An experienced tourist will unmistakably identify a group from China in the crowd of tourists. There are always a lot of Chinese, they keep themselves in a noisy crowd, constantly take pictures and behave from the point of view of Europeans a little shamelessly.
We will tell you what a Chinese person looks like and how modern representatives of an ancient civilization live.
What race are the Chinese?
If you talk about the Chinese abstractly, then the imagination draws a small man with narrow eyes, black hair and a yellow face. To some extent, this view is correct. But, alas, the first 2 signs apply to all representatives of the Mongoloid race, and the yellow complexion of a Chinese person is generally a myth.
Despite numerous studies, there is no single racial classification. Anthropologists of different schools distinguish from 3 to 7 main human races and several dozen subcategories. Thus, one of the branches of the great Mongoloid race is the Chinese race, also called the Far Eastern or East Asian.
Relate to her Chinese from the East and NorthEastern China, the Japanese, Koreans, as well as residents of the Far Eastern region of Russia. And all these people have common anthropological characteristics.
Chinese characteristics
Many Europeans say that all Asians look the same to them. But the Chinese or Japanese, for the first time among the Europeans, say the same thing. Scientists explain this feature by the unconscious habit of a person to divide others into “us” and “them”, and as a result, it is much easier to distinguish people with a familiar appearance.
Let's find out what the Chinese people look like from the point of view of anthropology:
- these are thin women and men;
- they are characterized by mesocephaly, i.e., a medium-sized head: moderately wide and moderately elongated;
- they are characterized by a narrow section of the eyes and the presence of epicanthus - this is the so-called "Mongolian fold" or "Mongolian eye";
- quite narrow, straight nose;
- straight coarse black to jet black hair;
- relatively dark skin.
It is worth noting that the natives of South China, which makes up only 1% of the country's territory, are classified as a South Asian race, as well as the Vietnamese, Malays and other peoples of Southeast Asia. These Chinese are distinguished by the smallest stature and the darkest skin. They have wavy hair and wider eyes.
And the inhabitants of Northwest China belong to the North Asian race, and their appearance is especially close to European. They have the mostfair skin and hair, a more flattened face and stocky build.
However, most of the natives of the Middle Kingdom belong to the East Asian race. Therefore, we will tell you how to distinguish a Chinese person from a Japanese or Korean.
Facial features
When trying to determine the national identity of an Asian, pay attention to his face:
- Soft, elongated and beautifully defined oval of the Japanese face. Their eyes are quite large, often slightly protruding, with lowered outer corners, their noses are neat, and their lips are thin. Among the three, the Japanese are the fairest.
- The faces of Koreans are quite square, with sharply defined high cheekbones. These Asians have small eyes with raised outer corners and very thin noses with wide wings.
- Chinese people, whose characteristics are given in the article, are the most chubby and broad-cheeked. Their noses are slightly flattened, their eyes are "cat", and their lips are fuller than those of Koreans and Japanese. And it is the Chinese who are the most dark-skinned, but by no means yellow.
Now let's find out where the opinion that Chinese people must necessarily be yellow-skinned comes from, and what they really are.
Not quite white people
The first racial identification of people was the division into whites and blacks. Europeans who visited the Middle Kingdom described the Chinese appearance as "white-skinned people like us." But still, the Chinese were different, just like, for example, the indigenous people of America. Thenthe terms "redskins" and "yellow-skins" began to be used as characteristics of intermediate races. Although both Chinese and Indians are simply darker than Europeans.
Besides, a person who first came to China during the empire was amazed at the abundance of yellow, which had a symbolic meaning in the Celestial Empire. Everything associated with the Chinese invariably took on a yellow tint. This extended to skin color as well.
However, the Chinese themselves have always had their own opinion on this matter.
Chinese snow whites
The ancient inhabitants of the Celestial Empire highly valued aristocratic pallor - the quality of the skin, available only to the privileged class. If a Chinese person is swarthy, it means that he spends his whole life in the fields. White skin color means we alth and power.
Popular in Europe, lead white and mercury-based bleaching compounds were used extremely rarely in China. The pallor of the face was given by rice powder. To this day, porcelain whiteness is considered one of the indicators of the beauty of a Chinese woman.
Chinese beauty
The small foot is the second standard of beauty that was traditionally practiced in China until the beginning of the last century. For girls of 4-5 years old, their toes (all but the big one) were broken and bent, and the foot was tightly bandaged. As a result, the size of the foot of an adult woman did not exceed 10 cm, the foot was thin, sharp and, according to the Chinese, very beautiful, called the "golden lotus".
Protest against dubiousbeauty that required real sacrifices, the Chinese women decided already at the beginning of the 20th century, and after the "great helmsman" came to power, footbinding remained a relic of the bourgeois past. After all, the image of the builders of communism was in no way combined with the waddling gait of the lotus.
Chinese women rejected rice powder, blush and high hairstyles, and replaced national outfits with trouser suits. This continued until the reforms of Deng Xiaoping, who proclaimed the country's policy of openness and the "Great Leap Forward", which replaced the "cultural revolution" of Mao.
And today the Chinese are not only producers, but also active consumers of beauty industry services. And both women and men.
What is trending among the Chinese
Chinese people love to look beautiful, so the owners of numerous beauty salons here will never be out of work. Among the clients are mostly women and men aged 20 to 40 years, and the most requested service, as before, is skin whitening.
Unlike the Koreans who like to lighten their hair, the Chinese like the natural color, but chestnut is also in fashion. Women wear medium length hair, and men like a haircut like a female pixie. Both of them actively use hair styling products.
The services of plastic surgeons are also resorted to by representatives of both sexes, primarily to get rid of the epicanthus, and they do not spare money for operations. Moreover, the parents of many girls encourage their desire to be beautiful, because it will be easier for them to find a good one.job.
Chinese mentality
Today about 1.4 billion people live in China. The limited space leaves an imprint on the behavior and character of the Chinese person. The Chinese are very social. They love collective shopping and joint vacations, go abroad in a crowd and do not hesitate to make noise in public places.
Among the features of the national Chinese character, the following features are worth noting:
- For most Chinese, the main thing in life is a sense of duty to society and family.
- The spirit of collectivism is much more important for them than their own "I".
- Every self-respecting Chinese constantly makes and maintains useful connections.
- In the Middle Kingdom it is not customary to refuse a person's request, it is better in this case to beat around the bush.
- The Chinese are open and cheerful, they can directly ask a stranger about age or family, but they themselves will always avoid a direct answer.
- Chinese people love to follow the rules: the daily routine, proper nutrition, compulsory gymnastics, regular prayers to the souls of ancestors.
- It is indecent to show off one's we alth directly in China.
- The two most important people for a Chinese family: an employer and a child.
And now it makes sense to ask about the material component of the life of the average Chinese.
Quality of life in China
The standard of living of people in China has been steadily rising in recent years. In major citiesliving is more expensive than in rural areas, so the cost of living in different provinces varies and ranges from 450 to 710 yuan per month.
The minimum salary of a resident of a metropolis is about 2,000 yuan, and the average is about 7,000. At the same time, those who earn less than 4,000 yuan do not pay income tax. Illegals from other countries and rural workers receive much less than the minimum wage.
Chinese women retire at the age of 50 (officials at 55), men at 60. The minimum pension benefit for a Chinese person is about 700 yuan per month, and the average pension in the country is 2,550 yuan (23,700 rubles). Interestingly, in China, children and grandchildren are required by law to support their elderly parents. Judging by the number of elderly Chinese tourists, young Chinese are observing this sacred duty.
This is how people live in the country of the lotus, pandas and dragons, and speaking of the natives of the Middle Kingdom, one cannot fail to mention those who have become famous all over the world.
Famous Chinese
In today's world, there is hardly anyone who has not heard of Jackie Chan or Mao Zedong. These are perhaps the most famous Chinese who can top the list of their famous compatriots:
- Confucius is an ancient philosopher, one of the most revered figures in Chinese culture.
- Qin Shi Huang - the great emperor, famous for his grandiose construction projects: a network of three-lane roads, the Great Wall of China, his own tomb.
- Deng Xiaoping is a great Marxist, "fathermodern China.”
- Yao Ming is the richest man in the country, a famous basketball player with a height of 2 m 29 cm.
- John Woo is an incredibly talented film director and screenwriter who has written amazing films: Broken Arrow, Hard Target, Face Off, Mission: Impossible 2.
- Bruce Lee is a legendary film actor who needs no publicity.
Everyone recognizes these Chinese people in the photo, but now you know what the lesser-known natives of the Celestial Empire look like. And if you meet a Chinese man in pajamas on the street, do not be surprised, the man went to the store. It's their custom.
