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"The new finds are also forcing a reexamination of old Chinese books that describe historical or legendary figures of great height, with deep-set blue or green eyes, long noses, full beards, and red or blond hair. Scholars have traditionally scoffed at these accounts, but it now seems that they may be accurate." (Victor Mair)

Victor Mair is pretty much alone in suggesting that these people were actually Caucasian, and he is probably wrong. First, the Chinese language is notoriously imprecise, and LOVES to use concrete adjectives as metaphors for something more abstract, like personality and behavior: blue eyes don't really mean blue eyes, but stern coldness.

Second, blue eyes and green eyes STILL exist in the Han Chinese population (something like one in a hundred thousand), by sheer random genetic mutation of eye melanin pigmentation (not by actual genetic relation with Caucasians). In the old days, when superstitions abound, these people with the isolated eye mutation would be perceived as "special" and could take advantage of their condition and go into positions of power. Also, anyone who actually has visited China (and not just southern places like Canton, Taiwan and Hong Kong) could attest that most Northern Han Chinese men have long noses and can grow facial hair. Is Victor Mair suggesting that all Han Chinese have flat noses and are of short statue? Maybe in Chinatown, but the Han Chinese in China are a lot more diverse than the Cantonese-dominant Chinatowns in the US. This article you posted reeks of shallow stereotypes and would be laughed out of the room by anthropologists and geneticists. Sometimes the lone dissenter might be right, but in this case, he is generating wild conclusions based on shallow and scarce evidence; it's just not convincing.

Your articles (except the first one) sound like something from the National Vanguard or the National Alliance.

"The new finds are also forcing a reexamination of old Chinese books that describe historical or legendary figures of great height, with deep-set blue or green eyes, long noses, full beards, and red or blond hair."

Chinese historic records even describe some Chinese rulers as having "purple hair" and "green beards" (hehe like Japanese anime today), how would you try to justify that? It's exciting to think that we Caucasians brought civilization to China, but from the sheer differences in writing, language and basic world views (such as the cyclical Chinese world view), it's unlikely these supposed Caucasians (if they even existed in China) made much if any impact on Chinese civilization.

You don't know what you're talking about. Go read some (current) books then come back with some comments.

Professor Victor Mair

Victor H. Mair is Professor of Chinese Language and Literature in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States. Professor Mair has edited the standard Columbia History of Chinese Literature and the Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature.

Dr. Mair received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1976. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania since 1979. Dr. Mair is also founder and editor of Sino-Platonic Papers, an academic journal examining Chinese, East Asian and Central Asian linguistics and literature.

Dr. Mair specializes in early vernacular Chinese, and is responsible for well-received translations of the Dao De Jing and the Zhuangzi. He has also been noted for his collaboration on interdisciplinary research on the archeology of Eastern Central Asia.

"Your articles (except the first one) sound like something from the National Vanguard or the National Alliance."

That's a cheap shot and people that have read my postings over the years know better.

How the races developed is still an unsolved question. The fact that some apparently European people wandered into and possibly settled western China and Central Asia is interesting, but any evidence linking these Celtic-seeming people to the development of Chinese civilization is lacking. Additionally, people flowed west as well as east. A good example is the singer Bjork, who claims she is purely Icelandic but looks more like a mixed Asian-European person. Whether she has a long forgotten Lapp or Inuit ancestor or her appearance is a random mutation is open to question.

"This article you posted reeks of shallow stereotypes and would be laughed out of the room by anthropologists and geneticists. Sometimes the lone dissenter might be right, but in this case, he is generating wild conclusions based on shallow and scarce evidence; it's just not convincing."

Professor Stephen Oppenheimer says in one of his books that the oldest (undisputed) Mongoloid skeleton ever found is only 10,000 years old.

I'm beginning to lean toward the probability that the homeland of the Caucasian and 'Caucasian like' people is in fact in China or even further east in SE Asia...and, maybe even Sundaland.

All the maps showing Europeans migrating to the east are (imo) fairly recent migrations, if they happened at all. Caucasians migrated from the east to Europe, not the other way around.

Oppenheimer says that his DNA studies indicate that about 50% of todays Europeans can trace their DNA to one man in the Indus valley who made their way to Europe through the Middle East. The other (about) 50% can trace their DNA to a son of the same man who made their way to Europe a thousand years later through Russia.

Based on the show I saw about these Traim basin mummies, they were not Chinese in appearance at all. They are caucasoid in appearance and their was no question of their lighter hair color and very large size.

On the other hand, populations are fluid and nobody knows what the average Homo sapiens looked like several thousand years ago. Hair color and eye color don't fossilize.