Chinese Stereotypes and Diversity
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1belleyang
The original author of this group has not posted a subject, so I thought I'd begin with this issue. Please visit: kqed.org/topics/history/immigration/ I will be a panelist at this KQED/PBS sponsored panel discussing this very topic at the SF Main Libarayr on May 2, 2007.
I justed wanted to begin a thread today and come back later when I have more time. It's a shame this Group has been sitting silent.
I justed wanted to begin a thread today and come back later when I have more time. It's a shame this Group has been sitting silent.
2belleyang
Most Westerners consider China monolithic. All Chinese have black hair and black eyes, right? No. First of all, Chinese is not one language nor is it composed of hundreds of dialects. The Chinese language is a group of related languages, just as the Romance languages like French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian are related languages and not dialects.
My own heritage is complex. My father’s family hails from Manchuria, and before that Shaanxi near Xi’an. He is likely Han, Manchu, Mongol, even Turkic. My mother’s side of the family is Hakka and Fujianese. Hakka were originally Han Chinese from the North, but were chased south by the Steppes people during the period of disunion of the 4th-7th Century. They are the guest people “Ke Jia.”
If you travel China, you will notice vast differences in physical features among the Chinese, similar to the differences between a Nordic and say, a Portuguese.
To the Group members, where do you and your family hail from?
My own heritage is complex. My father’s family hails from Manchuria, and before that Shaanxi near Xi’an. He is likely Han, Manchu, Mongol, even Turkic. My mother’s side of the family is Hakka and Fujianese. Hakka were originally Han Chinese from the North, but were chased south by the Steppes people during the period of disunion of the 4th-7th Century. They are the guest people “Ke Jia.”
If you travel China, you will notice vast differences in physical features among the Chinese, similar to the differences between a Nordic and say, a Portuguese.
To the Group members, where do you and your family hail from?
3mvrdrk
You're a northerner!! LOL!
I agree with you on the differences in physical features. All my uncles and aunts can identify the general geographic region or cultural group people are from by their physical features. Having grown up entirely in the USA, I can't do that with any rate of accuracy.
Technically, I'm 'wuxi' 無錫人,though both my father and paternal grandparents were in Shanghai. (My Americanized kids don't know their Chinese geography, so I just tell them they are 'Shanghainese' and leave it at that.)
The maternal folks are from zhejiang 浙江, but I don't know from where specifically. Come to think of it, I should find out ...
I think that makes me a southerner, though my maternal grandmother always claimed zhejiang wasn't southern. So I've always thought of us as neither northern nor southern.
I agree with you on the differences in physical features. All my uncles and aunts can identify the general geographic region or cultural group people are from by their physical features. Having grown up entirely in the USA, I can't do that with any rate of accuracy.
Technically, I'm 'wuxi' 無錫人,though both my father and paternal grandparents were in Shanghai. (My Americanized kids don't know their Chinese geography, so I just tell them they are 'Shanghainese' and leave it at that.)
The maternal folks are from zhejiang 浙江, but I don't know from where specifically. Come to think of it, I should find out ...
I think that makes me a southerner, though my maternal grandmother always claimed zhejiang wasn't southern. So I've always thought of us as neither northern nor southern.
4belleyang
>3 mvrdrk: LOL to you too ;) You are entirely a southerner. When I was in China in the late 80's, my native Chinese friends said: Xuan, you have the height of the Northerner and the skin of a Southerner. Some thought I was a Manchu (different from being Manchurian). Most nonChinese think I am either Korean or Japanese. Well, my paternal grandmother had Mongolian blood. She lived way out in the sticks, at the edge of "The Great Eastern Wilds" according to the locals of Xinmin County, Shenyang Province.
When I studied in Scotland, a Anglo-Chinese thought I was an Eskimo! HAAA.
I've been to Wuxi. Very beautiful.
When I studied in Scotland, a Anglo-Chinese thought I was an Eskimo! HAAA.
I've been to Wuxi. Very beautiful.
