Asian American Attitudes toward Height | Asian American Poll

AA ATTITUDE TOWARD HEIGHT
(Updated Saturday, Jun 6, 2026, 12:07:54 AM 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%

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To all those who yell at white boy, I agree with you.

And first off...oh my lord, chinese shorter than japanese?Ya right, in china , it is common if we see a short chinese man we assume they are japanese. But that is racist ...Chinese are tall and also koreans.

Koreans have a more consistent height, with like all males being 5'11 and women 5'6...mostly...
And chinese *especially north* have really tall heights and also average, boosting the average height.

And to ABC, that is true.Hong Kong people are growing tall these days.They will soon be in the former glory of 6ft and over!
And also, people living in china seem to be taller, unless u are from a good background...like come here for business, not survival.

I understand why white boy feels this way.
I, a chinese from china, have always viewed our people as really tall, more beautiful than others, but that is not true I beleive. It's just ethnocentrism.
The koreans , who I am so competitive with, are reaching the north chinese people heights. Also, japanese people are tall too.Well I will keep it short, most of u guys spoke what I need to say .

HOHO Sunday, February 03, 2002 at 23:58:43 (PST)

Qiren,

1. I agree that NE Chinese share much with Koreans and Manchus. I think this was my point. But your assertion was that "Northern Chinese" were 4" taller than Koreans (which on the face of it, I find non credible), which might imply that Northern Chinese and Koreans are vastly different.

2. Seeing lots of "Tall northern Chinese" says nothing about the average. There is no doubt that there MANY tall chinese (with a pop. over 1.2B and making up 20% of the world's population, there's gotta be LOTS of tall Chinese just given the statistical variance), just as there are short Nordics. But on average, I believe all the stats say that Asians, whether from the south or from the north, are shorter than Northern Europeans.

3. Again, not all Korean historians are in agreement as to Kija's ethnicity, or even to his existence outside legend. But even assuming he existed, the story of Kija, from all accounts I've read, never says he FOUNDED Choson, but IMMIGRATED to Choson. If Kija had founded ancient Choson, then it could be very strongly argued that Choson was a Chinese state. But alas, I don't think anyone asserts that.

(For some who might be confused, there were 2 states in Korea's history with the name Choson: "Ancient Choson", Korea's first state, and "Later Choson" (Yi Dynasty), founded late 14th century).

4. I don't necessarily disagree with your account of Wiman. Maybe Wiman was "Chinese", maybe not. But one thing uncharacterically "Chinese" was his Korean top-knot hairdo, which casts doubts on his "Chinese" ethnicity.

5. Of course, Koreans, Manchus and Mongols, although all classified as Tungusic, are not exactly the same. They are all different, as you say.

6. No one disagrees that "China" played an important and strong cultural influence on early Koreans, even back to the Han dynasty. There is no denial of Korea's early "Chinese connection". There is no denial that "China" was the hegemonic empire in continental E. Asia. However, "China" is not all "Han" -- it's many peoples and cultures. This is one reason why it's difficult to absolutely categorize Wiman's/Kija's ethnicity (especially Wiman).

It's only recently that Koreans have been taking a more independent and scientific look at their history. During YI dynasty Choson when it played "little brother" to big China, it very much towed the Chinese historical line; and during the Japanese occupation, the Japanese historical line.

7. I agree that Koreans and Chinese are not "distant" from each other. But the latter did not spawn the former. A "Chinese" prince did not found Korea, nor were koreans a tribe of Mongolians who "stumbled onto the peninsula" (I've read this particularly dubious account many times). But Korea and China do share many things, and they are close.

Korea is the country that became more Confucian than China herself, and the country who helped resupply China with books and manuscripts when her libraries were once burned and sacked by northern nomads.
MK Sunday, February 03, 2002 at 20:34:37 (PST)

Sohoh,

"Meat and potatos" vs. "rice and vegetables" were just metaphors for certain kinds of diets. Whether one eats mostly rice or noodles doesn't make much difference.

The Western diet is composed of mostly starch, fat and protein -- not very healthy, but it does appear to make one big. The traditional Asian diet is fewer in protein and fat, but rich in vegetables -- healthy, but apparently doesn't do much for one's size.

The common notion seems to be that size is correlated with a healthy diet. While this is true to an extent (malnutrition will certainly stunt one's growth), it's not always true. Westerners have grown steadily taller over time, but arguably, their diet has not improved, but gotten worse. They consume far more protein/fat than they traditionally used to, and not coincidentally, their health has also degenerated. It's only due to the advances in medicine that they are able to fight off the diseases that come to haunt them later in life.

But Asians, in their desire to catch up to the West, are adopting the Western diet in the hopes of growing to par with their Western counterparts. They've adopted milk (a horrible food, but now a staple food in the homes of many Asians in the hopes that it will stimulate growth in their children), cheese (bad again), and increased their consumption of fat and proteins all around. Pizza, hamburgers and fries have become common foods in Asia (can you think of anything worse in terms of health??).

Not surprisingly, Asians are and have become taller. But they're fatter too. And when they get older, they'll be less healthy and more diseased as well.

So the point is that we should try to stop trying to emulate the West (in technology, yes, but diet, NO!), and seek to eat what is healthy, not what will necessarily make us big. So the next time your mom tells you to have a big piece of steak and wash it down with a big tall glass of cow's milk, tell her "no thanks", and aim your chopsticks towards the dish of tofu and vegetables instead (well, at least try, once in a while..).

MK Sunday, February 03, 2002 at 20:27:11 (PST)

> There are so many Asians(mostly
> Chinese) here, and I rarely ever see
> one over 6'0.

Okay, let me first say that I live in Northern California, so that's a very high percentage of Asians in this region. Although Whiteboy's comments seem to exaggerate a bit, I can understand where he is coming from. True, I see Asian dudes 6' or taller everyday. But that's because there are so many Asians around here (numberwise) in the first place. But overall, at least from my seemingly lifelong obsevation, the percentage of visible Asian males that are above 6' is not very high. It is evident every time I go to a basketball court or an Asian club. Yea yea, I'd see like 9 or 10 tall or even exceptionally tall Asian dudes that stand out, but then there will also be like 500 shorter ones. know what I mean?

Just because there's a 7'9" individual that happens to be Asian, it does not necessarily suggest the average is high neither.

I have been to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, and I have always felt like a giant among the crowd, and I'm not even that super tall. just 6'2" chinese guy.

> To us you are all the same, so stop
> the useless arguments. You are not a
> tall race of people, face it.

Maybe I have not visited Beijing or mythical 'giantland' Northern China yet, so I don't really know how it is over there. But as for here where I live, Asians overall are generally shorter than Caucasians. And I know when I go to clubs, I generally notice tall people girls right away. 5'8" and above white girls are more than plentiful, but a 5'8" Asian girl?? Well, they exist, but they are indeed rare. If you disagree, then tell me where they are, and I'll be there. :)

> I read in Maxim Magazine(a credible
> and one of the most popular magazines
> in North America) that the average
> height of men in Japan was 5'5.

I do believe that statistic is overly dated by more than a few decades. but dude, don't beleive everything you read in Maxim. It's just a source of entertainment, not legitimate facts. duh.

> Chinese are probaly shorter than
> Japanese, so how could your so
> called "northern" chinese be among
> the tallest in the world.

and again, I have not visited northern china before. but I do know when I was in other Asian countries, I have often found adult males to be, at most, standing up to my shoulder or chin.

> Asians are the shortest people in the
> world in my opinion, and you should
> know that this opinion is shared by
> probably 98% of North Americans.

Well, being Asian myself, when I see a 6'3" white guy, I rarely think of him as tall, but when I see a 6'3" asian guy, that thought automatically strikes my mind. Am I the only Asian person that thinks like that?

6-2 chinese guy in california shepherd_Boy99@yahoo.com Sunday, February 03, 2002 at 17:22:32 (PST)

6'1" Asian Guy,

I think the tallest living man right now is a Chinese guy who is 8'1" but he has giantism and is very frail.

Also 6'1" Sunday, February 03, 2002 at 14:28:00 (PST)

Looks like I caused quite an uproar on this forum. Give me hand for rousing the emotions of all you dilluded people. Yes I have seen/heard of these tall Asian Basketball players - but let me give you some "creible" stats if thats what you want,(These are from the site www.NBA.com, as in the National Basketball Association- so if these are not credible stats I don't know what are:

-Dalibor Bagaric (Croatia, 7'1)
-Primoz Brezec (Slovenia, 7'1)
-Andrew DeClercq (American, 6'10)
-Vlade Divac (Serbia, 7'0)
-Predrag Drobnjak (Yugoslavia, 6'11)
-Shawn Bradley (American, 7'6)
-Ratko Varda (American, 7'1)
-Jake Tsakalidis (Greece, 7'3)
-Vladimir Stepania (Europe, 7'0)
-Zeljko Rebraca (Yugoslavia, 7'0)
-Joel Przybilla (American, 7'1)
-Rodhouane Charbib (Tunisia, 7'9)(non NBA)
-Ghulam Shabbir(Pakistan, 7'8)(non NBA)

I could go on forever - should I? I have hundreds more examples if you want them. And 6'4 is not impressive, the average height of people in Northern Europe is 6'1. OK I think that I have proved you all wrong - Asians are short!

White Boy Sunday, February 03, 2002 at 14:11:09 (PST)

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