Asian people or Asiatic people is a demonym for people from Asia. However, the use of the term varies by country and person, often referring to people from a particular region or subregion of Asia. Though usage may be based on residence, it is usually considered an ethnicity or race.

In Asia, only people who originated from in East, South, and Southeast Asia are considered "Asians" while people from West Asia are considered as "Arabs." In North America (mostly the United States of America), the term refers most commonly to people of predominantly East Asian and Southeast Asian ancestry; however, in the United Kingdom, the term refers most commonly to South Asians. In other countries (like countries of Continental Europe), the term is applied in a wider sense to all people from Asia or from a number of its regions. In the United States, however, West Asian and Central Asian people are usually not considered "Asian."

Definitions by country

East, South, and Southeast Asia

Asians living in East, South, and Southeast Asia often consider themselves as the only true "Asians." This is evident through the presence of Asia-wide reality television shows that cater only to people from those regions such as ''The Amazing Race Asia'', ''The Biggest Loser Asia'', and ''Asian Idol''. International television channels in Asia, like ESPN, Channel News Asia, STAR World, Channel V, STAR Movies, AXN, AXN Beyond, Animax, Nickelodeon, Sony Entertainment Television, MTV, Diva Universal, Cartoon Network, Syfy Universal, and the National Geographic Channel often cater only to people from those three regions.

Pan-Asian regional organizations such as the Asia Cooperation Dialogue, the East Asia Summit, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation are centered in these three regions. Cultural topics such as the Eastern world only include countries from the regions above.

Central Asia

:''for historical background see Mawarannahr'' Native ethnic groups of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan self-identify themselves as Asian. They are also recognized as Asian by Russians and Chinese.

This self-identification is based phenotypically, and on cultural differences from Russians, as these countries used to be parts of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and therefore have significant Russian populations. Another reason for such self-identification is patriotic: "''the native people of the Center of Asia - are undoubtedly Asians''".

West Asia

Arabs in West Asia do not identify to a "Asian world" but to an "Arab World," evident on the reality television programs ''Big Brother: The Boss'', ''Arab Idol'', and ''Super Star'' and on the television channels Nickelodeon and MTV.

Anglophone Africa and Caribbean

In parts of anglophone Africa, especially East Africa and South Africa, and in parts of the Anglophone Caribbean, the term "Asian", though it can refer to the continent of Asia as a whole, is more commonly associated with people of South Asian origin, particularly Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans.

Australia

Notably, the Australian Census includes Central Asia, a region that is often considered to be part of the Greater Middle East. The Australian Census includes four regions of Asia in its official definition. Defined by the 2006–2011 Australian Census, three ''broad groups'' have the word Asian included in their name: ''Central'' ''and Southern Asian'', ''South-East Asian'' and ''North-East Asian''. Russians are classified as ''Southern and Eastern Europeans'' while Middle Easterners are classified as ''North African and Middle Easterners''.

Canada

The Canadian Census' list of Visible Minorities includes "''West Asian''", "''South Asian''" and "''Southeast Asian''".

New Zealand

New Zealand's census undertaken by Statistics New Zealand defines the Asian to include people of Chinese, Indian, Korean, Filipino, Japanese, Vietnamese, Sri Lankan, Cambodian and Thai ancestries. In less formal contexts, the term ''Asian'' often does not include South Asian people.

Norway

Statistics Norway considers people of Asian background to be people from all Asian countries.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the term "Asian", though it can refer to the continent of Asia as a whole, is more commonly associated with people of South Asian origin, particularly Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans. The UK usage of the term "Asian" is reflected in the "ethnic group" section of UK census forms, which treat "Asian" and "Chinese" as separate (see British Asian). Most respondents to the UK 2001 Census of non-Chinese East Asian and Southeast Asian descent chose to write-in their ethnicity in the "Other Ethnic Group" category rather than the "Other Asian" category, reflecting the association of the word Asian in the UK with South Asian. Despite there being a strong presence of East Asians in the United Kingdom there are considerably more South Asians, for example the 2001 Census recorded 1.05 million people of Indian origin and 247,000 of Chinese origin in the UK.

The United Kingdom, Anglophone Africa and Anglophone Caribbean are places in the Western world where the word "Asian" is used primarily to identify people from the Indian subcontinent. Due to the term's contested definition in British English, the use of the term "South Asian" is used for clarity in discussions in the United Kingdom on colonialism, discrimination, and migration or when the content of its parameters may become mistakenly conflated with those of East Asian descent.

United States

Earlier Census forms from 1980 and prior listed particular Asian ancestries as separate groups along with ''White'' and ''Black or Negro''. Previously, Asian Americans were classified as "other". But the 1980 Census marked the first general analyses of Asians as a group, combining several individual ancestry groups into "Asian or Pacific Islander." By the 1990 Census, ''Asian or Pacific Islander (API)'' was included as an explicit category, although respondents had to select one particular ancestry.

The U.S. Census Bureau definition includes those who originate from the original peoples of Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. In 1930 and 1940, ''Indian Americans'' were identified as a separate race, ''Hindu'', and in 1950 and 1960 they were racially classified as ''Other Race'', and then in 1970 they were classified as ''White''. Since 1980, Indians and all other South Asians have been classified as part of the Asian race. Sociologist Madhulika Khandelwal described how "''....as a result of activism, South Asians came to be included as 'Asians' in the census only in the 80's. Prior to that many South Asians had been checking 'Caucasian' or 'Other'.''"

Respondents can also report their specific ancestry, e.g.: Okinawan, etc. Someone reporting these ancestries but no race would be classified as "Asian". Unlike South Asians, Middle Eastern Americans and Central Asian Americans have not lobbied to be included as Asians by the U.S. Census Board.

According to Sharon M. Lee in her 1998 publication, for many non-Asian Americans in the United States (in 1998), "Asian American means Oriental, Chinese American or Japanese American. This is due to the Chinese and Japanese immigrants being the first Asian immigrants into the United States. Today, with the increasing demographic of South Asian Americans and Southeast Asian Americans the definition among United States citizens of who is Asian American is expanding."

Definition by non-government sources

Keith Lowe

Dr. Keith Lowe, race-relations expert for the Canadian government, claims that Asian people refer to Central, South, Southeast and East Asians.

Masatoshi Nei

In 1993, , Professor of Biology at Pennsylvania State University, said, based on genetic evidence, that "Mongoloids" a term in which he included the "Evens", "Buryat", "Hui", "Mongolian", "Tibetan", "Japanese", "Ainu", "Northern Chinese", "Korean", "Dong", "Zhuang", "Southern Chinese", "Taiwanese aborigines", "Thai", "Indonesian" and "Filipino" peoples were contained within a larger genetic grouping he called the "Greater Asians" in which he also included "Pacific Islanders" and "Australopapuans". In the "Australopapuan" grouping, Nei included "Dravidians", "Andamanese", "Australian", "Papuan" and "Philippine Negritos".

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza

In 1994, geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza of Stanford University divided a "principal coordinant" map of "42 Asian populations" into three groupings: "Asian Caucasoids", "Northeast and East Asian" and "Southeast Asian". The ethnic groups Cavalli-Sforza said were in the "Asian Caucasoids" cluster were the "Armenian", "Arabian", "Assyrian", "Lebanese", "Bedouin", "Jordanian", "E. Iranian", "W. Iranian", "Uzbek", "N. Turkic", "Turkish Caucasoid", "Turkmen", "Brahman", "Central Indian", "E. Indian", "S. Indian", "N. Dravidian", "Central Dravidian", "S. Dravidian" and "Sri Lankan". The ethnic groups Cavalli-Sforza said were in the "Northeast and East Asian" cluster were the "Koryak", "Chukchi", "Reindeer Chukchi", "Nganasan" "Samoyed", "N. Tungus", "Nentsy" "N. Chinese", "Tibetan", "Bhutanese", "Ainu", "Mongol", "Japanese" and "Korean". The ethnic groups Cavalli-Sforza said were in the "Southeast Asian" cluster were "Indonesian", "Malaysian", "Taiwan aborigines", "Viet Muong", "Thai", "Philippine", "S. Chinese", "Balinese" and "Gurkha".

Moreover, Cavalli-Sforza said there is an "approximate boundary" between "Caucasoids" and "Mongoloids" from the "Urals" to "the eastern part of India". Along this boundary there has been "hybridization", causing a "Caucasoid-Mongoloid gradient". Likewise, Cavalli-Sforza said there is a "separation between northern and southern Mongoloids" "starting from Southeast Asia".

Orientals and the Orient

The term 'Oriental' (from the Latin word for "Eastern") was originally used during the Middle Ages in Europe in reference to the Near East. It was later extended to the rest of Asia, but came to refer to East Asians and in some cases, Southeast Asians in the 19th and 20th century United States, where most Asians were originally Chinese, with later additions of Korean, Japanese, and other groups from Asia.

By the late 20th century, the term had gathered associations in North America with older attitudes now seen as outmoded, and was replaced with the term "Asian" as part of the updating of language concerning social identities. However, in Europe, use of the term ''Oriental'' for an east Asian has no negative connotations attached and is commonly used. Note particularly that, in the U.K. at least, Indian people (for example) are considered Asian but not Oriental, giving credence to the point that the term 'Oriental' now means 'East Asian' rather than any meaning related to the Greenwich Meridian and its colonial links.

Marginal Inclusion

West Asians

Clovis Maksoud, Director for the Organization of Global South, argues that the term "Middle East" is a Eurocentric term denoting the region between Europe and East Asia, because it denies the Middle East's connection with Muslim North Africa. In English parlance, Western Asians like Jews, Iranians and Arabs, and the Central Asians of the former Soviet Republics are not referred to as "Asian" by United States government agencies. The Canadian government uses "West Asian" in its statistics; however people from the Arab countries are counted in a separate "Arab" category.

Pacific Islanders

In normal American usage Asian does not refer to the people from the Pacific Islands who are usually called Pacific Islanders. The term "Asians and Pacific Islanders" or "Asia/Pacific" was used on the 1990 US Census. However, in the 2000 US Census, the Asian or Pacific Islander category was separated into two categories, "Asian" and "Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander".

See also

Vietnamese

Ethnic groups in Asia

Afro-Asian (African-Asian mixed ancestry)

Amerasian — especially the offspring of a U.S. serviceman and an Asian

Asia — includes boundaries of the continent.

Desi

Eurasian (European-Asian mixed ancestry)

Hapa — Hawaiian term commonly referring to Eurasians

Oriental

Race and genetics

References

cy:Asiaid es:Asiático he:אסייתים ja:アジア系民族 pl:Azjaci ru:Азиаты simple:Asian sk:Ázijčania sv:Asiater uk:Азіати vi:Người Châu Á bat-smg:Azėjėitē

Coordinates	54°47′″N32°03′″N
name	Russell Peters
birth name	Russell Dominic Peters
birth date	September 29, 1970
birth place	Brampton, Ontario, Canada
medium	Stand-up, Television, Film, Radio
nationality	Canadian
genre	Satire, Improvisational comedy, Observational comedy
active	1989–present
subject	Racism, Race relations, Stereotypes, Multiculturalism, Indian culture
influences	George Carlin, Steve Martin, Cheech and Chong, Don Rickles, Eddie Murphy
signature	Russell Peters Autograph.svg
website	RussellPeters.com
spouse	Monica Diaz (2010–present) 1 child }}

Russell Dominic Peters (born September 29, 1970) is a Canadian comedian, actor and disc jockey. He began performing in Toronto in 1989 and has been nominated for four Gemini Awards.

Early life

Russell Peters was born in Brampton, Ontario, Canada to Eric and Maureen Peters. His family is of Anglo-Indian ancestry and is Catholic. His father was born in Pune, India and worked as a federal meat inspector and his mother was born in Calcutta, India. He has an older brother named Clayton who was born in Calcutta.

He went to Georges Vanier Catholic Elementary School from kindergarten to grade 8, Bramalea Secondary School for grades 9–10, and North Peel Secondary School for grades 11–12 in Brampton.

Career

Peters began performing in Toronto in 1989. He has since also performed in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, Iran, Denmark, South Africa, the Caribbean, Vietnam, New Zealand, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Sweden, India, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Norway , Lebanon, London, Pakistan and Trinidad among other places.

He hosted the Canada Day Comedy Festival 2006. His comedy special ''Russell Peters: Outsourced'', aired on Comedy Central on August 16, 2006. The DVD version features his uncensored performance. The DVD has been popular, especially in Canada, selling over 100,000 copies. ''Outsourced'' remained on the National DVD Chart over one and a half years after release.

In September 2008, it was confirmed that Peters made a deal with Fox to develop a new sitcom, based on his experience in Canada. Peters says, "It's really a snapshot of where my family maybe was ten years ago" and he ensures that the sitcom is "Something that will be funny and honest." Peters participated in a USO tour of Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Africa and Greenland in November 2007 with Wilmer Valderrama and Mayra Veronica. Peters' latest DVD/CD combo ''Russell Peters: Red, White, and Brown'' was recorded on February 2, 2008, at The WAMU Theatre at Madison Square Garden. Peters and his brother, Clayton Peters, who is also his manager, self-produced and financed ''Red, White and Brown''. It was released in Canada in September 2008 and in the US on January 27, 2009. Peters also currently produces and stars on the radio situation comedy series, ''Monsoon House'', on CBC Radio One.

Peters was the host of the 2008 Juno Awards televised ceremonies in Calgary on April 6, 2008, for which he won a Gemini Award for "Best Performance or Host in a Variety Program or Series". The 2008 awards broadcast received the second-highest ratings ever for the program. He was asked to host the Juno Awards for a second year in a row. The 2009 Juno Awards took place in Vancouver on March 29, 2009.

Between June 2008 and June 2009, Peters earned $10 million, making him one of the highest-paid comedians during that twelve-month period.

Between June 2008 and June 2010, Peters earned $15 million, continuing his run as one of the highest-paid comedians.

On October 26, 2010, Peters released his autobiography, ''Call me Russell'', co - written with his brother Clayton and Dannis Koromilas.

Russell first appeared as a guest on the Joe Rogan podcast on December 17th 2010, episode 63. On June 21st 2011, Russell went onto the Joe Rogan podcast again, this time with Junior Simpson. Joe Rogan was the main host and Brian Redban was the co-host/technician.

Popularity

Peters' popularity extends to several countries. In Canada, Peters became the first comedian to sell out Toronto's Air Canada Centre, with more than 15,000 tickets in two days for the single show. He ended up selling over 30,000 tickets nationally over the two-day sales period. A total of over 60,000 tickets were sold across six cities. In Sydney, Peters had a record breaking audience of 13,880, making the event the largest stand-up comedy show in Australian history He broke a UK comedy sales record at London's O2 arena when he sold over 16,000 tickets to his show on February 14, 2009 . Peters attributes his sudden widespread popularity to a stand-up performance he did on the Canadian TV comedy series ''Comedy Now!'' that was uploaded onto YouTube and became viral. While the initial video upload featured his performance in its 45 minute entirety, subsequent videos uploaded by other YouTube users were snippets of that performance, chopped into each of the cultural groups he targeted. According to Peters, those snippets made their way to those specified cultural groups, and were well received by them.

Comedy

Russell Peters' stand-up performances are mostly made up of observational comedy where he uses humor to poke fun at the subjects of race, class and culture, often using his own life experiences as well as impersonations of different cultural accents to illustrate his act. Russell Peters uses his minority status to allow him to poke fun at different races in his performance, but according to an interview done for ''The National'', he does not intend to put down or offend different races and cultures, but instead tries to raise them up through humor. For example: "Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad".

Personal life

Peters proposed to girlfriend Monica Diaz García on July 10, 2010 at the Los Angeles International Airport. He announced the engagement via Twitter. The couple married on August 20, 2010 at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. The wedding was attended by about 20 guests, including an Elvis impersonator. Peters and Diaz had their first child, a girl, due February 23, 2011. When announcing the pregnancy, Peters told The Canadian Press, "Did I get married because she was knocked up? I would say that expedited it." His daughter was born two and a half months early,on December 14, 2010, but was healthy as Peters stated on his Twitter. She was given the name Crystianna Marie Peters.

Awards and recognition

He has been nominated for four Gemini Awards, the Canadian television awards. He has also been nominated for Best Male Comic at the Canadian Comedy Awards. Peters has been featured at such shows as Montreal's Just for Laughs (Juste pour rire) Comedy Festival, the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, and the Edinburgh Festival.

On June 28, 2011 it was announced that Peters will receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame and will be inducted on October 1 at Elgin Theatre in Toronto.

1997 – Nomination for the Gemini Award in the category "Best Individual Performance in a Comedy Program or Series". This was for ''Show Me The Funny'', from the TV-series ''Comics!'' (1997)

2004 – Nomination for a Gemini Award for his Comedy Now! special.

2008 – Nomination for a Gemini Award for hosting The Junos.

2008 – Winner of a Gemini Award for 'Best Performance or Host in a Variety Program or Series'.

Filmography

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Notable roles played

Peters has appeared in a few films, most recently ''Senior Skip Day'' also starring Larry Miller, Tara Reid, and Gary Lundy. Besides this, he has also had short appearances in the 1994 film ''Boozecan'' as Snake's Friend, the 1999 film ''Tiger Claws III'' as Detective Elliott, the 2004 film ''My Baby's Daddy'' as the obstetrician, the 2006 film ''Quarter Life Crisis'' as Dilip Kumar, the 2007 film ''The Take'' as Dr. Sharma, and the 2008 film ''Senior Skip Day'' as Uncle Todd.

Peters is scheduled to star as "Pervius" in ''National Lampoon's The Legend of Awesomest Maximus'' he is also going to appear in a CBC movie entitled 'Breakaway'. He also acted in Duncan Jones's movie ''Source Code'' as Max, an amateur comedian with a bad attitude. ;Acting roles – television

"Comics Without Borders" (2008)

Russell Peters: Red, White and Brown (2008)

Senior Skip Day/High School's Day Off (Australia title) (2008)- Uncle Todd

;Appearances on television

"Lopez Tonight" - Himself (February 2, 2010)

"The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" – Himself (2009)

"The 9th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards" (2008)- Himself (Winner – Best Large Venue Stand-up)

"CBC News: The Hour" .... Himself – Episode dated 18 September 2008 (2008) TV episode .... Himself

"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" – Himself – Episode dated 15 February 2008 (2008)

"Def Comedy Jam" – Episode #8.4 (2008) TV episode – Himself/Comedian

"Pulse: The Desi Beat" – Episode #1.9 (2007) TV episode – Himself

"Video on Trial" – Episode #3.3 (2007) TV episode – Himself

"Comics Unleashed" – Episode #1.6 (2009) TV episode- Himself

The 4th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards (2003) – Himself

The 5th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards (2004) – Nominee (Male Stand-up)

MTV Cribs (Where he featured on two different episodes)

;Self

Heckler (2007)

Let's All Hate Toronto (2007)

References

Further reading

External links

Official website

Russell Peters at Facebook

Russell named first Toronto ambassador

Category:1970 births Category:Actors from Ontario Category:Anglo-Indian people Category:Canadian expatriates in the United States Category:Canadian film actors Category:Canadian Internet personalities Category:Canadian people of Indian descent Category:Canadian radio actors Category:Canadian Roman Catholics Category:Canadian stand-up comedians Category:Gemini Award winners Category:Living people Category:People from Brampton

de:Russell Peters es:Russell Peters hi:रसेल पीटर्स it:Russell Peters kn:ರಸ್ಸೆಲ್ ಪೀಟರ್ಸ್ nl:Russell Peters ro:Russell Peters simple:Russell Peters ta:ரசல் பீட்டர்சு zh:罗素·彼得斯

Alexandra Wallace (born 1966) is the current executive producer of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. She graduated from Columbia University, where she majored in English literature, in 1988, after which she spent a year working in the media industry in London. She then worked for CBS News for seventeen years before joining NBC to work on the Today Show. She is married to an administrator of a private school in Manhattan, with whom she has two children.

External links

Biography at NBC Nightly News

NY Times story on Wallace

Category:1966 births Category:Living people Category:American television news producers Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Emmy Award winners Category:NBC News Category:Date of birth missing (living people)