WotC Dungeons & Dragons Fans Seek Removal of Oriental Adventures From Online Marketplace

[Flamestrike]

Can someone elighten me?

The term 'Oriental' maybe doesnt have the same connotations here in Australia than elsewhere.

Whats wrong with the title?

 

[tommybahama]

What do you think?

As an Asian, I stand with Margaret Cho: "I think what it is is that white people like to tell Asians how to feel."

From an editorial in the Chicago Tribune by J. Tsuchiyama: "As an Oriental, I am bemused. Apparently Asians are supposed to feel demeaned if someone refers to us as Orientals. But good luck finding a single Asian American who has ever had the word spat at them in anger. Most Asian Americans have had racist epithets hurled at them at one time or another...But Oriental isn't in the canon. And why should it be? Literally, it means of the Orient or of the East, as opposed to of the Occident or of the West. Last I checked, geographic origin is not a slur. If it were, it would be wrong to label people from Mississippi as Southerners."

 

[Flamestrike]

I get the term is Eurocentric but to me its about as racist as referring to Asia as 'the East' and Europe as 'the West'.

How about we rename the PHB Occidental adventures, and we call it evens.

 

[Xenonnonex]

Call it Kara-Tur Adventures -> the new book on these ideas and inspiration.
Can bin outdated ideas and books.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

So if it can't be named "Oriental Adventures", how should we call it? Adventures in the Middle Kingdom? The Art of War? Jade Dungeons & Porcelain Dragons?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

So I was poking around and looking for the connection between Oriental and Orientalism and did not ever realize they refer to the Middle East just as much as they do Asia. When I hear Oriental, I have never thought of Persia or Turkey, only Japan or China or other east Asian countries. It also appears the terms did not really start having serious negative connotations until Edward Said, a professor and political activist, included it in a negative way in his books, including one titled Orientalism, published in 1978. Reading all that makes me wonder how the original release was called Oriental Adventures in the first place, seeing as it was published only 7 years later. Though with no internet to check on things like that, it is understandable that no one at TSR would have even known.

 

[Xenonnonex]

So if it can't be named "Oriental Adventures", how should we call it? Adventures in the Middle Kingdom? The Art of War? Jade Dungeons & Porcelain Dragons?

Adventures in Kara Tur.
Kara Tur Adventures.
Beyond Faerun.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Adventures in Kara Tur.
Kara Tur Adventures.
Beyond Faerun.

What if I don't want to play in the Realms?

 

[Sadras]

As an Asian, I stand with Margaret Cho: "I think what it is is that white people like to tell Asians how to feel."

From an editorial in the Chicago Tribune by J. Tsuchiyama: "As an Oriental, I am bemused. Apparently Asians are supposed to feel demeaned if someone refers to us as Orientals. But good luck finding a single Asian American who has ever had the word spat at them in anger. Most Asian Americans have had racist epithets hurled at them at one time or another...But Oriental isn't in the canon. And why should it be? Literally, it means of the Orient or of the East, as opposed to of the Occident or of the West. Last I checked, geographic origin is not a slur. If it were, it would be wrong to label people from Mississippi as Southerners."

Thank you for this! I'm sick and tired of white outrage.

 

[Xenonnonex]

What if I don't want to play in the Realms?

Explorer's Guide to Porcelain Dragons and Jade Empires.