Comparing Asian Nationalities | Asian American Poll

COMPARING ASIAN NATIONALITIES
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:21:02 PM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

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WHAT YOU SAY

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Ji,

I never heard of the "elbow" test for identifying Han Chinese-ness, but there is another popular and controversial test I heard about called the "eyebrow" test. If your eyebrows are horizontally straight (little or no arch), high above your eyes and are a little bushy then you are more "Han" which means you are closer to the original Han people. If your eyebrows arch toward your nose and rests low on your brow and eyes, your ancestors were probably Southern (Malay) in origin. If it arches toward your nose but the eyebrows are high above your eyes, you are probably mixed with Han and Malay blood. If your eyebrows arch away from your nose toward your ears and rests high on your brow, then you are of Mongol or Tibetan stock.

Judging from ancient Han-era paintings and sculptures, the original Han Chinese has high straight eyebrows and small single-lid eyes with a roundest and flat face. Their noses and lips range from small to big but all have large foreheads and earlobes. They almost have a Mongol-likeness which is attributed to their genetic closeness to northern peoples such as the Mongolians and the Koreans. This has been proven by geneticists studying the Chinese population.

The more south you go in China, the more incredible the physical diversity of the people. You will find typical Han featured and Malay featured people living as neighbors in the same village and sometimes are of the same family! Almost all southerners are mixed Han judging by the genetic record. The majority are indistinguishable from the Northern Hans except for skin color and stature. A very interesting rare trait found mostly in Guangdong province is the "forwardness" of the face (not as flat as a typical Han), with the nose being prominent. Many see this a Turkic influence and scientists are not really sure about this. Their bodies are leaner and have a sinew ness in their longish limbs. Incredibly, many can trace their ancestry to the Song Dynasty using family records held in local Temples.

One thing's certain, all Chinese have Han blood to varying degrees including many ethic minorities living in China. Basically, all Chinese are mutts. No one can call himself or herself pure Han since the original Han have mixed with so many peoples for so long (>3,000 years) that there's no way a pure Han exists today. Even though not culturally, the Chinese are genetically related to all the major peoples of north and south Asia.

a Mutt Wednesday, May 15, 2002 at 03:25:05 (PDT)

I don't think Tia Carrere is gorgeous. There are lots more fine looking Malay Filipina than her.
the finest filipinas are in the philippines not in the u.s. Tuesday, May 14, 2002 at 22:57:21 (PDT)

AZN realist,
I understand what you are talking about and like what you told me, I think those people are racist but not all Malaysian-Chinese are racists. My mom'z best friend consists of different races.From Eur5asian, Indian, Malay European and Malay to filipinos. She's very much open minded and sometimes she would scold my brother for making alittle racist remarks. I just wanna tell you that not all Malaysian-Chinese are as you described. You can't start stereotyping because you've met some racist people.
Malaysian-Eurasian Gal18 Tuesday, May 14, 2002 at 17:13:53 (PDT)

The problem is, other people are always trying to DEFINE what a filipino is. Well the truth is filipinos are everything, to the point where we are none. Filipinos are asian, but from my experiences, other asian nationalities over here tend to exclude filipinos because we are different. We certainly have similarites with the Pacific Islanders, but that can only be said before the Spaniards, who taught us to hate ourselves came. Our culture is westernized so we have a very culturally diverse country. Alot of koreans and japanese at my school tell me filipinos have no "asian" culture in them. They tell me we dont have Asian history, Asian language, Asian cars, technology, Asian religion, basically they keep telling me our culture is thirld world crap. We waste our time arguing over this STUPID topic, are filipinos asian? Are they Pacific Islanders? Or even some people out there claim filipinos have more in common with the culture of Latin America. WHAT IS A FILIPINO? WHAT MAKES A FILIPINO, FILIPINO? Our culture includes everyone, indigenous, malay, spanish, american and other asian cultures. The categories are so strict, that filipinos cant be cant be in just one. And when we say we are in the other category, someone will always say that filipinos dont want to be asian. You have to realize that its not the filipinos fault. We dont know who we are yet, but good things will happen in the philippines. Good things are bound to happen.
eddy Tuesday, May 14, 2002 at 14:44:56 (PDT)

On the topic of the Filipinos...

They come in all sorts, in terms of looks and in PERSONALITY.

Many Filipinos are easy going and laid back. However, I have met a number of Filipinos are very "East Asian" or "Jewish" in mentality. What I mean by this is that there are some Filipinos out there who are ambitious, industrious, materialistic, money hungry and success oriented. Nothing wrong with that.

I think some East Asians tend to look down on the Filipinos because they appear to be lacking in ambition and only want to be "down" with the Blacks and Latins. THIS IS NOT TRUE!

I have met some who graduated from the top business schools or prestigious universities and most of them think and act like any typical Chinese, Japanese or Jewish individual with a success mentality.

And not all Filipinos in the media are potrayed as easy going or laid back.

Von Flores, the actor in the Earth Final Conflict who plays a FBI agent, is potrayed as a sneaky, cutthroat and treacherous villain. His image is more of a typical Hollywood East Asian Male Bad Guy and not a Filipino.
Highly Evolved Tuesday, May 14, 2002 at 11:33:40 (PDT)

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