Right off the bat, let me make clear that I do NOT subscribe to the old cliche that “all Orientals look alike.” So, don’t bother attempting to refute that notion!
However, I can’t tell by looking whether an Asian person is Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, or Korean. I’m just wondering if there ARE facial characteristics that give away their ethnicity to other Asians.
Rather, I’m asking this: if a Chinese man is walking the streets of Seoul, if a Japanese man is walking through Hanoi, if a Vietnamese man is strolling through Beijing, would the locals spot him immediately as a foreigner, or would they blend in until their accents gave them away?
Opinions from actual Asians and Asian-Americans are preferred, of course.
I’m a white guy who was born and raised in Hawaii and I can tell most of the time whether a person is Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Okinawan, Thai. Of course these countries don’t have exclusive genealogy. There have been mixing of lines, as there always is. I’m actually better at telling Asians apart then I am at telling Europeans apart.
I’m not asian, but I did live in Japan when I was a kid. It didn’t take me long to learn to distinguish Japanese from the large immigrant population of Koreans. FWIW.
I can certainly tell the difference between say Japanese and Koreans etc. Not all the time but a lot of the time. My wife who is Korean is sometimes asked a Chinese and Japanese restaurants, by the Asian staff, if she is Korean. Giving some anecdotal evidence to idea that it is not just my own personal supper power.
I live in a city with a huge Asian population and I find that I can usually tell, but not always. I might occasionally not be able to spot the difference between a Japanese and Korean person, or a Vietnamese guy and a Chinese one. It would be rare to get mixed up between a Japanese and Vietnamese person though. I can usually pin it down to a region, if not a country. When I was in Hong Kong, a Japanese girl sat down at a restaurant table next to us, and she was so immediately obvious, she may as well have been Swedish. There are exceptions though. My girlfriend is half Chinese and half Vietnamese, but people are always mistaking her for a Thai because of her facial structure and darker than usual skin.
I think it’s slightly easier than it is for caucasian people. I can’t usually tell if a person is Australian, American, British or European without hearing their accent, but there are some individuals in whom it is obvious.
Can you tell a German and a Frenchman apart?
If you have lived in Europe, or been around many Europeans, you probably can quite easily…but if you haven’t - they look all the same. And the same is probably true in telling Japanese from Koreans. If you know the cultures, you’ll know the differences; if you are an outsider, they are all “East Asians”
“Asia” is practically half the world, if not more, so it is sort of dangerous to make a blanket statement about Asians…I mean would an Indian discern the differences between Japanese and Koreans any better than an American would?
Also, to get away from “race”, while physical features may play a part; hairstyles, clothing, gestures, facial features and other clues probably make more of an impression. It’s not always matter of comparing noses, chins, and eyelids. Just as a German can often spot an American from a mile away based on his clothes, gestures, and general attitude - even if that American is entirely German in origin; the same might be true for a Korean observing a Japanese person, even though most Japanese people (though they may not like to think so) are descended from ancient migrants from the Korean peninsula.
Another Hawaii native here, so yes, I can usually tell the different flavors of Asians apart. When your schools are overflowing with Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, and Filipino kids, you quickly develop a sense for telling them apart.
OTOH, people like me that screw things up for others-- no one’s ever really sure what the heck I am, and they’re usually wrong with their guesses. I must have a generic Asian look ‘r sumthin’…
I was under the impression that the Japanese were ethnically the same as the Koreans. Didn’t the dominant ethnic group in Japan migrate there from Korea?
Same background as AudreyK, ftr. And, yes, I can generally tell the different Asian ethnicities apart (though I have an inexplicably hard time with Vietnamese girls, who I often take for Chinese, go figure).
And, Audrey, you think you have trouble with misidentification…
Mostly, I can recognize Japanese vs. non-Japanese. There may be some physical differences, but mainly it’s things like clothing, hair and make-up styles, as well as how they seem to blend in (or not) with the crowds.
[sub]I’m sorry, KKB, hon, but I laugh whenever I think about what you’ve been mistaken for…[/sub]
Here, you can also pick out the American-born Japanese from the from-Japan Japanese. Often, in restaurants or stores where there are a lot of Japanese tourists and local Japanese folks, the hosts or cashiers can glance at you and tell in an instant if they should speak to you in English or Japanese. If the bright pink of their sunburns doesn’t give them away :D, there are other appearance-based clues to pick up on.
I’m a white guy from Calif. A lot of the times it’s obvious, but some people are kinda “generic” asian looking if that makes sense. For example, some Taiwanese are obviously Taiwanese (and I’m talking about the Fukien arrivals), but others could pass for Japanese or Korean.
My wife is Shanghaiese, after living in Japan for 6 years, she moved to Hong Kong and EVERYONE there thought she was Japanese.
90% plus of the time, I can spot an Asian American as opposed to being a born and raised Asian-Asian.
Perhaps because this is where I’ve lived for so long, but its a lot easier for me to distinguish between Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan and Mongolians than between the Philippino’s, bumiputras and other Indonesians. It can also get confusing between the Thai, Viet Namese, Khmer, Laotians.
I’ve known several non-Japanese Asians (mostly Chinese) here who’ve been mistaken for Japanese by Japanese. They’ve mostly been long term residents who’ve acculturated to some degree. In light of that, I’d say it’s more behavioral/cultual/clothing cues that are being picked up in many cases, and not actual appearance.
I agree. There are some tendencies in terms of physical characteristics, and after living in Asia for almost ten years now, I can often distinguish. But often it is the cultural markings as much as the natural ones that tell the tale.
A few years ago, a Japanese friend came to visit me here in Korea. I mean, a woman who had been born, raised, educated, and had always lived in Japan, but who was, in fact, Korean. Her passport, her real name (she goes by a Japanese name as well, but her official name is Korean), and her blood, as we say, are all Korean–her Korean parents relocated to Japan before she was born. And yet, when we went shopping in some big local markets in Seoul, she was immediately spotted by all the merchants as Japanese, and they spoke to her in Japanese. Culturally, she is Japanese. But actually, she’s Korean.
My 2 cents (hey! Why aren’t there any “cents” symbols on Korean keyboards??:mad: ):
MrO and I are both big old whitey round-eyed Americans living here in Korea… my personal experience is that there are some typical characteristics of each different Asian groups, however it is a very unreliable guide…
Anecdote 1:
One time Astrogirl (a little Korean hottie! I WIN! Thank you, God!) and I were eating dinner in a small neighborhood restaurant. Two women walked in, we assumed they were Korean… the waitress asked them, in Korean, what they wanted to order… the two women didn’t speak Korean! They must be Japanese! OK, waitress runs to the back of the restaurant to get her brother, who speaks Japanese… brother comes out and asks, in Japanese, what they want… they don’t speak Japanese either!:eek:
There followed a quick conference between the waitress and her brother (forgive my poor Korean, but I think it went like this):
Waitress: “O-to-kay?” (um… ‘OK, now what??’)
Brother: “Molla… nan ku-dul-ee Ilbon-saram seang-gak hey!” ('I dunno… I thought they were Japanese!)
The impass ended when one of the two women leaned over to me and said (in very poorly pronounced English), “excuse me, do you speak Korean?”
I told her that I didn’t speak much Korean, but Astrogirl was pretty good (being Korean and all…).
She turned to Astrogirl and said (sorry, I’m NOT making fun of Asians here, but this is what it sounded like!), “Courd you prease tell her we want flied noodres?”
Astrogirl panicked… she turned to me, “Dan-ee-shi! O-to-kay??” (‘Dan, what the freak do I do now?’)
Me (to AG): “She said they want fried noodles.”
AG (to waitress): “Ku-dul-ee ku-rim-u-ro twee-kin myung mokosipoyo!” (‘These people want to eat fried noodles!’)
Waitress to AG: “Twee-kin myung opsoyo…”
AG (to me): “They don’t got flied noodres.”
Me (to woman): “I’m sorry, they don’t have fried noodles.”
Woman (to me): “Oh! What food kind is thele?”
Me (to woman): “At this restaurant, they mostly have meat dishes…”
The two women conferred for a few moments…
Woman (to me): “OK… courd you older someting fol us?”
Me (to woman): “Sure, what do you like?”
This went on for a long, amusing time… with the woman talking to me in English, me talking to Astrogirl in English/Korean, and Astrogirl talking to the waitress in Korean.
Eventually, through intense group effort, we got the two CHINESE women fed… whew!
Anecdote 2:
Astrogirl and I have, many times, gone out shopping together… virtually ALL the time, people assume that she’s Japanese (because she’s holding hands with me, the big old whitey round-eyes, and a good Korean girl would NEVER date a foreigner:rolleyes:… plus, Astrogirl doesn’t have the “typical” Korean look…)… they call to her in Japanese! “Konichi-wa!” This annoys Astrogirl to no end…
Anecdote 3:
Astrogirl and I were in the elevator, going down… (perverts!;)) a woman got on at the 8th floor. The woman was holding several lollypops on long (maybe 18 inches long) sticks, one of which she was currently sucking on (I won’t accuse you of being perverts here, as the same thought occurred to me!:D). Astrogirl looked at the lollypop, looked at me, looked at the lollypop, looked at me, and said (in English), “Hey! Buy me one of those!” I said, “OK, I live to serve! Your wish is my command! Etc… where can we buy them?” Astrogirl said, “I don’t know…” I said, “Well, ask her!” At this point, the woman leaned foreward, offering a lollypop, and said (in ENGLISH), “Please! I give you one!” (she assumed that Astrogirl was NOT Korean, so she spoke in English…
Astrogirl took the lollypop with a ‘thank you’, but was peeved for a couple of hours afterwards… Hey! Such is the danger of dating an American!
Conclusions (of my unscientific, anecdotal, survey):
Asians CANNOT accurately tell one ethnic group from another. They may claim otherwise, but it’s BS, IMO.
There ARE differences in typical look, but not enough to tell 100% in every case.
On a slight tangent, is there any way to sense the physical differences between Indian and Pakistani folks, if any really exists?
I’ve gotten in some hot water before when confusing the two.
It’s been a while since I saw “Ghandi”, but I seem to remember they split relatively recently, so a major difference shouldn’t be expected. In theory.
