How do you tell asian people apart?

Factual Questions
1

Whenever my asian friends are referring to other asian people, they don’t refer to them as asian (as us whities tend to), but what kind of asian; it’s uncanny. And I’m not talking about their individual cultures, but their physical characteristics.

Somehow they’re able to tell the difference between Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese people, etc. just by looking at them.

My question is: HOW?!! What are the particular physical characteristics that differentiate asian ethnicities from each other?

2

Wow. I guess you don’t live near any significant populations of particular asians.

Vietnamese are usually much thinner in the face, just not as fleshy as others.

Koreans have much softer and rounder faces.

Japanese…just don’t look like the others. :slight_smile:

Chinese: Not sure, haven’t been exposed to many at all. (All the Chinese restaurants were run by Koreans)

I can toss in a zinger. How can you distinguish Laotians? (I can’t tell them apart from Koreans)

Just the ways I can tell them apart. Not at all fail-proof. :slight_smile: YMMV. IMHO. TL:DR

3

I think we can only answer this using anecdotes, as I doubt there are any big studies done on this.

The asians who I know, myself included, pay attention and probably are more exposed to a larger variety of asians. The differences between a Korean female and a Japanese female usually become quite apparent after 10 years of watching Korean/Japanese dramas and music videos, not to mention actually meeting Korean and Japanese people. It’s like how I assume most people can tell if a person is from Eastern Europe or Russia instead of Western Europe, even if they have the same hair colour.

4

I’m a white guy who has spent many years around East Asian people of several nationalities. There is certainly no foolproof way to tell people apart by sight, and I wonder if your friends are really picking out ethnicities by sight alone or if they are basing it on something else, like the part of town you’re in, or overheard accents. But here are some guidelines:

Koreans: I personally think Koreans (both male and female) are the most attractive, on average, of the four ethnicities you listed. It’s hard to describe; something in the jawline and eyes. Body language is more assertive.

Japanese: There is a lot of variation in appearance, more so than other ethnicities. They’re hard to identify. I’ve known Japanese guys you would swear were a Jewish guy from Brooklyn based on appearance, others who looked like American Indians, and others who looked classically or stereotypically Asian. Less assertive body language especially in a group, where being deferential to one another is a high art.

Chinese: Easy - they don’t dress as stylishly or formally as the others, although sometimes the Vietnamese give them a run for it. This is getting less reliable as more and more rich Chinese enter the U.S. as opposed to the past population of poor graduate students. More expressive body language when speaking.

Vietnamese: Tend to be a little darker than the others, and some are sensitive about it. If you see an Asian woman with red lipstick and a layer of pasty makeup, there’s your sign. Tend to either dress down, like the Chinese, or overdo the style with lots of flashy jewelry and high heels (for the ladies) or tailored, European-style suits (for the guys).

These are just very rough guidelines I’ve picked up on over the years. They are certainly not reliable enough for me to go up to some stranger and say, “Hey, you’re Korean, aren’t you!” In fact, I wouldn’t claim to have identified someone’s ethnicity to anyone except my wife, who happens to be Vietnamese and has noticed many of the same things I have.

5

It’s been demonstrated that the way the brain recognizes people by their features is by storing essentially a caricature of the person’s face. Any trait which differs from the person’s “neutral” baseline gets exaggerated. This means that if a person doesn’t spend much time around black people, almost all black people will get the same mental caricature of a wide nose and thick lips – in which case all black people really do look the same to this person. If you want to be able to see the difference between the Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Malaysians, Laotians, and so on, then it’s a simple matter of exposing yourself to enough of them that your baseline gets reset and you no longer caricature them all the same way.

6

Yes, Koreans are the ones I can pick out pretty reliably, and that’s mostly by the shape of their faces. Though I never actually say anything until they say so, in case I’m wrong. (I’m white, by the way.) You just need to meet a large number of different asians, and the differences will eventually become apparent. Sort of like being in a small town where half the people are related.

7

Pretty much. Or to put it another way, the brain recognizes facial characteristics that vary, and learns to ignore those which don’t; which means that when you meet a group of people whose faces are invariant in ways that you are trained to see as variable, and different in ways you are trained not notice at all, they will all “look the same”. When in reality, you are just blind to the differences that are quite obvious to them.

I even recall that happening with me, personally. I grew up with very little exposure to black people, and can remember how they all looked the same to me. Then I saw more of them, and over time it became quite easy to tell them apart.

8

I asked the same thing awhile back: Nationalism and the casting of Asian actors/actresses in movies - Great Debates - Straight Dope Message Board

9

I ask.

10

My wife is from Hong Kong. I can tell Asian people apart. But I guess I can’t tell you you “how” to do it. It takes experience.

11

Chinese (at least Han Chinese) tend to have “rounder” and “fuller” faces, it’s hard to describe. The skin tone is also slightly different, Koreans and Japanese strike me as… I don’t know, usually either tanner or less tinted, but this isn’t as surefire.

Japanese - they seem to have a wider range, but there’s something distinctive, I can pinpoint it but not explain it really. They also tend to be the shortest of the bunch.

Koreans - How can I say it… softer faces is one. They also seem to have “flatter” faces in general, meaning that their cheeks don’t come “out” so much as look completely flat. That last one isn’t for ALL Koreans, but if you see someone with that “flat” feature you can usually be pretty sure they’re Korean.

Of course, none of this is surefire, even my East Asian Language and Culture teacher, who is from China, admits to sometimes going “is that person from China… or Koreaaaaa oooor… ?”

12

I am Asian, and for me, it’s kind of like the way all the Kennedy’s look alike, or the Baldwins. There’s no archetypical Kennedy or Baldwin, but after you see enough of them, you start to recognized the traits commonly expressed in their respective populations.

Another factor that’s not being considered is linguistic. I don’t speak Korean, but I can definitely recognized it. That goes for Japanese, Cantonese, Taiwanese, and a few other Chinese dialects. Southeast Asian languages sound too similar to me (nasal and very tonal) so I can’t distinguish them. Tagalog is very easy to pick out for me. Even when an Asian speaks English, it’s pretty easy for me to place the accent if one is present.

I think Hyperelastic’s inclusion of cultured cues like dress and body language are important to consider as well because in some cases, culture is the only significant difference. A perfect example would be someone from Taiwan compared to someone from Mainland China or even Hong Kong. “Ethnically” speaking, they can all be the same Han Chinese, but outwardly, they’ve been keenly stamped by they’re respective cultural molds.

13

It’s easier to tell Asian’s apart in Asia than in say the US. A lot more cultural clues in this neck of the woods. A non-Han Chinese Asian tends to stick out in China even if dressed the same. An American born and raised of 100% Chinese ethnicity sticks out like a sort thumb (milk fed, the way they move and act, body posture, etc. this holds true for those that speak like a native instead of as a second language).

Heck, even within the Han Chinese, if you live in an area long enough you can often identify a person. For example, Taiwanese/Fujian has a stereotypical type that is pretty recognizeable. Same for the Cantonese or Shanghaiese (for example, actress Joan Chen has a very stereotypical female Shanghaiese face). I’m drawing a blank for a good Cantonese stereotype - can’t think of a good “moon face” stereotype I’m thinking of

Names are often a dead giveaway.

All that said, there are plenty of Asians that fall in a middle ground somewhere. Could be Chinese, Korean or Japanese, etc.

14

I don’t think you can tell the difference just by looking at them. There aren’t any features that are exclusively Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Sure there are probably some slight regional differences (east asians vs. southeast asians, etc), and you could go on stereotypes. But put it this way. There is a huge difference between the stereotypical Japanese “look” of the 1950’s (more refined) vs that of the 2000’s (more neonatal, doll like) . Do you really think the gene pool has changed within one or two generations? Also, if you look at Japanese Americans who have been in America for several generations, you will find they don’t have the stereotypical Japanese “look” that you would find in Japan. I think the “look” that people use to tell Asian people apart are based on fashion trends, carriage, manners, and certain emulated beauty ideals that are constantly reinterpreted across time and cultures. Since this would vary across the different Asian countries (and Asian diaspora), you could sort of guess by looking at them. But this is not to say that there are straight up ethnic features that differentiate amongst East Asians, Southeast Asians, etc.

15

No I disagree with lshaw. Fashion trends have nothing to do at all with the distinct facial features that pretty much everyone else in the thread has brought up.

Personally, I thought the thread was over with Auntbeast’s response, as her summary is how I tell Asians apart. She forgot Philippino though, who tend to be darker and can easily be mistaken for Mexican if you only give them a cursory glance.

Also as stated previously, last names make things approximately 1.54 million times easier to tell them apart.

16

I didn’t mean fashion trends relating to clothes or whatnot. I mean what is fashionable for the face. For example, people tell me they can tell a Japanese girl from a Korean or Chinese girl. I know the image that they are thinking of. Nowadays, it’s the wide eyed, neonatal “youthful” look that is in vogue for the Japanese. All the celebrities and prominent media features have them, and every Japanese women try to emulate that look. They use special tape and glue to give them eye folds, special contacts to give them bigger pupils, specialized surgical methods to alter their facial features, etc. There is also a simple hyaluronic acid injection one can get to reshapen the nose. So yes, you can change/alter your facial features to fit an ideal of the moment.

17

Or Mongolian. Even a lot of Koreans mistake Mongolians for Koreans.

18

Why do you need to? I don’t care what most “white” people’s ethnic background is? And if I note it at all, then it’s because of their name.

FWIW, many Vietnamese have Nguyen as a last name. Many Koreans have last names of Park or Lee. Japanese names usually end with a vowel. Chinese last names are often short, single syllable names; Han ad “Lee” are both not uncommon, but the Chinese “Lee” is more often spelled “Li”. Indonesians and Malays can quite often have Muslim first names, like Mohammed or Ahmet. Filipinos tend to have modifications of the first names of saints and can, but don’t always, have Spanish surnames. Thais often have long, hard to pronounce last names, as do some Indians. Thai first names are often short and playful nicknames, like Nong (little sister or brother), Tukta (doll), Mu (pig, etc, as a way to make up for their long proper names.

In the end, as long as you can tell individuals apart, you really don’t need to know if they’re Chinese or Japanese.

19

Do this quiz, and you will see how different various asian people look.

http://alllooksame.com/exam_room.php

20

We discussed this quiz in an Asian American studies class - 99% of the students were Asian/Asian American - and most of us sucked at it, oddly enough.

I can tell Korean/Japanese/Chinese people apart if I see them on the street, but only if they’re more Asian than American, if that makes sense. For me it’s more about their demeanor and how they dress, rather than their faces per se. Second or third-generation Asian Americans are harder to tell apart.