Crossword Genius

Asian working in co-ed: he’s popular to begin with (11)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

indochinese

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'asian' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?

'working in co-ed he's popular to begin with' is the wordplay.
'working' is an anagram indicator.
'popular' becomes 'in' ('in' can mean trendy).
'to begin with' says to put letters next to each other.
'in'+'co'+'ed'+'hes'='incoedhes'
'incoedhes' is an anagram of 'dochinese'.
'dochinese' put after 'in' is 'INDOCHINESE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for indochinese that I've seen before include "Thai, Cambodian, etc" , "Relating to region of Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, etc" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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