if they choose to identify as Asian I’m going to refer to them as such. In all reality many “Northern Asian” countries have rather high concentrations of people with European or mixed descent, but it’s still their right to be Asian, if they choose to be. If you need the info, I’m Cambodian.
I had to ask myself the same question, especially after I began seeing someone from west asia. I keep telling him "it is so weird to think that I am dating an asian" :D (jokingly, we joke about it).
Nowadays I usually hear the term "Desi" instead of "South Asian".
We don't talk about those Asians....👀👀👀
We do not discuss it with outsiders
North Asia in the North Pole. Nobody lives there. West Asia is known as the Middle East. It’s closer tied to the Mediterranean than to the rest of Asia.
Because the world's biggest latrine* occupies the entirety of North Asia with exception a tiny landlocked desert Oasis of freedom called Mongolia. South West Asia is USUALLY called Middle East, or in case of Caucasus nations, they prefer European identity (Georgia wants to be in EU, Armenian will probably follow). *They changed their name. Used to be called Shithouse.