What's politically incorrect about saying/writing "Looks Asian"? (please read below)?

Alan? I played for him in Cleavland many years ago. I can tell you he wouldn't have been offended by the comment since he jokes about that very thing often. I ran into him at Juilliard this past spring and he seemed like the same guy I knew back then. And heck, he IS Asian. His dad is American and his mom is Japanese, so OK, he is Half asian. Perhaps your comment was inappropriate because Asians are by far NOT minorities in the orchestra world. I'm sure if you he were Mexican and you said he looks Indian, you may have got away with it.

I don't think that under the circumstances "looks Asian" is inappropriate. I have been told that Chinese do not like to be called Oriental, but prefer to be called Asian (if they're not being called Chinese). However, Asia covers a very large area and many ethnic groups. That might have been what your teacher was referring to.

You did it in an innocent enough way, I guess people just might assume that you were being racist.