Mapping of the Chinese Genome, as reported by the Reuters, Wen Wei and Tai Kung.
The Wikipedia has the following to say about the Han Chinese:-
Han Chinese (Simplified Chinese: 汉族 or 汉人; Traditional Chinese: 漢族 or 漢人; pinyin: hànzú or hànrén) are a heterogenous ethnic group…
There is substantial genetic, linguistic, cultural and social diversity between its various subgroups, mainly due to thousands of years of regionalized assimilation of various ethnic groups and tribes in China. The Han Chinese are a subset of the Chinese nation (Zhonghua minzu).
Therefore, the HK$32,000 question is, who is this Chinese we are talking about?
2 responses so far ↓
1 James // Oct 15, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Historically, “Chinese” is a relatively modern classification speaking geographically or politically though, isn’t it? Which has always been a multicultural group since its first use.
Whereas “Han” is the original ethic name for the specific group but still pretty well defined as by far the largest but separate ethic group from the many other ethic groups among the “Chinese” people.
2 tin_the_fatty // Oct 15, 2007 at 12:54 pm
The specimen taken would of course be from Han Chinese. A specimen from the ethnic minorities simply would not be a good representative of the “Chinese people”.
Another thing is, while today the absolute majority of people in the Guangdong province are Han Chinese, the 漢化 or sinofication process was still going on during the Ming Dynasty. It is doubtful whether the “indigenous people” living in GD were Han Chinese to begin with. The key point is, it is quite possible that someone from GD is genetically fairly different to say a native of Beijing. The Genographic Project might be able to give us some answers.