Posted on 10/23/2004 3:19:37 PM PDT by blam
China’s ‘Golden Age,’ over five crucial centuries
Souren Melikian International Herald Tribune
Saturday, October 23, 2004
NEW YORK As they walk through the Metropolitan Museum’s ‘‘China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 A.D.,’’ many people will marvel at the new portrait of Chinese art and culture over five crucial centuries that comes across almost instantly. The myth of a monolithic, self-absorbed China is swept aside once and for all.
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In a gripping introduction (sometimes difficult to follow because it is so packed with information), James Watt, the Met curator who masterminded this unforgettable exhibition, describes the intermingling of the Xianbei with the native Han population. There is still considerable hesitation concerning the precise identity of the groups covered by this designation. The Xianbei replaced the Xiongnu in Mongolia around the first century, possibly by integrating many of them into their ranks.
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Nomadic Turkic cq and Iranian clans were apparently part of the mix that pushed eastward into Chinese territory. Watt notes the ‘‘great rise of foreign populations in China’’ by the middle of the second century. It peaked under Longdi (168 to 189), a ruler ‘‘fond of foreign dress, foreign hangings, foreign beds, foreign chairs, foreign food, foreign harps, foreign flutes, foreign dances,’’ says an early Chinese source cited by Watt. That fondness was shared by large sections of the establishment in China for the next 500 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
That would have been racist to mention.
On the other hand, guarantee that them bad boys left genes behind~!
Lots of 'em too.
Whacha'wanna bet.
On the other hand, guarantee that them bad boys left genes behind~!
Lots of 'em too.
Whacha'wanna bet.
The Chinese skeletons did not begin showing up in the area until around 100-200BC according to professor Victor Mair...the Chinese were late-comers.
Always a good idea to pack a couple...pairs.
I wonder where the Sino or modern day Chinese people came from. China beforehand was inhabited by Tocharian speaking people. Tocharian I read is related to Celtic and Germanic language.
4,000 years is long. Lots of changes can occur in that time period.
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The period between 200 AD and 750 AD is the most tumultuous time in Chinese history after the Warring State Period. Both politically and culturally.
Many non-Han ethnic groups poured in, with their cultures they picked up from other civilizations, while China proper was decimated. Chinese population dropped to 8 million from their peak of 60 million or 100 million depending on a source in Late Han Dynasty. Demographically beleaguered, China was swept by new waves of culture, including notably the Northern Buddhism.
Thanks for the good in-put.
I think this is the same period when the Hakka Chinese migrated from the north to the south. I've seen it stated that those with high nose bridges or other Caucasian features were executed during this migration.
Hakka (kèjiāhuà) is spoken in south eastern China, parts of Taiwan and in the New Territories of Hong Kong. There are also significant communities of Hakka speakers in such countries as the USA, French Guiana, Mauritius and the UK. The total number of Hakka speakers is roughly 40 million. Kèjiā means 'guest' in Mandarin - Hakka means the same thing in Hakka.
The Kèjiā or Hakka people have a long history of migration. Kèjiā history states that their ancestors originated from Shāndōng or Shānxī province in northern China. They began their first wave of migration between the 4th and 9th centuries, traveling from Hénán and the adjoining northern provinces into Ānhuī and its vicinity.
A second wave of migration took place between the 9th and 12th centuries, when the Kèjiā migrated along the mountains and foothills of eastern Jiāngxī into south Jiāngxī and inland Fùjiàn.
A final wave of migration took place between the 12th and 17th centuries, as Kèjiā moved into northeast Guăngdōng province.
The Cantonese of Guăngdōng saw the Kèjiā as poor, uneducated and uncultured. The Kèjiā, considered the Cantonese greedy, unrefined Southerners. There is no love lost between the two groups.
Some speculate that they have Jewish bloods in them. I am not sure who their ancestors were, though. By the way, Lee Kuan Yew, a former ruler of Singapore, is Hakka. So was Deng Xiao-ping, the late paramount leader of China.
[Origin of Hakka and Hakkanese: a genetics analysis]
1: Yi Chuan Xue Bao. 2003 Sep;30(9):873-80. Related Articles, Links
[Origin of Hakka and Hakkanese: a genetics analysis]
[Article in Chinese]
Li H, Pan WY, Wen B, Yang NN, Jin JZ, Jin L, Lu DR.
Center for Anthropological Studies at Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China. LH@cableplus.com.cn
Hakka is a distinctive Han Chinese population in Southern China speaking Hakkanese. The origin of Hakka has been controversial. In this report, we analyzed Y chromosomal markers in 148 Hakka males. Principle component analysis of Y-SNP haplotype distribution shows Hakka is clusteed strongly with the Han in Northern China, and is also close to She, a Hmong-Mien-speaking population, while the general Southern Han is fairly close to Daic populations. Admixture analysis revealed that the relative genetic contribution 80.2% (Han), 13% (She) and 6.8% (Kam) in Hakka. The network of Y-STR haplotype of M7 individuals in all concerned populations suggested two possible origins of Hmong-Mien contribution in Hakka: One is from Hubei and the other is from Canton. The Kam contribution in Hakka is likely from Kan-Yue, the ancient aborigine of Kiangsi (Jiangxi). The frequency of 9bp-deletion in Region V of mitochondrial DNA of Hakka is 19.7%, which is quite close to She but far from Han. We therefore concluded that genetically the majority of Hakka gene pool shall come from North Han with She contributing the most among all non-Han groups. Regarding the Hmong-Mien character of Hakkanese, the genetic structure of Hakka shows their core may be Kim-man, the ancient Hmong-Mien. We hypothesized that a great number of Han people from North China join this population in succession. Southern Chinese dialects, such as Hakkanese may also be those languages of Southern aborigines at first, and turn to extant appearance under the continuance effect of Northern Chinese.
PMID: 14577381 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
So is my local Chinese food restaurant owner. They were suprised when I asked them if they were Hakka...they are and thought that somehow I had 'figured this out' with our casual conversations.
Yup. It's my opinion that humans were making worldwide (planned) trips all over the globe during the Ice Age...interrupted only by natural catastrophies.
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