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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There is a psychosis common amongst ethnic Japanese and South Koreans that they have a romantic heritage, a kinship of sort with the so-called barbaric ‘Altaic races’ - the Mongols, the Turks, and the Manchus, in terrorizing and conquering the great Eastern and Western civilizations on the backs of steeds in the boundless steppes of Eurasia. Much of this psychosis stems from the overly eager acceptance by Koreans and Japanese of Westerners’ pronouncement that the Korean and Japanese languages are Altaic.

The reality is that the ancestors of modern Japanese and South Koreans were, more likely than not, refugees trudging up and down rice paddy fields in rolled up trousers and conical hats. Recent DNA tests results (1999) by Japanese researchers indicate that the Yayoi, a somewhat civilized non-Han Chinese people who lived just outside the southern extent of the early Qin Empire, migrated to Jomon Japan about 2,300 years ago from Jiangsu Province (near Shanghai, China.), perhaps to flee from the Han Chinese army of the north that would centuries later invade southwards all the way to Vietnam. http://www.trussel.com/prehist/news111.htm They probably escaped by sea across the Yellow Sea and brought with them irrigated rice growing techniques to the southern portion of the Korean peninsula and Japan, lands already settled by another more primitive people. http://www.carleton.ca/~bgordon/Rice/papers/zhimin99.htm Little is known about the Yayoi, simply because like all other non-Chinese people in East Asia, their ability to write would have to await many centuries later. Nonetheless, the Yayoi people are the basis of the modern Japanese and to a lesser extent South Koreans.

The Rape of Nanjing of 1937 is an event that will live in infamy. Incidentally, the city of Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu Province, the ancient heartland of the Yayoi. The Rape of Nanjing by the Japanese Imperial Army is beginning to sound like a bad novel starring the Japanese Prodigal Son who returns home to rape his own mother and sisters! Nonetheless, it is important to understand the context of the Japanese psyche at the time of the atrocity committed by the Japanese upon other Asians; the Japanese simply did not comprehend that they were Asians during the critical time period of the Second World War, not that it excuses them for the killing of a quarter of a million people in Nanjing alone. http://www.trussel.com/prehist/news146.htm

For over a century, Western researchers have played with the idea that the Ainus, who once occupied Japan and the southern portion of the Korean peninsula, were Caucasoid, with some researchers even speculating that the Ainus were one of the Twelve Lost Tribes of Israel! We now know, at last, the Ainus are an Australoid people and that the Japanese language has an Australoid origin not an Altaic one. http://www.dai3gen.net/epage10a.htm http://www.dai3gen.net/epage13.htm There is simply nothing really Altaic in Japanese culture and in genetics. The Japanese people are a mixture of southern non-Han proto-Chinese, Jomon, and Australoid-type peoples. Like modern southern Chinese, the Japanese people are rice and fish eaters, whereas northern Mongoloids are not. It is time that the southern Koreans and Japanese to stop fantasizing of a glorious past that never was and get back to work in the rice patties.

I Ching Wednesday, June 19, 2002 at 06:32:46 (PDT)

Early Japanese-Korean Relations for those who are interested.

I had to do a little digging for this because my specialty in premodern Japanese history is art. I am more a modern/post-modern history person. I can actually give a few dates and elaboration (hopefully an unbiased view)to Korean account and to the accounts of Chinese influence on early Japan. I wanted to do this on my previous response, but I didn't have the resources with me.

First, I have to clarify myself here. I never said that the first emporer was KOREAN. How could he be if there was no such thing as Korea back then? (I'm just using 'Korea' because it's easier to talk about these places in present-day terms). I just said that he came from Korea. What his tribal background was is still open to debate, but he did cross the sea from the mainland to Japan via the tip of Korea to Kyushu. Now, because he came to Japan this way and we know that his mother was royal Puyo, it's a good possibility that since she settled in present-day Korea, his father was more likely than not of Paekche origin.

This is what I found:
-Until the 8th century, Korea had a big political, cultural and economic influence in Japan. Probably equal to that of China (of course, the T'ang dynasty did have a slightly stronger influence on Japan to make it more refined-they gave Japan medical knowledge, Buddhism and a concept of an established kingdom--hey, not to mention chopsticks!). Japan at the time was not very strong at the time so it would make sense that it's TWO closest neighbors would have the most influence. Also, Japan had very close relations with the Kaya kingdom on the mainland--the southern most tip of present-day Korea.
-The folklore surrounding Japanese mythology is similar to stories told in Korea, China and Southeast Asia. Scholars have successfully proven in the academic world that many of Japanese myths are derived from Korean and Chinese origins and those of nomadic Asian groups.
-The mythological and actual historical origins of the first emporer correlate in some ways. The first emporer seems to have appeared 'out of no where' to end up on the island of Kyushu. (Maybe Korea, since it's the closest to Japan?). From Kyushu he conquered Honshu from the West (either way, he was not native to present-day Japan). As a matter of fact one of his mythological great-grandfathers was sent to Korea first after tearing up the Sun Goddesses things. She kicked him out of heaven and sent him to the earth to rule. There is ample evidence (historical and archeological) to support the first kingdoms of Japan were established on the island of Kyushu.
-The "historical documents" known as the Kojiki and Nihongi concerning the folklore and history of Japan were compiled in 712 and 720, respectively and had so much influence from Korea and China and political factors of Japan that they cannot be relied upon as accurate historical documents (but it's the best native record avaliable to date). Much of the history from the Nihongi has been taken from Paekche sources. Documents like this were commissioned by emporer Temmu to justify his existance and to make him godlike to supercede the rule of the reigning Chinese emporer (who ruled on principle, not divine kinship, I think). The Nihongi was written in order to give a sense of cultural self-esteem to the people of Japan so they could rise to the level of power China had. The date of Jimmu's start of rule is very doubtful because the date itself is based on Chinese 'numerology' not actual fact. it is almost impossible to get an accurate date because the Japanese records were all oral.
*These writings were taken as historical fact only recently in the modern age by ultranationalists to prove Japan's uniqueness and divine rights.
-In the first recordings of Japan by China (History of Wei), there were about 100 different societies/tribes. Read: they were NOT Japanese back then--and probably did not resemble modern-day Japanese. The name Nihon (Japan) was not in use until the 8th century after the Kojiki and Nohongi were written.
-Until Jimmu set foot onto 'Japanese' soil, the land was ruled by a high priestess and her brother, not an imperial family. 'Japan' was for a short time united as much as it could be under a matriarical society. This is until a male ruler came to the island and decided to take it over.
-Things became rocky between Japan and Korea around the 8th century when Japan sent troops to help Korea hold back Chinese forces. When the Japanese troops were defeated, strains were put onto Japanese/Korean relations. Japan only thought to sever its relations with Korea AFTER it was conquered by China in the late Nara period. By this time there had been two major influxes of Korean immagrants to Japan. The first was in the 3rd century (mostly weavers who began a colony which numbered about 30,000 by the 6th century) the second was in the 7th and 8th centuries. They brought the calendar, medical, technical and more artistic knowledge to Japan.

Now the thing that really stumps me about conquerers from the north is why weren't kingdoms established in Hokkaido first? Or at least the northern most tips of Honshu? According to the resources I have, the kingdoms moved from south to north, not north to south. I am not saying the Chinese never went to Japan via the north. I am saying that perhaps Chinese did not establish kingdoms in Japan when they came but the Paekche did. The indigenous people did not seem to be influential enough to establish their own permanent kingdom. The mythology also seems to indicate a foreign visitor who came to the island of Japan (and an abrupt disruption in native ways), not a native who took control of the island. Doesn't that seem a little strange?

Joy (fka black gyrl in Japan) Wednesday, June 19, 2002 at 00:38:52 (PDT)

I read from an old Chinese classic that the Dong-yi people, which Koreans claims to be their ancestors, are also actually one of the various ancestors of the Han Chinese. In fact, it is part of the tribe from the Ywllow Emperor. Hence, Korean and Chinese are not that different afterall.
supporting ROK in World Cup Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 23:09:58 (PDT)

Joy,

"What about the little Korean-Japanese girls who got bullied by Japanese school children because they were wearing their uniforms that marked them as Koreans, in the hanbok style."

What? Is this true? Ethnic Korean Japanese kids have to wear special uniforms to show their Korean ethnicity? What the hell?! Or did those Koreans choose to do so?

Hoklo Taiwanese Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 22:14:43 (PDT)

"None..both groups have a history of contacts with Westerners and Westernization. Again, please read the above paragraphs."

One more point. Taiwan can be said to have been "japanized" since it had been colonized by Japan for a whole 50 years that ended only about 50 yrs ago. The school system back then was Japanese style. My grandparents speak Japanese 100x better than Mandarin. Yet, not as many Japanese tourists go to Taiwan as to HK since, according to you, Cantonese people are very similar to the Japanese.

Perhaps you would then say "westernization" is the only factor contributing to the similarity, not "japanization," and that westernization to both groups (Cantonese, Japanese) only started less than 50 years ago. But I think this is absurd.

Hoklo Taiwanese Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 21:16:50 (PDT)

growing up in a area with lots of different asians i just have to say coreans because my school was filled with coreans and even thought i'm not korean.. i was well accepted and treated very nicely and i find corean girls to be quite attractive
vtbc Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 20:47:30 (PDT)

Chinese guy:

Check out this link. I'm not quite certain about indonbesian, filippino genes but according to some research, genetically, Viets cluster with southern chinese, Thai.

http://www.wufi.org.tw/eng/linmalie.htm

k Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 20:36:38 (PDT)

It's difficult to trace the pure root of human race. However, modern technology with the component of combining the genetic pool, there may be a possibly. But the outcome would be taunted to modern man to understand.

For example, there is some trace of evidence that the ancient northern population in Japan tends to be the migrants from scandinavia, ie: Finland, Norway, Siberian and etc...
They are know to be the Eurasia, which is also AKA in Japan as the Ainu.

However, one must not forget that there are some migrants from the Pacific ocean to possibly land in Japan, Korean or east cost of Asia, they are the Polynesian. Their migration had recorded from Haiwaii, Tahiti, Guam, Fiji, New Zealand, Japan, and perhaps China.

Then there are some tribes from the southwestern region of the Yangtze river, known to be the Myanmar-china border. The Mon-Khmer who once inhabited near this region were wet-rice farmer. After being invaded by the Han dynasty, most of these people fled their homeland to everywhere. A group then migrated to South Korea where it developed the wet rice culture in Korea. From Korea, they may have spread to Japan, which of course we are aware that Japanese do have wet rice farming.

So based on my understanding that Japan, although like any countries, has many ethnics. Thus, it's possible that a great degree of Japanese derive from the Korea's peninsula.

Of course, since China in the past is known as the center of the world in the eastern family. There is a definite great influence of Chinese literature, techology, engineering, customary, and intermarriage to the Vietnamese, Japanese and korean.

Just think of the Roman empire for a moment, it spread from the north, south east and west...the same could be said about the Chinese empire.
Just Watching Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 20:19:29 (PDT)

"The same applies to any Chiu Chou/Hokkien speaker in the HK or Guangdong area trying to understand the Minnan dialect of Taiwan."

But those in southern Fujian can somewhat understand Taiwanese Min-nan.

"None..both groups have a history of contacts with Westerners and Westernization. Again, please read the above paragraphs."

If this is what you've been trying to say all this time, then I have no further comment other than many groups of hispanic people are very similar to the Cantonese (and to the Japanese) since, according to your logic, they have been greatly "westernized" as well.

Hoklo Taiwanese Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 20:08:32 (PDT)

viet-study-ly,

First of all, not all races of Asia are Mongoloids.

The Middle East is Caucasoid, while in India it mostly Dravdian (Australoid) with some Caucasoid intermixture. Central Asia had once been Caucasoid but is now mixed due to intrusions by Turkic, Han Chinese and Mongols.

The Indian proto-race (Dravidian) has much in common with the Malayan races. They are Australoid race, while the Malayan are the same but with a little more Mongoloid mixture. They had lived in Asia just as long as the Mongoloids have.
Indian mixing with Sino-Tibetans occur only with limitedly in Nepal. The Himalaya mountains served as a barrier between Indian and Chinese races.
tri Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 18:04:52 (PDT)

Chinese Guy,

Actually in one other website, they say the DNA of Vietnamese and Cambodians are even closer to northern Asians (Mongols and Siberians) than they are to East Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans). How that is possible, I don't know? It could have been that before the Han people left their base in northwest parts of China, the Yueh people had mixed with Altaic peoples.

tri Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 17:58:48 (PDT)

To Viet-Stud-ly:

The Himalayan mountains my friend.
That's what separates East asians from Indians.

Indians are more Middle Eastern than asian.

zenmasta Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 15:11:00 (PDT)

Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese all came from the same fathers,

Kija has not been deleted from the Korean records.

But Kija did not overhaul Korean society the way Koreans indelibly changed Japan.

The legend of Kija describes him arriving at an already extant Korean society, but there is no break in the Korean cultural continuity. Koreans remained Korean.

In contrast, the Koreans wave of immigrations into the Japanese islands absolutely changed Japanese society and way of life (in population and culture), and did so again and again -- up to the fall of Paekche and their wholesale immigration to Japan, where the Korean aristocracy took their positions in Japan's upper social echelons. Japan became a mirror image of Paekche Korea.

One could argue that Paekche did not die, but continued its evolution in the islands across the sea, while the peninsula was the landscape on which Silla continued to evolve.

so Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 13:40:51 (PDT)

race and language are not the same,

I meant to write, "Sinitic", not "Semitic".

Big difference, indeed.

My mistake.

(C'mon, obviously semitic peoples had little to do with China)
so Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 13:10:50 (PDT)

What race do filipinos belong to?
Classic Mongoloid Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 13:10:28 (PDT)

Miyagi,

Unlike the Japanese and Koreans and other Asians, the Chinese have a diverse population when it comes to local customs and dialects. You need to visit China more often (both North and South) and associate with Chinese people to see the animosities between the different groups.

Why does China have so many dialects?

Why is Chinese food so immense and have so many different types of cooking?

If you can answer these questions, you know the reason why Chinese people argue petty matters among themselves.
Chinese time bomb Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 12:53:33 (PDT)

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