AA ATTITUDE TOWARD HEIGHT
(Updated to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

Assuming you are an Asian American, how important is height in your assessment of a person's attractiveness?
It's a key element of attractiveness. | 20%
It's one of many factors I consider. | 44%
It's less important than other personal qualities. | 28%
I am not attracted to tall people. | 8%

Assuming you are an Asian American, which best matches your feelings toward your own height?
I'd like to be 3 inches taller. | 43%
I'd like to be an inch taller. | 27%
I'm happy with my height. | 26%
I'd like to be an inch shorter. | 4%
Word on the street is that Northern Chinese, especially those from the Shandong peninsula, are taller than most other Asian folk. It's one of those things that most old-school Chinese peeps have heard about. Me i'm 6'3" and have lots of tall relatives, and we all originate from that area of China.
Peril-L    Tuesday, November 06, 2001 at 19:03:25 (PST)
George

Btw, to some Chinese, Hakkas are not Chinese, but a minority group of obscure, and perhaps nobel lineage who adopted the Chinese culture. There is also a strong observation that the Hakkas and the Japanese are closely related. It is indeed true that many Japanese resemble the Hakkas in both physique and culture (gathering resources, the importance of self sacrifice and maintaining traditions are very important to both the Hakkas and Japanese). Perhaps the early groups of Asians who settled in Japan were in fact of Hakka origin.

The Japanese are also considered somewhat part of the Tang Dynasty like the Hakkas and the Cantonese. Ever notice that the Japanese, Hakkas and the Cantonese were the first groups of Asians to settle into foreign lands such as Europe and the New World??? I would assume that these people were more willing to accept western ideas because of the Tang Dynasty, therefore they were brave enough to venture into the West as pioneers.

What I noticed is that the average Hakka appears to be taller and stockier than the average Cantonese. Most Hakkas are at least 5'8 and even Hakka women are somewhat regarded as tall, being 5'7 is a common height. Many Cantonese are just smaller, they have smaller bone mass and appear less robust.

There are some tall Japanese people as well. If you go to Tokyo and the northern regions of Japan, you find tall Japanese people, unlike the southern areas where people look like dwarfs. For some reason, I find tall Japanese people to be the most attractive of the "tall asian groups" such as the N. Chinese and Koreans.
Tang Dynasty    Tuesday, November 06, 2001 at 17:33:57 (PST)
Dan and other Taiwanese,

The mainlander Taiwanese who are originally northern Chinese who fled to Taiwan in 1949 do not look like the natives of Taiwan. Just look at the past presidents: Chiang Ching-kuo (son of Chiang Kai-shek) and Lee Tung-hui. Lee is taller than Chiang, but Chiang looks less Malayan in his facial features.

Native Taiwanese, in genetic studies are confirmed to be closer to Southeast Asians. There have yet to be genetic studies done on Cantonese and Hakkas. They have family legends and family surname books detailing a northern migration from the "Zhonghua" (northwestern China).
Barry    Tuesday, November 06, 2001 at 16:45:23 (PST)
short azn gurrrrlie,

It depends on how old you are. If you're 16 or older, you've most likely finished growing, so you proba won't see any growth. If you're younger, you still have a chance. I am Korean, and Koreans are also known for having more of their height in their torsos than legs. Luckily, My legs and torso look fairly proportional, although compared to a black or white person of the same height, I still have shorter legs. I'm 5'9", and 20.
Korean Dude    Monday, November 05, 2001 at 19:07:13 (PST)
I agree with Dan, too many people are comparing the physiology of the Taiwanese with a Cantonese or Vietnamese. Most Taiwanese don't look Vietnamese and most are taller and lighter skin than Southeast Asians such as the Vietnamese. I usually can tell the difference between a Taiwanese and Cantonese or Taiwanese and Vietnamese. Coreans, on average, may be taller (only slightly) than the Taiwanese, but the difference is not that great, especially among the younger generation.
Taiwanese Are Not Southeast Asian    Monday, November 05, 2001 at 17:39:20 (PST)
Who cares if Coreans are taller than most Asians, they are still not the tallest nor the largest Asians-not by a long shot. If you are writing in America, Asians (including Coreans) are shorter and smaller than whites. Whites see Asians as all the same and don't even distinguish which Asian groups are taller.

It's also a fact, on average, Asians (whether Northeast Asian such as Coreans/Northern Chinese or Southern ones such as Southern Chinese or Vietnamese) have shorter extremities and longer torso. That's the way we are made up.
Asians Are Still Shorter    Monday, November 05, 2001 at 17:36:00 (PST)
dan here, ok, i never said taiwanese are taller than koreans, and yes i believe koreans are probably still an inch taller than taiwanese on average... BUT, what i was trying to say is that u can not compare taiwanese to those south eastern asians!! nor those cantonese!! cuz we are in fact taller, compare to most other asians...

try to look at taiwanese as some type of middle zone between northen chinese and southern chinese (leans towards north)

that's cool u have a tall crew, if u guys were in U.S., that'd be even cooler!

we asians should just keep on growing and growing and growing and..........
dan    Sunday, November 04, 2001 at 02:34:56 (PST)
Nothern Chinese guy
I don't understand why some Coreans are hostile to Chinese either. Maybe it has to do with what most Corean Americans' perception of Chinese. I don't think many Corean Americans realize there are many different Chinese ethnic groups either. As few other posters said majority of Chinese we are exposed to are southern Chinese I guess and also some images are not very positive, such as, the Chinese gangs in Chinatown.
I have met couple of Corean Chinese who told me the same thing, Coreans in China and Han Chinese in NorthEastern China get along well. They also consider themselves Chinese.

To Southern Chinese
I don't ever remember stating anything negative about southern Chinese or the Vietnamese. Its just my observation, I think most Chinese I've seen are similar in apperance to Southeast Asians rather than Coreans or Northern Chinese. And since we are discussing height, I think in general Coreans are taller than most other Asians.

Curious Corean guy    Saturday, November 03, 2001 at 20:30:25 (PST)
okinawans, fuginese, moogogaipanese, god damn I never knew there were so many asian ethnicities. Judging by this forum it's safe to say the science of Heightology will reach credibility in no time.
number one    Saturday, November 03, 2001 at 10:42:22 (PST)
Cantonese and Viets do not share the same origins. Here is some evidence:

here are figures quoted
from a historical census by Liang Fangzhong (1980) for the Guangdong Province:

Table 1
Year and Population: AD2 (242K) AD140 (632K) AD464 (212K) AD742 (1.28M) AD820 (67K) AD980 (41.6K) AD1080 (2.6M) AD1180 (2.3M) AD1230 (2.0M)

The figures shows that although Guangdong faced population blooms in Eastern Han (AD140) and Middle Tang (AD742), it was NEVER densely populated before the massive immigration at the beginning of the Song Dynasty (AD980-1080). Note that it was strongly depopulated between Tang and Song (AD820-980). This was due to a great slaughter by a Tang general in this province. He killed both the northern Han and Viet peoples. Then, later there were nomadic invasions in northern China. The mass immigration from the north coincide with Luo's "Third Wave". But one thing to remind is that these people concentrate themselves in the Pearl River Delta, not Jiaying prefecture. From 980 to 1080, Guangzhou's population rose from 8K to 64K, which is about one fourth of the whole province. These people were definitely Han Chinese, not VIET. These are also proved by their genealogical records. Even if you assume that ALL the people left in Guangdong in AD980 after Gen. Wong (Huang) Chao's slaughter are VIET (which is IMPOSSIBLE), Chinese from the North are five times the aboringines in a matter of a century. The case in Guangzhou is even more extreme. Therefore, it is almost safe to say that the people in Guangdong at the beginning. For Cantonese speaker (Guangzhou residents), their Chinese blood should be more than 87.5%. Although it is more difficult to calculate such figures for Hakka speakers, Zhao et al's report is a very good reference to show that Hakka and Cantonese are more or less the same in human genetics.

If we cannot distinguish Cantonese from VIET, then we are not in a good position to study Hakka. Please read the paper by Zhao et al, 1991 (Acta genetica sinica, [Yichuan Xuebao], 18(2), 97-108). They showed that among blood samples in 74 locations, Guangzhou (Cantonese) is most similar to Meixian (Hakka) in the immunoglobins, a reliable indicator of the relatedness.

Even if you don't like it, I would conclude that both Cantonese and Hakka speakers are blood-related, but bloodily separated. We were brothers of the Tang Dynasty tribe, but view each other as barbarians. The only different between Cantonese and Hakka lies in the mentality.

Don't view your Cantonese brothers as barbarians, they are not Viet, they are as Chinese as you and me.

George    Saturday, November 03, 2001 at 01:43:36 (PST)
Speaking of Cantonese, there are variations among them:

(Liu Zinfa)
Toisan and Hakka dialects are similar in some way, especially in some intonations, but it does not suggest a common direct origin. Of course every Chinese dialect should have a common origin, say two thousand years ago, but it is then meaningless to say dialect A and dialect B are sharing a common origin in this way, just like a biologist is telling you that man and amoeba have a "common ancestor".

Toisan could have shared a common origin with the eastern part of Gan-dialect, the Fuguang accent, where most t' in Cantonese and Hakka are pronounced as h and some ts/ts' are t/t'.

All dialects in Guangdong have some superficial similarities with each other because of geographical vicinity, especially in the vocabulary. But Toisan is neither closely related to Hakka nor Cantonese in its phonology. It could have been a migrant from Eastern Jiangxi province around the Song Dynasty.
Andrew    Saturday, November 03, 2001 at 01:29:18 (PST)
Im 5'3, so I'm short and also most of it is torso. I have short legs. And on top of that my legs look kind of fat cuz I have full calves. I have noticed a lot of Aisan women have this problem also, does anyone if my legs will grow so to be proportionate with my torso or are short legs just a genetic Asian thing?
short azn gurrrlie    Friday, November 02, 2001 at 18:24:35 (PST)

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