I doubt anyone would descibe him/herself as an "occidental," unless it's to differentiate between "orientals." It's not as if either term was agreed upon in a world forum ... the UN or someplace like that. "Oriental" was to designate ... "The Other." And in Colonial times referred to the Middle East. "Oriental" rugs, for instance, from Turkey, Pakistan, Persia. The problem is, the term "Asian" is no less political. If you include India, and they do consider themselves "Asian" for mostly political reasons, Asians make up 60% of the world's population. Some of you old timers will remember that if you were "Asian," you were often called "Chinese," even if you were Japanese, Vietnamese, Laotian, Thai, Malay ... In fact, I heard this morning on sports radio a guy refer that "Chinese ballplayer who appeared in that porn film." If you told him that ballplayer was not Chinese but Japanese, he'd probably say, "Whatever. It's the same thing." Sure, except for wars that go back thousands of years, different ethnicities ... languages, customs, religion ... etc. People are separated in the US along "race." (a social construct, really) But tell someone from Ireland that there's no different between him/her and a Brit ... he/she may take offense.
There's that joke in "King of the Hill." Khan (sp?) is introducing himself to his new neighbors. Hank asks him if he's "Chinese or Japanese?" Khan explains that he is Laotian ... that means he's from Laos. Hank says ... "Yeah, but are you Chinese or Japanese?"