What Amshinover meant by Orientals

He certainly did not mean Asians, i.e. Chinese. Reading Sholem reminded me that Orientalism was the juxtaposition of East to West, a dominant theme and tension in the prewar European culture. China was part of the Orient, but so was Iran (see rugs), Turkey, Palestine and even Egypt.

P.S. Anyone knows why "Middle East", middle of what? In Russia they call Asia "Far East" and "Middle East" they call "Near East", that makes sense geographically.