Anthropology: There is more than one Chinese

I told my wife Carolyn the other day: “The Chinese, they are all the same”. Well, apart from the “physical” answer I got from her, she also told me to get my facts straight. So I did, and after a bit of research I found out that my statement wasn’t the most accurate one - to say the least…

In fact, the country recognizes 55 distinct ethnics groups. These include the Han, the Zhuang, the Manchu, the Hui, the Yi, the Buyi, and many others. But trying to understand the backgrounds and differences between these groups is perhaps a little too ambitious a task, so let’s keep things simple. We’re going to divide the country in two: The North and the South.

There is actually is a genetic basis for a distinction between the Northern and the Southern Chinese. Check out this page for more info, or if you REALLY want to know the facts, go here.

So now that we’ve got ourselves covered by science, let’s go to the fun part: Stereotypes!

So what are the stereotypical differences between a Northern and a Southern Chinese person? Here’s what I found out:

Northerners

      - bigger and taller in size

- longer face

- lighter, fairer skin color- smaller eyes with single eyelids

- eat more noodles, dumplings and wheat-based foods rather than rice-based food

- northern cuisine generally does not have spicy food

- speak Mandarin with a northern accent

- more boisterous and open in personality, with more direct "thunderbolt" displays of emotions

    

 

A Northern Chinese family

Southerners

- generally smaller and shorter in size

- rounder face

- darker, tanner skin color

- larger eyes with higher frequency of double eyelids

- eat more rice and spicy food

- Southerners speak a Chinese dialect that is older than Mandarin, that was spoken by Dynasties before Ming.

- tend to be more industrious and entrepreneurial

- more reserved displays of emotions

 

A Southern Chinese family

It's the Southerners that us Westerners are most familiar with because they are the ones opening restaurants and other businesses abroad. Hopefully I don't need to point out that these are stereotypes and stereotypes are never true. Still, of course, it’s interesting to know. Next time: Chinese cinema.

Some interesting links:

Portraits of Southerners

Photos from every province in China