Well I'm new to this forum, joined out of curiosity looking for information of different ethnic groups in China. My husband is putting together his family tree and is bugging me to contribute mine. And I know nothing of my ancestry other than I'm from China, my dad was born in Taisan, my mom a native Cantonese. My husband suggested I dig deeper because he thinks there are definitely genetic mixing in my ancestry with other races because well, I have naturally curly hair. I don't mean curly like most Asian people consider their hair curly (which is really just loose waves, if any). I mean full blown Mariah Carey curls. J-Lo has nothing on me type of curls. I think I'm 100% Chinese, because I've asked my parents repeatedly and both said I'm pure blooded. So why am I the only Chinese person I know (and everyone around me knows) that has crazy curls like this? I know my grandfather has wavy hair (and where the heck did he get it from?), and some of my dad's relatives have wavy hair, it seems to run in the males on my dad's side. But it got to come from somewhere, and so far I don't think it's from the Han side of my family But I have no idea what else is mixed in my family tree because the Hans count their offspring's ethnicity based on the father, so there could be like an African tribal princess or Amazon thrown in there and I'll still be consider Han

So my question is, have any of you ever met a Chinese (or Asian for that matter) with curly hair? I wonder if there are other Chinese out there, pure blood I mean, that have this hair. I know there are Chinese out there with blue/gray/green eyes, but they are from the parts of China where they would have been mixed with the Arabic countries and Russia. I'm from Canton for Christ' sake.

Yes, I've met some chinese with natural curly hair before, although the majority of chinese has straight hair. It could be due to some form of mixing. Some of my chinese friends have natural curly hair.

Thread moved to Chinese Anthropology b'cos it concerns the looks/anthropology feature of chinese.

oh yeah? how curly are we talking about? can you post some pics? Do they know where they got it from? I know curly hair is a dominant gene, but dang it seems to bypass every generation in my family. And they all married straight haired Chinese spouses.

No one knows what really is "Pure Blooded" anymore. Over the years, there's just been so much mixing that it's hard to define, and even if defined, there's no guarantee that the Chinese today are 100% the descendants of the Huaxia culture.

I mean, in the past, it was noted that the Sogdians in China had curly hair. But by now, it might be difficult to tell whether you have some Sogdian in you or anything. But don't sweat it.

Actually I need to know my ancestry also for medical reasons. My husband and I are planning to try for a kid and we are collecting a boat load of medical history on both sides and as usual, I'm coming up short on my side.

I did find out my mom is from the Chan clan that owned and built the Chan Ancestral Temple in Canton. My grandfather and mother went to school there when they were a kid. Kinda cool to know I am related to half of Canton, lol.

From a biological point of view, whether your hair is curly or not is based on the shape of hair follicle (cavity on head entailing the growth of hair). The shape of hair follicle is determined by DNA. If the hair follicle is oval in shape, it will lead to short and curly hair like that of the blacks (african). If the hair follicle is round in shape, it will lead to straight and thicker hair like most east Asians. If the shape is like that of egg or ovum, it will lead to big curly or wavy hair just like most caucasians.




Just an example of a chinese girl with natural curly hair.

Hey I finally seen another Asian person with curly hair, kewl I feel less of a freak now.

No worries. My paternal grandfather had really curly hair. More curly than that girl's hair, even. He had an afro when he was younger. And my dad also has curly hair although not as curly. And I, consequently, have semi wavy hair.

Well, we'd need a pic to see exactly how curly your hair is. lol

My hair is naturally wavy, but that's about it.

My ancestors are from Kaiping, the county next to Taisan. My father was born in Kaiping. My mother's ancestors came from Xinhui, a county near both Taisan, Kaiping, and Macau.


And my brother has natural curly hair!!!

She's adorable. East Asians with curly hair is not something I was aware of, but I wouldn't go as far as to call it "freakish". That's a little mean. I think she looks just fine.

Eric

I got naturally curly fringes, but I'm photo-shy.

One thing - being Chinese is not really "genetic" since as YZB pointed out, Chinese today (ethnic Chinese that is) is a product of thousands of years of intermixing.

the only reason I said I feel like a freak is because all my life I've been picked on for having curly hair. you have no idea how mean other kids can be and the adults aren't any better. The kids call me crazy or "n-mix" (you know what I'm referring to) and their parents would whisper behind my parents' back. Well my husband has curly hair too and our children will definitely have curly hair, and I think they couldn't be more beautiful.

I don't like posting pictures of myself on the web, no offense but I don't know who really is lurking behind the computer. But I can tell you my hair is as curly as Mariah Carey's back when she first got famous. My cousin thinks she has wavy hair but she really doesn't, her hair only sort of flip under on the ends so she thinks it's curled. My husband pissed her off the other day when she was flaunting her "straightened" hair because she got the japanese hair straigthening thing. He looked at like she was crazy and said "but you got bone straight hair, you just wasted $500". Personally I think she's nuts. I would kill to have straight hair like her, not only would I not be talked about and treated like an outsider my whole life, I would be able to walk out of the house with dry hair (can't blow dry curly hair) and no products (no products = frizz city).

I'm Tibetan and I have wavy hair. My dad has full on curly hair, as do a few other Tibetans I know. So your not the only Asian with curly hair.

Heres an old picture of my dad with me and my brother. http://uottawa.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=...mp;id=121509805

^Hi JiG!! Good to see you here!! Remember that stupid place called AF? Hahaha. Anyways, my paternal grandfather had hair like your dad's. Very curly and hard to manage. Good thing my hair is almost straight.

Hey Suren, Good to see you here too. Yea I do remember AF haha but this site is much better to talk about serious things.

I also have natural wavy hair (big curls). All my mother's family have the same type of hair. My brother hated his hair that he used many methods to straighten it up all his life. We are from ZheJiang Province. My mom's family is from Hangzhou. Both of my parents are supposed to be Han Chinese (many generations). My brother's (half-brother) faher was supposed to be a Hui (also living in Zhejiang province for many generations), but my brother looks more like my mother.

The interesting thing is that both my mom and my brother look like Westerner. My mother could pass for a Chinese version of Katherine Heburn, and my brother looked very much like a younger version of Clint Eastwood. According to my mother, my brother was actually blonde-haired before he was 3. I saw his picture at the time, and he did look like an American boy. Actually, all his life, whenever he walked on the street of a Chinese city, many people thought he is a foreigner-he is also 6 feet tall. Since my nephew at my mother's side looks like a Spanish man also, I have to wonder whether my mother's family had Western blood in the past. Since Hangzhou, Zhejiang, was a major sea port of the ocean silk road and it had many foreigners coming there since a thousand years ago, I think it may be a possibility.

I, however, was another story. I was mistaken by many Japanese as a Japanese. I figure that was probably because My father's home town used to be a major port (in Zhejiang) where Japanese pirates frequented. They were there off and on for the last 500 years, so I might have some Japanese blood, not that I like Japanese -- My grand parents starved to death because of Japanese in WWII.

Interestingly, one of my Mongolian friend also thought I look like an Mongolian. My eating habit is also very similar to Mongolian: Although I was born and grew up in Taiwan and is supposed to be from Zhejian, a souhern province, I don't like to eat rice nor noodles. I prefer Chinese pancakes and dairy products. None of my other family members have the same eating habit as mine. My Mongolian friend thought maybe I was an Mongolian in the past life.

All in all, outside of my curly hair, according to people who have seen Tang Dynasty wall paintings of the palace women, they all said that I look like them, very classical Chinese looking: Oval face, long and thick eyebrows, pheonix eyes, small and a bit flat nose, and small mouth. Well, I was born 1200 years too late. I would have been a great beauty at Tang Dynasty.

Oh, I forgot to mention. I had a classmate in Taiwan who is a Taiwanese (originally from Fujian province). She also has pure Han Chinese ancestors for many generations (or supposed to be). However, she looks exactly like Diana Ross, you know, the famous black singer. The only thing is that her skin was a shade lighter. She has very curly natural hair (afro-hair style). If I didn't know, I would think she was part black. Later on, I have seen more half-black Chinese who looks more like Chinese than she is. Isn't genetic amazing?

My aunt has crazy curly hair.