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I'm confused about whether you are talking about US or UK English. I know that in the UK "Asian" means "South Asian" but I've never seen "East Asian" refer to South Asians in any dialect.
Canadian English. UK natives have a few names but "Indians" is not one of them.
Fact check: if you call them "indians" in canada most people will know who you are talking about -- slightly context dependent, but getting less so every day since just about nobody calls the native indians indians anymore.
"East Indians" is completely unambiguous -- "East Asians" works for slanty eyed yellow people, but "Asians" would normally mean the same thing.
I never heard anybody in Canada talk about "South Asians" until ~10-15 years ago -- I do think it came from the UK.
TLDR: somebody who's not racist enough to say "chink" but wants to complain about what's happening in Richmond will just say "Asian" -- in Surrey, the alternatives might be "binder/pakki" and "East Indian". ("Chug/native" if you are bitchin about some reservation or guys killing all the moose)
This is Canadian usage as I know it since the 1970s or so. Western Canadian I should say -- I don't really give a shit how Toronto wants to talk, but I don't believe it to be much different.
@sarker
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You are telling me that in Canada "East Asian" refers to South Asians? Can you provide an example?
Why would UK natives be called Indians?
It's not a thing I've ever heard. The Canadian government uses it the exact same way as in America
Never heard anyone actually call Middle-Easterners West Asian but TIL I guess.
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