Essentially fear more forbidding Asian (9)
I believe the answer is:
easterner
'asian' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'essentially fear more forbidding' is the wordplay.
'essentially' says to take the centre.
'more forbidding' becomes 'sterner' ('stern' can be a synonym of 'forbidding').
The central letters of 'fear' are 'ea'.
'ea'+'sterner'='EASTERNER'
(Other definitions for easterner that I've seen before include "New Yorker perhaps" , "one from Boston, say" , "Oriental person" , "Asian" , "Resident of Connecticut, perhaps" .)