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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k,

I also want to add that among the Iranoid cultures (not just Persian, but also Sogdian, Tajik, Afghan, etc.) they have a tradition of hospitality to merchants and caravan travellers. In Iran, they had "caravanserais" (like hotels) for these travellers. Of course, women and girls were provided. The caravanserai in Hamadan (Chinese called it Ekbatan back in those days) was a place of stoppage for the merchants. There they sold their goods to Iranians, and the Iranians took it on to Europe and other parts of Middle East.

The Zoroastrians and Manicheanists (the pre-Islamic religions of Iran) was even more open about sex than Chinese Daoism.

They had a habit of allowing foreign and strange travelling merchants to have shelter in their own homes and would let the men sleep with their own wives. The reason was because they thought in their beliefs that this would allow for more better and fertile crop growing seasons. Even the people of Xinjiang practiced this, if you have read some works on Marco Polo, he mentions this custom. Only when they converted to fanatical Islam did this stop.

When the Arabs conquered Iran in 600 ADs, many Iranians fled in masse to Central Asia and Tang China. Of course, they brought with them their religious beliefs (Zoroastrian and Manichaeanism). Many of these migrants were subjected to discrimination because of these "peculiar" practices. They would allow Chinese converts and initiate the new men into these customs (some call it orgies).

Manichaeanism was no longer practiced by the middle of Song Dynasty.

Strangely, the Ming Dynasty adopted many of these Manichaenist and Zoroastrian concepts (such as the struggle between dark and light), which was sometimes quite similar to Daoism.

There is lot of past interchange between Iran and China that is woefully unacknowledged or not aware of, mostly due to the current isolation of Iran and China from the West.

And, yes, all Iranians may have Chinese blood that they are not aware of and likewise there are also Chinese who may have Iranian ancestors. We will never know unless we take back a time machine to go back in time and see it for ourselves.
Jeff Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 01:38:56 (PDT) [64.130.235.33]

k,

The Tocharians must have been totally Caucasoid or mixed hapa types (like modern Central Asians) because if you go visit the Xinjiang region of China today you will find many tombs and mummies of blonde featured people being excavated.

It is only mixing (some violent and some peaceful) with their Mongoloid neighbors (Chinese, Tibetans and Turko-Mongols) that have contributed to the hapa mixed features of the Xinjiang local people today.

The Yueh Chih lived in modern Gansu before being driven to Afghanistan by the Huns. They later found the Kushan kingdom in Afghanistan. They were Iranoids in speech. About their race, little is known. Most probably mixed (like Central Asians). There was another nomadic Iranian tribe (Wusun) mentioned in Chinese sources. They were later absorbed by the Huns. Kazakhs today claim them as one of their ancestors.

In 1000 AD Iran, the celebrated writer (Ferdowsi) writes in his "Shah-nama" (epics) that the children borne from Seljuk Turkic fathers and Iranian mothers were very attractive in particular the eye shapes.

We can assume that the Iranians were not racist from this fact.

Also, noted Tang poets (Li Bai and others) wrote of the beauty of Persian and Sogdian dancing girls.

I also read in the Hou Han Shu (Annals of the Han Dynasty) that when General Ban Chao and Ambassador Gan Ying travelled to Persia (they called it "Anxi"), they were describing not only towns and places but also the beauty of Parthian (Persian) and Roman (Da Chin) women.

There really was no racial connotations back then, not in the civilized world at least...
Jeff Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 01:21:27 (PDT) [64.130.235.33]

rare stuff,

The modern Kirgiz (as well as Kazakh) have mixed much with Mongols and Kalmucks. Initially, they were driven out of Mongolia by the Khitans. It is not known how they looked like in the 9th cent. compared to now.

Among both the Kazaks and Kirgyz you will occasionally find an Iranoid element (due to mixing with Turkmens, Uzbeks, Uygurs and Tatars).

It is really among the most northerly Turks (Yakuts, Tuvan, Shor, Altay, etc.) that you find the true so-called northern Turkic traits. But, they have also mixed much with Tungus so we don't really know who the true Turks were and how they looked like.

We can only assume that the Hsiung-nu (Huns) were the earliest ancestors of all Turki tribes. Chinese sources did not mention racial differences between them and the Huns, so we have to assume that they had always looked similar if not the same as Chinese.

The Soviet scholars once did an anthropological study on the Tajiks. On one research they concluded that the Mongoloid mixture in their region may have more to due with the peaceful intrusion of merchants (eg Chinese) than to mixture with nomads (eg Turko-Mongols). They used some types of DNA to come to this conclusion, but I couldn't read much Russian, too bad...

Finns and Slavs are similar to East Iranoids, but amongst the Iranoids there must also be Indic, Semitic and Chinese admixture that differentiates them from the East Europeans.
Jeff Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 01:09:37 (PDT) [64.130.235.33]

L,

I have been to the terra cotta mausoleum in Xian. All those Qin figures look Cantonese to me, so that is why I put myself at 100% connected to the ancient Chinese. The brinkster site only verifies what I have always believed in. I have also been to Xinjiang and the native Uygur people there look more facially comparable to the Cantonese than the Koreans.

I don't know if this is due to us being from the same source...

People in northwest China has a more familiar feel and look than the northeast Chinese to me (a Cantonese).
Jeff Wednesday, September 18, 2002 at 00:56:58 (PDT) [64.130.235.33]

To, bahahaha;

You might want to read it over and tell me where it says anything about the cantonese in particular. And anything about the 'ancient' northern chinese in particular. If you read it it talks about four types of skulls, and different eras of skulls.

You might want to use a real nick either then bahahaha to tell me who you are. How do i not know that your Jeff just trying to spread rumors on how the cantonese are the 'real' chinese. So if you 'read' the article then tell me where it says it smarty. QUOTE it.
L Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at 19:11:43 (PDT) [142.59.79.119]

jeff:

the huns and tocharians are without any doubt mongoloid. i also heard the yueh chihs are iranians but i'm not sure, i used to think they're asian.

"People back then were not hung up on race. They mixed freely and regularly"

i think it's more like the mixing is easy btw the dominate and the oprressed so it only occurs in the conquered/dominated place. For example chinesein iran can mix freely w/ the natives but an iranian in china are not.But i don't think i agree that people in ancient times were not hung up on race and mixed freely. if that was the case, why would the chinese call other groups 'barbarian', 'animal'.
If they mixed freely, in China today there would be quite a few who look like hapa. however it's not. Face it, you are chinese and don't have any caucasian drop of blood
k Monday, September 16, 2002 at 21:37:52 (PDT) [203.162.19.135]

L,

Gimme a break. I don't know what Jeff is saying, but I read that article too. The Cantonese are closest to ancient northern Chinese.
bahahahaha Monday, September 16, 2002 at 16:40:33 (PDT) [206.15.46.129]

Jeff,

East Europeans (Finns and Slavs with the the same amount of blood type B like most Asians) and East Iranians (Afghans like Pashtuns) were often referred to as "semi-mongolid". Factually their earliest ancestors must have had "semi-mongolid" features. Otherwise they would look more heterogenous.

Iranians in Iran are maybe likely to mix with Han people. I only know them superficially. They are closely related to the Indo-Dravidian peoples in the southeast of the territory. The Caucasoid real life people of Western Turkestan were probably closer to the Afghan type of Iranian (Pashtuns and Tajiks). Of which the Tajiks could be seen as an occasionally light-pigmented racial type. All light-pigmented races who arrived Central Asia are still present within the modern Central Asian populations. You will find the mentioned Tajik type of the Iranian race and the Finns (within Burosho tribe and Hunza tribe). Maybe there is also a light-pigmented version of the Indian race in the Pamir region ("Pamiri"s). Anything else would surprise me.

The modern Kirgis are factually pure-bred North-Turkic race and very homogenous while their neighbour tend to be of mixed races. Coincidentally the Kirgis body-type resembles that one of the original Han and Tibetans around Lhasa. They share in common that they are all small, fat, broad-faced, slit-eyed people with dark skin. But Kirgis are definetely Altaic by race because nearly all of their features which were not mentioned above (beard, eyebrows, nose) are Northern Turkic.
rare stuff Monday, September 16, 2002 at 15:19:13 (PDT) [193.159.24.22]

Read the syllabus of Indian schools now all has been corrected. The nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki did little damage they just killed less than 150,000 people. To do severe damage to India you need several thousand nucleae bombs. Also our population is rural and spread out.
Jagmohan Monday, September 16, 2002 at 14:56:59 (PDT) [195.93.32.9]

Girl in Stuy HS,

the more curses, the more elaborated is the language. Take e.g. a primitive labnguage like that of the indigenous Sioux tribe in the Plains of the US. When a traditional Sioux wanted to fight he snarled at his enemy.

I don't know about Cantonese -but if the rumour is true, then the Cantonese might be offensively eloquent. My own suspicion is rather that Southerners talk much about no content. But it's all a matter of relativity: among Scandinavians I would be the one who talked too much.
rare stuff Monday, September 16, 2002 at 14:27:54 (PDT) [193.159.24.22]

LSD,
The Cantonese are the wealthiest. You are right about the billionares, but I was talking about as a group. Not all cantonses run their business in Chinatown. Just think how many Chinatowns there are and how big they are. Most of the jewelry shops, grocery stores, Cafe, and restaurants in the North America are run by Cantonese. And count the professionals too.
To all Anti Cantonese or whatever-
It's really stupid to argue about regional superiority. Actually, it's kinda sad to see the Chinese fight among themselves. I don't know how old you people are, but I m in my teens and I can see the harm this unhealthy pride is getting us into. Think about the message you are giving to the youth. Don't you people think we should just respect each other? Do you want your child to see other groups of Chinese as below them or above them? The point is that this is a really bad influence to kids. Do you know how Chinese kids are in school? You got 2 kinda Chinese kids in school. One group who got along with anyone. Other group only hangs out with his own kind and usually don't care for others. Which one do you think will live a happier life? And you the the Fobs and Americanized one disliking each other. The reason why smaller countries can cause chaos in China is because we are so divided. If we Chinese didn't fight each other prior to Japanese invasion, do you think they could stand a chance? This divide between us is the main reason that what made Chinese weak the past almost 200 years. And this is also the main reason why some of you complain we were the laughing stock of the world. Comparing and competing is okay, but disrespectful to other groups is just plain regional racism and plain stupidity. It doesn't do any good, except making your own insecure self a little better and a little more foolish.
Canto Boy who loves dogs Monday, September 16, 2002 at 13:18:05 (PDT) [209.255.251.200]

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