Comparing Asian Nationalities | Asian American Poll

COMPARING ASIAN NATIONALITIES
(Updated Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 06:39:09 AM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

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WHAT YOU SAY

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Why are Coreans a close 2nd to Chinese
(23% vs 27%) in terms of physical appearsnce,and then drop to 4th place
(16% vs 31%) in terms of personality?
Clueless ... Saturday, December 29, 2001 at 14:35:33 (PST)

Chinese are never united,

these differing New Years dances and costumes have more to due with the results of geographical isolation more than anything else. In Japan, they also have a lion dance (usually performed at the imperial courts). It looks seemingly more like the Cantonese lion dance than it does the northern Chinese one. One can only assume that the Cantonese lion dance is of older tradition than the northern one (perhaps, it is a remnant from the Tang era). Each new dynasty in China had the habit of changing many of its art and music forms.

The Mongols termed the Northern Chinese as "Han" during the Yuan, and termed the southerners as barbarians (because it was the Sung in south China who ardently resisted the Mongols). Not to feel inferior, the southerners termed themselves as "people of the Tang Dynasty." I don't the true meaning or origins of this coinage, but it could be of 2 theories: 1) People from the north did not really extensively settle in South China until during the Tang, and hence the people there now refer to themselves as "Tang people." 2) one other theory is that the Southern Chinese are really Viet, Thai and Malayan descended. They were not conquered and incorporated into the Chinese race and ethnos until the Tang era, and so, that is why they call themselves the "Tang people."
Chinese have petty differences Friday, December 28, 2001 at 23:53:35 (PST)

Asiaphile81,

No need to get around the facts. Aren't we all originally from Africa? (black, white, yellow, brown and red don't matter).
motherland Friday, December 28, 2001 at 23:43:44 (PST)

Chinese are never united,

unicorn? are u sure? because i have never seen one in a new years dance. I'm Hainan(not sure which group of Hainans) but closely related to the teocheows. in all the new year dance i have seen, the only animals i've seen are the lions and dragons, plus a fat bald guy with a fan. hold on, let me go ask my mom.....ok, nevermind. she's lookin at me all crazy. can some1 explain this to me?
ABC Friday, December 28, 2001 at 18:52:44 (PST)

Chinese are never united,

Honestly to the average Chinese the Lion and the Chi-lin looks the same.

The Lion is not native to China, so we mistook to be a peaceful fortunitious animal. There is a whole story of Monk and the Lion and the dispersion of luck and money (the green stuff), when they perform the dance.

The Chi-Lin was a mystical deer animal (more like Miyazaki Princess Mononoke) that was walking on water and is believe to have been a factor in creating written language of Chinese.

The tradition of the dances are passed down the Kung Fu school. It really has nothing to do with Northern or Southern these days.

Cantonese people are proud of the Tang dynasty. I doubt if they are modern Chinese people they use that as an excuse to look down at other Chinese. Chinese people look down at other Chinese because they are ignorant people.

If you look through the history of China. It is seperated and united over a dozen times. In the most recent history we are united since 1911. We are in the "People's Dynasty" year 90. Most Chinese people are referred to as "Hwa" these days. Referrences to older nations or dynasty are mostly a colloquial thing, no one feels any allegency to nations of the past.

Chinese people are very regionalized. So we identity with locations. People will just rant off Province or City of birth if you ask them what kind of Chinese they are.

The tension and division you seeing are due to over competition in the Americas for a limited market in the Chinese community. Language barrier, cultural difference, and old world political thinking of Chinese immigrants also lend to this problem.

Taiwanese will refer to themselves as 'Dai Wan Lan.' That's mostly a politics thing though.

Most Chinese in the USA will assimilate into the culture and will be united under the term "Asian"
AC dropout Friday, December 28, 2001 at 11:50:46 (PST)

Tink:
There is a little African in these people. The Africans made their way around, didn't they. If you look at some of the art from Asia, you can see that they have Afrocentric features. They even managed to make there way to Northern China! How 'bout that, eh? I think some folks of the Xia Dynasty were partly Black... I could be wrong, though! If anyone wants to correct anything I've said, could ya give a gal some resources?
AsioPhile 81: Trying To Be Smarter Thursday, December 27, 2001 at 22:25:28 (PST)

Since Chinese New Year is approaching for the year 2002. Could anyone tell me what there are 2 distinct animal dances found in Southern China and the Chinatowns throughout the world?

Most Cantonese perform the Lion Dance and another group peform the Unicorn Dance. Why is there this division and difference? Someone told me that the Cantonese felt superior over all the other Chinese in Southern China, and so they adopted the Lion dance for Chinese New Year. The lion symbolizes prowess and might. Meanwhile other Southern Chinese like the Hakkas and maybe the Teocheows?? perform the Unicorn dance, an animal which is much more humble and weak...

Do these performances reflect the hierarchies or power structures between the different groups of Chinese?

I also noticed these performances are very different among the Northern Chinese, they use dragons and men dressed up in a lion's suit in their New Year Celebrations.

Finally, is there evidence claiming that the Chinese were people of different ethnicities and eventually united as one, because I still see a sharp division/tension among the Modern Day Chinese? Southern Chinese call themselves the Tangs, Northern Chinese, the Hans and I don't even know what Taiwanese call themselves, Is it the Mins?
Chinese are never united Thursday, December 27, 2001 at 21:04:32 (PST)

Walking Talking Library,

The theory was developed by a Russian linguist, Starostin. On what basis I don't know? But, his works gives examples.

He proposes a super-family language that consists of Basque, Etruscan, Phyrigian (the non Indo European language of ancient Greece), Hurrian, Urartian (the non Indo European language of Armenia), Sumerian, North Caucasian (Chechen, Circassian, Abkhazian, Adygei, Avar, Dagestani, Ingush, etc.), Ket (a tribe in the Yenisei region of Siberia, they were once spread out and numerous), Burushaski (a tribe in northern Pakistan with no ties with Pashtuns), Sino-Tibetan and NaDene (Navajo, Apache tribes).

All those languages had a common ancestor more than 10,000 years ago according to Starostin.

It is a wonder that this language group gave rise to most of the world's earliest civilizations (Etruscans, Phyrigians, Urartians, Chinese and Sumerians).

If we go way back, perhaps there was less racial differences back then?
We are all one Thursday, December 27, 2001 at 01:43:13 (PST)

Walking talking library,

Your definitions and labeling of 5 races is not so clear cut. There is much heterogenous genetics among the people of the Middle East. You find that they have traces from white, yellow and black races. I have seen many Chinese hapas (mixed breeds) who can easily pass off into this "race."

There are wide differences even among the various European groups themselves.

There is continuity and flow of genes among all races. It can be attributed to either race mixing or just that people keep changing physically as they wander far off from their original points of origin. Migrations, trading and warfare have contributed to this too. Also, we must take into account the changing climates, landscapes, etc. that affect genes and phenotypes.
George Thursday, December 27, 2001 at 00:51:48 (PST)

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