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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WHAT YOU SAY

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Does Hsu CHi look like southern chinese?
? Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 05:37:14 (PDT) [202.58.242.105]

umm..shivdev singh joon.

India has never conquered any part of China. The Chinese empire in general has never encroached on India, save perhaps when approaching and invading Burma, but I don't think Burma counts as part of India, eh?

I suppose the Tang expeditions to Afghanistan and Kashmir may count, but those were against the Tibetans and the Arabs, not the Indians, and were successful.

Furthermore, for half of the 8th century Tang was at its peak.

And in the 7th century, the Chinese embassy in a certain Indian state was attacked by an Indian warlord. The Chinese ambassador escaped to Nepal/Tibet, and as China had recently *defeated* Tibet, the ambassador's demands of levies of Tibetan troops for revenge were met.

Tibetan and Nepalese troops swept down from the mountains in the service of the Chinese ambassador, and kicked that warlord's azz good.

Furthermore, Tibet and Mongolia, the areas, have indeed at times warred with China. The action has seesawed back and forth many times. Unfortunately for them, China always wins in the end ;)

Han > Hsiungnu
Tang > Turk & Tang > Tibet (in the end)
Ming > Mongol
Qing > Mongol

and now, whether for good or ill, PRC > Tibet.
Captain of the Stars Sunday, September 15, 2002 at 02:08:03 (PDT) [63.162.229.2]

Jui Li,

I doubt you are Chinese.

There are many people from the north, even Beijing who still look closer to the Cantonese than they do to Coreans and Mongols.

FYI, the Cantonese are the closest link to ancient northern Chinese. They made a comparison of examining skulls of ancient Chinese with that of Cantonese (38 samples) and they came out 100% matched. Beijing people is "only" 95% matched with the skulls of their ancestors.

Source of the website:

http://www26.brinkster.com/archived

(click on the link: "East Asians, part I)

So, before you make the claim that Cantonese are less Chinese, look at the facts first.

Cantonese are the true Chinese from Tang Dynasty, but they are not the only ones. Everyone who lives in China is Chinese, even the Mongols, Tibetans, Miao and racially different Uygurs.
Jeff Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 19:19:19 (PDT) [64.130.235.33]

You guys are mistaken. The Cantonese term: "ga" (families) do not connotate any demeaning associations.

I remember once when I visited all of China, there was a cemetary in Fujian (Quanzhou city) where many graves were marked "fan jia" (foreign families)and "fan ke" (foreign guests). Apparently these were the graves of the Persians and Arabs who had settled in southeast China's coastal boards. Not all of them were Muslim. Some were Zoroastrian, Mageans, Mazdaists, Nestorian Christians and Jews. Some brought entire families with them and some intermarried with local Chinese women. Many also adopted Chinese boys into their families (which is also a custom among the local Chinese).

By now, there are no more of these Persians and Arabs in existence. They simply melted into the Chinese populace. But, there are peculiar practices among some people in the Quanzhou city (such as abstinence of pork meat) that betray their foreign ancestry. I noticed some people in this city look so much like the Xinjiang people (with hooked type nose and full mustache, but apparent Chinese face).

You see, the people in Fujian had also referred to these people as "ga" (families) but that did not prevent them from assimilating and contributing to Chinese culture.

You can go throughout China, in Guangdong and all the way up to Kaifeng and find the graves of these foreigners (ga). Today, their blood and genes is in us, and we are also their "ga."
Jeff Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 19:04:13 (PDT) [64.130.235.33]

Why all the Chinese in-fighting? And what the heck is a conical skull? What, does it look as though the skull is wearing a cone?

Michelle Yeoh is from Malaysia. She was formerly Michelle Khan and a Miss Malaysia...(wtf happened there?)

Taiwanese seem to be rather disputatious. The psyche is represented by their doctrinaire attitudes towards the prospect of reunification.

Let's cut the crap and focus on the real objectives here; reunification! Those taiwanese bastards need to be taught a lesson.
reality check Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 13:37:37 (PDT) [67.98.161.57]

I don't think any one group of people on this earth can be stereotyped and placed into strict categories like some people obviously try to do. Why are the Cantonese separated from the rest of te Chinese as a whole at all? We are still Chinese, we use the same written language and we all, past thousands of years, originate from pretty much the same ancestors. You cannot label Cantonese people based on traits like the volume of their voices or their appearance. Looking different from one another is directly related to our own genetics and the adaptations we developed through thousands of years, not because we're Cantonese or Mandarin or anything else. I know for a fact that the notion that all Cantonese people are short or have big eyes is entirely not true. The Cantonese language is a language that has evolved over the course of thousands of years from local dialects and other sources. Some may believe it does not sound as beautiful or run as well but nonetheless Cantonese is a rich language complete with its own idioms and phrases. We do not use more curses than any of the other languages of the world have, no doubt, developed. To foreign, biased, and uneducated ears, the Cantonese language may seem "vulgar" solely because we do not speak in the same prose we use to write, but use common language terms instead. People also seem to think that Cantonese's unique guttural sounds make it dirty. But tell me, do you know of any American who speaks using the exact same grammatical language he/she uses when he/she writes? Or anybody who still speaks as if he were quoting Shakespeare or Chaucer, who most believe spoke more "beautifully"? Calling it uncouth is like saying the romance languages are harsh. On the tradition of dog and snake eating, the people who suggest that this makes us Cantonese different are even more wrong. Throughout Asia, and, in different forms, throughout the world, there are different beliefs on healing and differnt customs. I am not sure how long the practice of eating dog meat has been around, perhaps it is an age-old custom or a survival tactic for when the Chinese people (as a whole) were starving, but I am certain that this custom transcends thoughout Chinese culture overall. Saying the consumption of dog, rabbit, snake, etc. is barbaric only proves that whoever thinks this way is thinking like European/Western peoples who, half a century ago, sought to conform the rest of the world to their own living standards and societal rules. The Chinese culture is a rich one that varies locally from region to region; but to say that one regions is worse or superior to the other is unjust, unfounded, and unfair. It saddens me that, even among a minority group such as ourselves in the United States, we have still found ways to discriminate against ourselves as well.
Girl in Stuy HS Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 12:54:01 (PDT) [12.88.83.4]

To those Cantonese who never heard of 'Hoklo' and 'Hakka':

Well, that's because none of you ever bothered to pick up a book about the history of your people. 2nd, perhaps some of you are just ignorant ABCs!

'Jew Gwai' is really an east coast term. When was the last time you have seen a Jew with a black costume and a yarmulke on the West Coast.

I do agree that the Southern Chinese are the wealthiest Chinese. However, I think the richest Southern Chinese are the Chiu Jaus, Hokkiens, and some Hakkas, not the Cantonese. They dominate the commerce of South East Asia. The Chiu Jaus dominate Thailand and Vietnam, the Hokkiens dominate the Philippines, and the Hakkas dominate Indonesia. All of them have equal representation in Malaysia and Singapore.

The Malaysian Chinese 'Chiu Jau, Hokkien and Hakka' in New York City have become the 'New Uptown Chinese', they own pricey Chinese, Malaysian and Japanese restuarants in elite neighborhoods, whose residents are well to do White and Jewish Clientles. The Cantonese restaurant owners still conduct most of their businesses in Chinatowns, while the Fujianese run takeout eateries in very poor-low income areas of the city. Some of you might think the restuarant business is petty in comparision to other types of businesses, but for the Chinese, it is the easiest and quickest path for generating income in any situation or location.

Li Ka Shing, the billionaire tycoon from HK is Chiu Jau, not Cantonese!

Cheerios,

Cantonese is a very flexible language and full of slangs. Why do I need to cover my ears when I'm cursing in the Canto-dialect, I need to hear what I'm saying! =P
LSD Saturday, September 14, 2002 at 09:53:20 (PDT) [66.212.81.210]

I am from North China but working in SE Asia and the chinese here are all typically of Southern stock, very different from us in terms of looks, thinking and culture.

In the North, we dont really eat snake or dogs, but we like alcohol, wheat and noodles. Rice, so so.

As for look, yes there is a noticeable different. I have seen many Chinese who to me look more like native or "aboriginal". Big deep eyes, fleshy nose, a triangular (inverted) skull, sunken cheek, thicker lips, and tanner skin. and jutting jaws. They have alread form a mental imprint inside me , hence at one look of a stranger, i can draw up relation.
Jiu Li Friday, September 13, 2002 at 18:36:36 (PDT) [165.21.83.197]

To, Canto boy who loves dogs;

Yeah i here you. You're right. The south of china, like vietnam, is very diverse. For example vietnam has 54 ethnic groups. The south of china has, i'm not very sure, but probably lots of ethnic groups as well.

It is said that the Cantonese, Minnan, and Vietnamese (Kinh or Viet variety) come from the Yueh (genetics proves that atleast 80% of the Hoklo genes are similar to the Yueh, while the rest is a mixture of aboriginals or han). And to what i know from genetics tests (provided by the debators) that we are very similar through ancestry. For example, lighter skin then our neighboring ethnic groups but with a bit of a pink hue (just a bit not too much, more prominant in vietnam though, or atleast to what i see through my vacations), larger eyes, and sometimes shorter.

Mind you this IS changing, even though height has a lot to do with genes, remember that height also has to do with nutrition. So don't be so down when people say Cantonese are short or dark. Because for one, all i know is that the cantonese I know are lighter skinned, some are dark but who knows what their ancestral line is like. Just think of how the average height around the world is changing. Every year the average height changes. For example, i am vietnamese and when i say vietnamese do you visualize a short guy? Probably. BUT i am 5"9-10' and my dad is only 5"3'! And my mom is a bit shorter.

For all you who say cantonese eat dogs. It is more commonly believed that koreans eat dogs. So why wouldn't this 'thing' be influence to the north of china too? From what i heard there are northerners who eat dogs. Rats too (on "ripley's believe ir or not" it said Beijing and micronesia).
L Friday, September 13, 2002 at 15:47:44 (PDT) [142.59.79.119]

Why do we always talk about the cantonese how come we never talk about the mainland chinese.I heard that the emperor's of china always ate dogs and that's where it got started.I bet even Jiu Li ate a couple of dogs too.
M3 owner Friday, September 13, 2002 at 11:15:04 (PDT) [209.244.75.37]

Jui li,

Please stop stereotyping the cantonese. Not all the cantonese are short with big eyes and dark. There are lots of non cantonese who speaks cantonese. Even viets fujian and hakkas and other speaks it. How do you know which one is a real cantonese? I got Cantonese friends who are on average 5'9 and some are 5'6 and even few are 5'3. I agree with you that we Cantonese got bigger eyes than the Northerners. Probably the environments in the north and south shape our eyes differently. I heard that there are more dust and sands in the north, so that is why Korean and Northerners got smaller eyes. I think its call mutation. And I do notice that we do talk louder. The snake eating and other crap you mentioned are totally non cantonese related. Btw, did you know we Cantonese on average are the richest Chinese group? One more thing I notice is that the Souther Chinese are better merchants or business people. And are you sure the snake eating and dog eating wasn't influenced by the north? I think these practices were there thousands of years ago. Also, I think I know why the Cantonese are the first one to give foreigners nicknames. Did you know most foreigners arrive in Guang Dong first? So that explains it. And we got used to call people by their nicks. It's not suppose to be offensive or racist. Most Cantonese don't even know the meaning of Hoklo or Hakka. And I never heard of the word Jew Gwai. The meaning of Gwai is ghost. Lo means grown men and its not a bad thing. We call rich people yau chin lo. We called Japanese Ga Lo, cuz Japanese always says desu ka or other ka ; so eventually, we gave them the ga lo nick. Cantonense called people gwai mostly because they are different looking. And I never ate snake or dogs or cats or any pets or any other rodent or reptiles.
Canto boy who loves dogs Friday, September 13, 2002 at 07:51:38 (PDT) [209.255.251.58]

"And Cantonese dont look like the Chinese image we have in our mind. They look very mixed, kinda Malay or Polynesian with big eyes, jutting jaws, tanned,and conical skull. I dont think they truly in anyway represent the Chinese people in the looks department"

Chinese people are too big of a group. Even among the Cantonese, you'll see a huge variation in looks: big eyes, small eyes; short, tall; dark skin and light skin. What is supposed to be "the Chinese look"? The word Chinese is itself all encompassing.

"Sometimes, i dont really like the Southerner esp the Cantonese"

Really? Then don't like us. I guess there's a whole lot of Cantonese haters on this board.

" loud, uncouth, snake-eating, short, shrewd etc. But that is not all of China or the Chinese."

-What's so bad about being loud?
-Snake-eating? Your point is...?
-Short? Most of my CBC guy friends are 5'10" and up.

Actually, the majority of foreigners I come into contact with have a positive image of the Chinese. And as most of the Chinese they know are predominantly hua qiaos of Southern Chinese ancestry or newcomers from HK, perhaps we're not as bad as you think.

LSD:

A vulgar language? You mean the way it sounds when spoken (if so, cover your ears dude) or the use of profanity in the language (which not all of us use btw)? Yeah, people say it doesn't sound as soft and fluid as Mandarin. So be it, it's music to my ears. :)
Cheerios Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 20:15:50 (PDT) [216.254.197.54]

Shivdev Singh Joon

your post shows a lack of knowledge.
China is OFTEN ruled by tibet and mongols? there were wars certain moments but to say itsis often ruled by tibet and mongols is plainly wrong.

and india conquered large chunks of china? what part of lands are you talking about? i bet that was the only time Indians can touch the feather of the tiger.
stupid Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 16:23:06 (PDT) [203.162.133.153]

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