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Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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I remember there was a 'genetic distance' study among Asians and Europeans, which showed that Chinese in Beijing were equally distant from Vietnamese from Hanoi and Japanese from Tokyo. There was no sample from southern China, however, which got me wondering.
I have ancestors from Fujian province...I have a look that is hard to pin down, I've been mistaken from anything from Cambodian to Korean. My sister, however, looks like a lot of girls I've seen in Vietnam and Thailand, and most people think she is Filipino or something. Another sister looks Korean/Hmong. I don't have that small eyes, and don't look extremely oriental like Mongolians or Northern Chinese.
Would you say someone native to say, Quanzhou, is genetically closer to someone from Beijing or Hue, Vietnam? Going by looks alone, some Southern Chinese look totally Vietnamese (I know many), while a few look more northern Chinese. I'd say they lean more to Viets, though.
My bet is you can find more similarities with Northern Chinese due to some common heritage. Vietnam stopped being a part of China around 1000 years ago, so I think that's long enough to have really some genetic influence. Besides, the Kinh, who are the most closely related to the Vietnamese, are still considered a separate ethnic group in China, so not as closely integrated to the Chinese as the long history might indicate.
The capital of China was in Xi'an for a long time. In various dynasties, it moved to Nanjing and even as far south as Hangzhou. I would think that you would find more common genetic similarities among the Chinese around this area, rather than as far north as Beijing. I believe there's a lot of Mongol, Manchu and other non-Chinese genetic admixture in Beijing.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,606 posts, read 55,756,157 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenTiger
My bet is you can find more similarities with Northern Chinese due to some common heritage. Vietnam stopped being a part of China around 1000 years ago, so I think that's long enough to have really some genetic influence. Besides, the Kinh, who are the most closely related to the Vietnamese, are still considered a separate ethnic group in China, so not as closely integrated to the Chinese as the long history might indicate.
The capital of China was in Xi'an for a long time. In various dynasties, it moved to Nanjing and even as far south as Hangzhou. I would think that you would find more common genetic similarities among the Chinese around this area, rather than as far north as Beijing. I believe there's a lot of Mongol, Manchu and other non-Chinese genetic admixture in Beijing.
I always think of the most 'pure' Chinese as those that still live in the boundaries of the Zhou dynasty, before the Warring states period, which includes Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, Hebei. The people in these provinces tend to be more Northern Chinese in appearance. The Southern Chinese, especially from Guangdong and Guangxi, often look pretty Southeast Asian. Many people in Hanoi couldn't be distinguished from, for example, Singaporean Chinese whereas those in Beijing and Xian look different.
I always think of the most 'pure' Chinese as those that still live in the boundaries of the Zhou dynasty, before the Warring states period, which includes Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, Hebei. The people in these provinces tend to be more Northern Chinese in appearance. The Southern Chinese, especially from Guangdong and Guangxi, often look pretty Southeast Asian. Many people in Hanoi couldn't be distinguished from, for example, Singaporean Chinese whereas those in Beijing and Xian look different.
That's the cradle of Chinese civilization, especially Henan where the Central Plain is. However, I think I would consider anywhere that has been part of China in the Han dynasty, the Tang dynasty and the Ming dynasty as "pure" Chinese. That includes as far south as Guangdong and as far north as Hebei. The south has assimilated some other ethnic groups (mostly more Vietnamese looking), but so has the north (more Mongolian looking). I would think that the average Chinese look will be that of the Wu-speaking area (Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai).
My parents were born in Cambodia but are of Chinese descent - they're Teochew people, which is found in Guangdong province which is in Southern China.
It's actually quite funny looking at the variations between my parents, siblings and I. My mother has the typical pale skin and smaller eyes though her hair is wavy while my dad could pass off as Vietnamese with his double eyelids and tanner skin. I've inherited the double eyelids from my father and my eyes are fairly big though I have pale skin like my mother and a lot of people only just guess that I'm Chinese. Not Vietnamese, not Cambodian, not any other ethnicity other than Chinese lol.
I was just in Southern China pretty recently in fact, it was about two weeks ago! I was in Guangzhou and Shenzhen and while I did notice the slight variations, I would say the vast majority of people looked typically Northern Chinese, I suppose with the smaller eyes, small nose and pale skin and nothing like Vietnamese. I did notice a couple of sellers on the streets who looked quite Caucasian in features. I'm pretty sure they were Chinese since they were speaking Mandarin, though a lot of them had dark brown hair and rounder eyes - apparently they were the Chinese people who were born near the Russian border, according to my mum's friend, and I just found that really interesting since like 60% of sellers I saw had that Caucasian look around in Shenzhen.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,606 posts, read 55,756,157 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by sohsocool
My parents were born in Cambodia but are of Chinese descent - they're Teochew people, which is found in Guangdong province which is in Southern China.
It's actually quite funny looking at the variations between my parents, siblings and I. My mother has the typical pale skin and smaller eyes though her hair is wavy while my dad could pass off as Vietnamese with his double eyelids and tanner skin. I've inherited the double eyelids from my father and my eyes are fairly big though I have pale skin like my mother and a lot of people only just guess that I'm Chinese. Not Vietnamese, not Cambodian, not any other ethnicity other than Chinese lol.
I was just in Southern China pretty recently in fact, it was about two weeks ago! I was in Guangzhou and Shenzhen and while I did notice the slight variations, I would say the vast majority of people looked typically Northern Chinese, I suppose with the smaller eyes, small nose and pale skin and nothing like Vietnamese. I did notice a couple of sellers on the streets who looked quite Caucasian in features. I'm pretty sure they were Chinese since they were speaking Mandarin, though a lot of them had dark brown hair and rounder eyes - apparently they were the Chinese people who were born near the Russian border, according to my mum's friend, and I just found that really interesting since like 60% of sellers I saw had that Caucasian look around in Shenzhen.
I also found the people in Fujian province a bit more N.Chinese looking than those in Hong Kong, I think there's been a lot of migration from central and northern provinces to the wealthier southern provinces.
Shenzhen is an immigrant city, so the vast majority of the people are not of local descent. Also, there are a noticeable number of Xinjiang-ren & Hui there; Definitely not 60%, but I don't know which areas you were using in your sample.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,606 posts, read 55,756,157 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
Which southern Chinese? There are a number of non-Han nationalities in the south. Some are Tibetan-related.
The southern 'Han' inhabited the provinces South of the Yangtze, more specifically, I would say, those in the SE provinces since I think the Han in Yunnan.etc are either quite mixed with minorities or assimilated minorities or Han from central and other parts of China. I would say somewhere like Guangdong has been Sinitic for 1200-2000 years.
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