An experienced tourist will accurately identify a group from the Celestial Empire in the crowd of tourists. There are always a lot of Chinese, they keep in a noisy crowd, constantly take pictures and behave from the point of view of Europeans a little shamelessly.
We will tell you what the Chinese people look like and how modern representatives of the most ancient civilization live.
What race are the Chinese?
If we talk about the Chinese abstractly, then the imagination draws a small man with narrow eyes, black hair and a yellow face. This is partly true. 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, a single racial classification does not exist. Anthropologists of different schools distinguish from 3 to 7 major human races and several dozen subcategories. So, one of the branches of the great Mongoloid race is the Chinese race, also called the Far Eastern or East Asian.
The Chinese from East and Northeast China, the Japanese, Koreans, as well as residents of the Far Eastern region of Russia belong to it. And all these people have common anthropological attributes.
Distinctive features of man of the Chinese race
Many Europeans say that all Asians are the same for them. But the Chinese or Japanese, once among Europeans, claim the same thing. Scientists explain this feature by a person’s unconscious habit of dividing others into “friends” and “strangers,” and as a result, people with a familiar appearance are much easier to distinguish.
Let's find out what Chinese people look like in terms of anthropology:
- these are women and men of thin physique;
- they are characterized by mesokephaly, that is, a medium-sized head: moderately wide and moderately elongated;
- they are characterized by a narrow section of the eyes and the presence of an epicanthus - this is the so-called “Mongolian fold” or “Mongolian eye”;
- rather narrow, straight nose;
- straight stiff hair from black to blue-black;
- 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 the South Asian race, as well as the Vietnamese, Malays and other peoples of Southeast Asia. These Chinese have the smallest growth and darkest skin. They have wavy hair and a wider section of the eyes.
And the inhabitants of Northwest China belong to the North Asian race, and their appearance is especially close to the European one. They have the lightest skin and hair, a more flattened face and a stocky build.
However, most natives of the Middle Kingdom belong to the East Asian race. Therefore, we will tell you on what grounds you can distinguish a Chinese person from a Japanese or Korean.
Facial features
Trying to determine the ethnicity of an Asian, pay attention to his face:
- Soft, elongated and beautifully defined oval face in the Japanese. Their eyes are large enough, often slightly bulging, with the outer corners down, their noses neat, their lips thin. Among these three, the Japanese are the most fair-skinned.
- The faces of the 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, the characteristics of which are given in the article, are the most chubby and wide-cheeked. Their noses are slightly flattened, their eyes are “cat-like,” and their lips are fuller than that of Koreans and Japanese. And it is the Chinese who are the most dark-skinned, but not yellow at all.
And now let's find out where the opinion came from, that Chinese people must be yellow-skinned, and what they really are.
Not quite white people
The first racial identification of people was the division into white and black. Europeans who visited the Middle Kingdom described the Chinese appearance as "white-skinned people like us." But still, the Chinese were different, just as, for example, the native inhabitants of America. Then, the terms “redskins” and “yellow-faced” began to be used as characteristics of intermediate races. Although the Chinese and Indians are simply more swarthy than Europeans.
In addition, a person who first came to China during the empire was struck by the abundance of yellow, which had a symbolic meaning in the Middle Kingdom. Everything that was associated with the Chinese invariably acquired a yellow tint. This has spread to skin color.
However, the Chinese themselves have always had their own opinion on this.
Chinese "snow white"
The ancient inhabitants of China highly appreciated the aristocratic pallor - the quality of the skin, accessible only to a privileged class. If a Chinese person is swarthy, then he spends his whole life in the fields. White skin color means wealth and power.
Popular in Europe, lead white and mercury-based bleaching agents in China have been used extremely rarely. Rice powder gave pallor to the face. 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 has traditionally been practiced in China until the beginning of the last century. To 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 legs 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".
Chinese women decided to protest against dubious beauty, requiring real sacrifices at the beginning of the 20th century, and after the "great helmsman" came to power, bandaging of the feet remained a relic of the bourgeois past. After all, the image of the builders of communism could not be combined with the waddling gait of a lotus.
PRC women rejected rice powder, blush and high hairstyles, and replaced their national outfits with trouser suits. This went on until the reforms of Deng Xiaoping, who proclaimed a policy of openness and a "big leap" in the country that replaced Mao's "cultural revolution."
And today, the Chinese are not only manufacturers, but also active consumers of the services of the beauty industry. And both women and men.
What is the trend of the Chinese
Chinese people like to look beautiful, so the owners of numerous beauty salons here will never be left without work. Among the clients are mainly women and men aged 20 to 40 years, and the most popular service, as before, is skin whitening.
Unlike Koreans who like to lighten hair, the Chinese like the natural color, but also chestnut in fashion. Women wear medium-long hair, and men love a haircut like a female pixie. Both those and others actively use hair styling products.
Representatives of both sexes also resort to the services of plastic surgeons, primarily to get rid of the epicanthus, and do not spare money on the operation. Moreover, the parents of many girls encourage their desire to be beautiful, because it will be easier for them to find a good job.
Chinese mentality
Today, about 1.4 billion people live in the Middle Kingdom. Limited space leaves its mark on the behavior and character of Chinese people. The Chinese are very social. They love collective shopping and joint rest, everywhere they go around in crowds 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 for them is much more important than their own "I".
- Every self-respecting Chinese constantly makes and maintains useful contacts.
- In China, it is not customary to refuse a person a request, it is better in this case to beat around the bush.
- The Chinese behave openly and cheerfully, they can directly ask a stranger about their age or family, but they themselves will always get away from a direct answer.
- Chinese people like to follow the rules: daily routine, proper nutrition, compulsory gymnastics, regular prayers to the souls of their ancestors.
- In the Middle Kingdom it is indecent to brag directly about one’s wealth.
- The two most important people for the Chinese family: the employer and the child.
And now it makes sense to ask about the material component of the life of the average Chinese.
The quality of life in the Middle Kingdom
The standard of living of people in China in recent years has been steadily increasing. In large cities, living 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 thousand yuan, and the average is about 7 thousand. At the same time, those who earn less than 4 thousand 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 for a Chinese person is about 700 yuan per month, and the average pension in the country is 2550 yuan (23,700 rubles). Interestingly, in China, children and grandchildren are required by law to support their elderly parents. Judging by the number of Chinese tourists of advanced age, young Chinese observe this holy duty.
This is how people live in the land of lotus, panda and dragons, and, speaking of the natives of the Celestial Empire, one cannot fail to mention those who became famous throughout the world.
Famous chinese
In the modern world, there is hardly anyone who has not heard about Jackie Chan or Mao Zedong. These are perhaps the most famous Chinese who can lead the list of their illustrious compatriots:
- Confucius is an ancient philosopher, one of the most revered figures in Chinese culture.
- Qin Shihuandi is a 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, "the father of modern China."
- Yao Ming is the richest man in the country, a famous basketball player with a height of 2 m 29 cm.
- John Wu is an incredibly talented filmmaker and screenwriter, author of stunning films: Broken Arrow, Difficult Target, Faceless, Mission Impossible-2.
- Bruce Lee is a legendary movie actor who doesn't need advertising.
Everyone recognizes these Chinese people in the photo, and you now 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 so customary with them.