Trying to expand “Wasian” to include the entire geographic definition of Asia kind of defeats the original purpose of the term. Geography alone does not automatically create the same lived experience.
The people who originally coined and popularized the term “Wasian” in the US had a very specific meaning in mind: half white + half East Asian or Southeast Asian. The term developed around a shared social and cultural experience among those mixed communities.
Trying to expand “Wasian” to include the entire geographic definition of Asia kind of defeats the original purpose of the term. Geography alone does not automatically create the same lived experience.
For example, Asia also includes the Middle East and the Levant. But a white-passing Syrian/Lebanese mixed with a white German person will usually be perceived and treated very differently in society compared to someone who is half Chinese and half white German. The social experience, visibility, stereotypes, and identity issues are not the same. That’s why the term “Wasian” was specifically created around the experience of white mixed with East Asian and Southeast Asian people.