The ease with which you share your family foils truly brings joy to this holiday season. Have a good one.

Oh and your explanation of “Oriental” vs. “Asian” reminded me of an early Margaret Choi line.

As for “Oriental woman,” I don’t want to teach any bad habits to my overseas friends so let me explain for anyone who isn’t aware of the it’s sociological baggage in America. The word “Oriental” is a loaded word in the USA, and is generally replaced with “Asian” (or “Asian-American”) with regards to people (it’s fine to describe objects as Oriental). It has a history related to treating Asians as second-class citizens and mainstream mockery in America’s history. It’s mostly used by 1) older people, it’s hard to teach old dogs new tricks, or 2) people who are innocently unaware of the changing interracial climate of the U.S. of these past few decades (including non-US citizens and immigrants), or rarely, 3) people who are aware but persist in using the word as a passive-aggressive insult or refusal to respect other ethnicities as equals in this country. My mom would be in category (1), older people. Anyone else who didn’t grow up in the USA is in category (2), the innocently unaware, although people who grew up in very non-diverse communities could be there too.

Also, for some reason on your URL, when you put www before chelseaorange.xanga.com, it goes to the xanga home site instead of your website. I feared your site was gone which would be a tragic – http://chelseaorange.xanga.com/.

BB, it is their Corean connivery at work.