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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anthropology student,

First, please read my reply to chinatown. It covers much of what I have to respond to you.

About the smithsonian and european museums showing suits and armour for 5'4" people. Yes, I have seen them myself. When I visited the tourist sites in Philadelphia, I saw the beds the Founding Fathers of America (over 200 years ago) and their wives slept in, and they were short! There was no way someone taller that 5'4" could fit in those beds!

But that was 200 years ago. It took a little more than 150 years for European men to grow from 5'4" to their current height (about 5'9" to 5'10").

Uniforms and clothing of Chinese and Japanese from World War II shows Asian men's height was about 5'4" about 60 years ago. In just 50 short years, Asians have grown quite close to the Europeans in height. That's someting to think about, and if there was and is another factor that accelerated this growth process. As I replied to chinatown, "Undoubtedly, improved nutrition has the greatest factor in the growth of Chinese", but there could be another factor in addition to nutrition.

B. Lee Wednesday, April 03, 2002 at 18:34:30 (PST)

chinatown,

I am quite disappointed how you quickly labeled me as a fool. First, I never said that Chinese or Asians were short, nor do I resent the rise of Asians. I've been posting on Goldsea for about five months now, and if you look at past messages I've posted on this forum (AA Attitudes toward Height) and the "Top Asian Athletes" forum, you would notice I've done quite alot to dispell the stereotype that Asians are short. I've posted about Asian athletes (including Chinese basketball players) and their size and accomplishments numerous times for the whole world to read. I've posted messages on this forum dispelling the notion that Asians are short, including an extensive rebuttal to some ignorant white boy, who claimed that Asians are the shortest race on earth, over a month ago.

I am an Asian American myself, and I have Chinese friends. Heights of 6'0" or more is not a rare instance anymore among the Chinese and Korean Americans I know. My point with the eugenics part was if the Chinese government had some factor to do with the increase in height of China. I never said it is the only factor, and I admitted the idea is far-fetched and unlikely. Undoubtedly, improved nutrition has the greatest factor in the growth of Chinese. But it could be possible that the Chinese government may have some factor in subtle forms, such as allowing discrimination against shorter people (heightism) to take place, or allowing taller couples to bypass the one-child limit? I was also posting this question because I wanted to get an idea of a mainlander Chinese point of view.

Finally, before you call me an ignorant fool, I have a few more rebuttals of your message. "Did you ever stop and think that Chinese people may be entering the NBA because they have more skills than before?" Actually, yes I did, but based on my research, this is not true. There may be about 20 or 30 7-footers now, but that is considerably more than 10 or 20 years ago. You see, I've been reading the Guiness Book of World Records since 1980, and it has a section which lists the tallest people in the world (at least 7'0"), and does not exclude someone because of nationality or lack of basketball talent. Chinese were very rarely listed among the 7 or 8 footers (and the ones who did were usually the result of growth disorders). In recent years, there have been so many Chinese 7-footers appearing, and elsewhere in the world, that 7'0" really is not a record worth mentioning. Nowadays, heights of something like 7'5" and up are considered towering.

B. Lee Wednesday, April 03, 2002 at 18:15:52 (PST)

"chinatown,

You're not making much sense. Communism, height, windmills....

Got to calm down those demons in your head before you post next time."

AC Dropout, I thought I was being funny, though apparently Well, I suppose you would need a frame of reference to find the humor or sense in it all. I was responding to multiple topics in a single post. That's why there are spaces between the paragraphs or trains of thought.
Perhaps I was being ambiguous? I'll try not to next time around.

Nutrition has alot to do with the height factor, as does making a wish on a penny that you end up tossing into a wishing well.

chinatown Wednesday, April 03, 2002 at 11:57:28 (PST)

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