Oriental in Chinese / Japanese...

東方自尊 is the universal way to write “Asian Pride.”

We worked on this one for a long time. The effort involved both Chinese and Japanese translators and lengthy discussions. If you have been searching for this term, there is a reason that it's hard to find the way to write “Asian Pride” in Chinese and Japanese - it's because of the inherent difficulties in figuring out a universal combination of characters that can be read in all languages that use forms of Chinese characters.

This final solution that you see to the left creates a reasonable title in Chinese and an exotic (perhaps unusual) title in Japanese (This could be read as “Eastern Self-Respect” in Japanese”).
Although not as natural, it does have the same meaning as Korean Hanja, and the older generation of Vietnamese people will be able to read it.

The first two characters literally mean “Oriental” and the second two mean “pride,” “self-esteem,” or “self-respect” (we chose the most non-arrogant way to say “pride”). If you have “Asian Pride” (sometimes spelled Asian Pryde) these are the characters for you.

Note: For those who wonder, there is nothing technically wrong with the word “Oriental.” It is a correct word, and any bad meanings were created by so-called “Asian Americans” and Caucasians in the United States. To say “Asian” would not completely correct the intended meaning since that would include people from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, India, and portions of Russia.

For further proof, if you were of East Asian ancestry and born in England, you would be known as a “British Oriental” (The “Oriental stigma” is basically an American creation and, therefore, applies mainly to the American English language - where they get a bit overzealous with political correctness).

Further, since the Chinese and Japanese word for Oriental is not English, they can not be construed as having ill meaning. On one trip to China or Japan, you will find many things titled with these two characters, such as malls, buildings, and business names. These places also use “Oriental” as their English title (much as we do since our Chinese business name starts with these same two characters).

In short, the first two characters have the meaning that Americans attach to “Asian” but is more technically correct.

櫻花 is how to write “cherry blossom” in Chinese and traditional Japanese Kanji.

The first character means “cherry” or sometimes “cherry tree.”
The second character means “flowers” or “blossoms.”

Oddly, my Chinese dictionary also defines these two characters as “Japanese oriental cherry tree” or “Oriental cherry blossom.” However, the first character is the only one that means “cherry,” so it can refer to any cherry blossoms in the whole world (not just those in Asia).

There is an alternate version of the first character, which has become the standard for Japanese Kanji. If you want this version, instead of the one shown to the upper left, please click on the Kanji shown to the right instead of the button above. Although this is an alternate form in Chinese, most Chinese people will think this is just the Japanese version (Chinese people don’t necessarily know the history and all alternate forms of Chinese characters from the past). Therefore, this version shown to the right is best if your audience is Japanese (though most Japanese will recognize the form shown in the upper left).

斯巴魯 is the Chinese title for the Subaru brand of automobiles.

At Oriental Outpost, we exclusively drive Subaru vehicles (purchased our 4th Subaru in 2016).

Notes: Occasionally, the title 速霸陸 is used for Subaru. The title is completely different in Japanese.

回教 means “Hui Religion” in Chinese.

It refers specifically to the Hui people (Huizu), who have typical Oriental looks but are Muslim (practice the religion of Islam). Hui people can be found throughout China, often establishing Muslim neighborhoods in many cities.

My Japanese dictionary lists this as the all-Kanji way to write Islam as well.

In Korean, the first character is used as a short name to say Muslim.

東 is the direction East in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja.

Sometimes used as an abbreviation for the Eastern Hemisphere.

This can also be the surname Dong in China.
In Japan, this can be an abbreviation for a kind of six-stringed zither, or the personal name, Yamato.

東 is used as a suffix for many words in Asia. In fact, it's part of the CJK word 東方 meaning Orient or Oriental. The word 東方 more literally translates as “Eastern Kingdoms,” “Eastern Countries,” or simply “The East.”