Facial Structure Recognition
Here’s a somewhat controversial question (depending on who you ask it to): Can you tell someone’s “race” by looking at their facial structure? That is to say could you tell the difference between, for example, a native Japanese / Korean / Chinese person just by looking at their face?
race – n.
- A local geographic or global human population distinguished as a distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics.
- A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution.
This is a question which I’ve found occasionally comes up in conversation with both Asian and non-Asian friends and I’ve never heard a definitive answer. To the latter group Asians generally tend to “look the same” (which will undoubtedly get you in trouble) while for the former it’s less clear cut ~ some people claim they can while others say it’s impossible. A quick Google search confirms that there are a variety opinions in both directions and there are even whole sites dedicated to the subject.
I scratched my head about this for a long while thinking that logically if a group of people come from the same hereditary genetic pool, based in a semi-enclosed geographical location with a shared heritage of thousands of years, then surely wouldn’t they end up with some similar physical characteristics which would be reliably identifiable, at least for a high percentage of the population?
As per the example here’s my rather un-scientific theory based on morphological observation:
Photo by Ernesto JT
Japanese people tend to have a longer / oval facial structure with wider / larger eyes and more pronounced noses. Japanese women often put on thick makeup giving them a pale white complexion.
Photo by Kam
Chinese people tend to have rounder faces than both Korean and Japanese people. China is a huge multi-ethnic country unlike Korea and Japan (which are more ethnically homogeneous) making it much harder to differentiate or generalize.
Photo by Dax Melmer
Korean people tend to have flatter faces with higher / squarer cheek bones and smaller eyes with single eyelids (opposed to double). A high proportion of Korean women have had cosmetic surgery somewhat confusing things.
Although I’ve found the above a fairly reliable definition trying to guess based on facial structure alone seems to be pretty hit-and-miss in reality. The success rate greatly increases when you included other observable indicators such as name, language, behavior, hairstyle and clothing. According to more scientific studies both East Asians and Caucasians are more easily identifiable by facial features than others.
Failing all that you could just ask which is probably a safer bet than trying to guess and risk upsetting anyone!
Can you tell the difference? (Note: any racist comments will be deleted).
Update (25/02/11): I found this fascinating graphic showing the composite ‘average’ face of women around the world from faceresearch.org. I think my descriptions above hold-up pretty well based on this.
284 Responses to “Facial Structure Recognition”
http://hubpages.com/hub/Japan-vs-Korea
abvoe is a link to one of many articles about korea writen a while ago about japan and korea plastic surgeries. There are more if anyone like to read them. They are written by caucasian. Caucasian reports are everywhere in the world working for their media, magazines and etc. They only report what they see happening and I don’t believe they will make things up as most ethnic koreans keep insisting. In the united states, there are korean teenagers going to s. korea for plastic surgeries due to them seeing all the plastic surgeried korean celebrities. They want to look like that too. But most koreans living in the united states are still retainiing their birth faces. This is the reason why Margret Cho and Sandra Oh made it in the american tv. They wouldn’t have gotten hired they they had plastic surgeries cuz it wouldn’t be a ethnic korean face. Believe me the makeup artist will be able to see those cuts that you and me cannot see. The round eye look is not a natural facial feature of northern chinese, mongolians, japanese, and koreans. The biggest give away is deep eyelid creases, small narrow noses with tall nose bridges, and oval faces with “V” shape jaws which too many korean celebriteis have is clearly plastic surgeries. Even Kim tae hee admit to doing her nose, but she hasn’t admit to her uppand lower eyelids which I can clearly see from her early day photos. She had lower eyelid bags and now it is gone. She also had excessive upper eyelid skin and she got that remove by getting a deeper eyelid creases. Song hye kyo, and the list go on and on.
Yes I can tell the difference and they are all very Beautiful, most Lovely.
Excuse me, but your “Japanese” picture is one who has undergone surgery to make her eyes bigger. Japanese typically have smaller eyes than Chinese.
The japanese women here had plastic surgeires. Typical japanese woman have small eyes with no eyelid creases.
that’s right, and normally japanese have more molds on their faces than other asian!It’s non- scientific theory..just from personal observation!And i also agree that korean has more flatter face and higher cheek bones,an good way to tell that someone is a korean or not if they didnt do any plastic surgery!
This is not true. Chinese have thick fleshy monolids, giving the illusion that their eyes are smaller, and they have a stronger epicanthus. Korean have similar upper eyelid to Chinese, but less epicanthus and narrower but “longer” eyes. Japanese have largest eyes of any East Asian, and some have double eyelids whereas Chinese and Korean hardly ever have double lids. Japanese also have the least prominent epicanthus, thus making eyes appear the widest of any East Asian. Lastly, each race has different eyebrow shape. Japanese have straighter eye brows while Chinese tend to have more rounded eyebrows and Korean have more arched brows. Also, Japanese have lightest skin except for Okinawan.
Japanese have several kinds. Some look like koreans, and some look like southern chinese. In general koreans have the smallest eyes and that is why so many had plastic surgeries due to some of their genes are from mongolia and southern siberians where it was really, really cold with very, very harsh weather. I know of many japanese american girls under gone plastic surgeries for double eyelids and nose jobs. So this is what I have seen in my entire long life traveling to many places. Japanese, koreans and northern chinese look kind of similar. The southern lslands of Japan, southern chinese, vietnamese look the same. THey have rounder eyes and double eyes. To me they are the best looking people. In is known that japan gene pools are different depending on the islands. So far, most single eyelids are with korean population.
That is not true, base on Chinese huge population most of them I’ve seen has natural double lid eyes. I for one is also Chinese carrying the genes of big eyes and double eye lids and the rest of my family.
Not all Vhinese have thick monolids! Because of cross races due to history and the vast amount of land Chinese people cover, not all Chinese have thick monolids. I know because I am southern Chinese and I have a little wider eyes with a more tapered eye lid. I was born that way. Also, many northern Chinese have as light skin tones and Japanese.
And you’re right about the japanese having wider eyes. I’ve noticed some have naturally wider irises, too. (While not wearing circle lenses).
I think the more south you go the bigger the eyes. Southern Chinese have slightly bigger eyes with double lids than the people of Japanese, korean, and northern chinese especially because its near Southeast Asia.
Thats not at all true, Japanese tend to have the largest and roundest almond eyes while Chinese have longer thinner almond eye while koreans are in-between and have more up pointed normal almond asian eyes.
check out this http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Korean-Way-of-Beauty-Korean-Plastic-Surgery.
In this aritcle it points out that most koreans had plastic surgeries. Some koreans that had it done are disputing that thinking they can hide the true fact that they altered their appearance is not new to the world. Most of the koreans I ever know do not look like the koerans in south korea today whom all had plastic surgeries. It is okay for them to deny if they cannot find the truth, but they will have to dealt with it when they have babies, which most likely will have their strong korean facial features.
In south korea, most korean women had plastic surgeries in the general population. The elderly 60+ go for nose jobs and double eyelid surgeries. South korea is the highest in any asian country to get plastic surgeires. It general population in getting plastic surgeries is the highest in the world. It beats out Brazil now. Majority of korean celebrities had plastic surgeries. I never seen any koreans looking like the ones that had plastic surgeries. Koreans have high percentage of very mongoloid faces. Here is one of many articles about korean plastic surgeons exposing korean cellebrities. http://www.88news.net/tag/shim-mina/. So, in all fairness I don’t think people want to look korean cuz most koreans had plastic surgeries to remove their mongoloid facial features. This is why there is so many plastic surgery towns in south korea. Name a country that have a town fille donly with plastic surgery businesses. South Korea, a nation obsessed with beauty and their genes cannot create it, so most faces are creation of very skilled korean plastic surgeons.
I realized that taiwanese have this racial fixation about asian race. Facial difference between Korean, Japanese, Chinese. Koreans in general have much more similiarity with Mongolians and Manchurians. Japanese central island regions in Kansai ( Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Kobe, Fukuoka) areas look more Koreans. Japan southern regions like ( Okinawa) look more chinese. Chinese/ han-Chinese. There is no such thing called ” Han-Chinese”. Han-Chinese are mixed between altiac tribes. Koreans, Manchurians, Mongolians, and Turkish.
[...] v. healthy and should-reproduce. Do we have something like that? I found one for asians – Facial Structure Recognition – Can You Tell The Difference Between Japanese / Korean / Chinese Faces… and I thought it would be nice if we had a guide, maybe in pdf format that is printable and can be [...]
I can tell almost all the popular nationalities using two things:
1. The Face and how it looks
2. I need to hear one word from there mouth
and that’s it..all you need is to be interested in the matter and see different nationalities for some time
Really, just from the way the face looks?!? How would one do that? I can tell entirely by smell of the face. I’ve smelled so many faces. How they talk is irreverent. One good smell of the face and”BAM” could pick your nationality to the tee.
Anyone know of an online site that identifies more specifically some of China’s sub-cultures based on morphological observation? My guess is there could be on the order of 100s of distinct “tribal types” with distinct facial features.
China consist of many tribal groups. We only are separate between south and north. The southern chinese have more delicated features. China included, the tibets, mongolians, koreans, hmongs, and himalayians. Hmong can past as southern chinese, but they are usually very short. Himalayians and tibets have dark skin almost reddish brown skin like the american indians with facial features of ethnic koreans, southern siberians, and mongolians. In south west china some of the chinese are not even pure mongoloid people. They were persian blood. In central china, there is bunch of ligh skin, light hair, and colored eye chinese people. I believe why they still look like that is the locals marry one another getting those recessive genes in their blood making their causasian roots showing up very frequently. Had they married a pure chinese, then those recessive gene traits won’t show up like that.
98% of people living in China are of Han Chinese stock so you pointing out very small groups of minorities in China is irrelevent.
Han Chinese originated from Southerneast part of China that’s why you guys look closer to Vietnamese than to Koreans or Japanese.
Most Chinese are shade or two darker than average Koreans or Japanese, although some Japanese can look tannish.
Only northern Chinese look similar to Koreans and Japanese due to intermixing with Manchurians who used to occupy Northeast part of China. Manchurians are the closest nationality to Koreans. Part of the same Altaic tribe that got split.
I read 90% of ethnic chinese which I think is inaccurate too. Tibets and himalayians also considered chinese when they are tannish red skinned people. Japanese have the lightest skin of any asians. I am not saying all japanese. There are a lot of koreans that aren’t light. They are yellowish color and can tan to dark brown. I do not think chinese is frov vietnam area. You got it wrong. Real vietnameses are dark skinned, round eyes like the thai and cambodians. Southern islands of Japan have japanese looking identical to chinese people with larger eyes, double eyelids and light skin and their gene pool is traced to southern china. this goes the same with some of the koreans. China had included many tribal groups into its nationality. Chinese nationals from the north usually do not have refine features. People from peking and Shanghai looks like koreans & MOngolians and the harsh looking japanese faces. People should check out the ancient painting of their own people. Also I seen some mongolians with browish red skin like the tibetians and himalayians. In general sourthern chinese people maybe be darker than some japanese and koreans, but they are naturally much better looking without needing plastic surgeries to alter their eyelids and noses. mongollians, northern chinese, koreans are most likely from the same stock due to their super mongoloid face. I am southern chinese. I never had plastic surgeris. My whole family have large eyes with double eyelids, tall pointy noses, and except for my dad we all have light skin. I grew up in a small town where the koreans and japanese look the same. Caucasians can tell us apart cuz they told me I don’t have that northeast looking face. My relatives do have some japanese relatives due to marriages. Both of my sister’s sister in law look very japanese. They both have very small eyes without eyelid creases, but light skin. Same sister’s other ex sister in-law is northern chinese. She gets mistaken as either korean or japanse. She is very fair skin with small eyes. After her divorce she re-married to a japanse american. However when I lived in Seattle, washington, it was hard for me to tell japanese apart from southern chinese. But the koreans in seattle was easy for me to distinquish. They have very square or super round faces with no eyelid creases. In general, the mixed thai are the best looking. In vietnam there are also many mixed children of french and american blood. You can tell they are mix cuz asian general do not have the super long eyelashes. They do look asian ,but you know they are mix and not plastic surgeried. plastic surgeries cannot make a person look mix. The skin tone and the perfection that the korean plastic surgeons do to each celebrities is a dead give away of plastic surgeries. Example. narrorw tall straight noses is a dead give away. People noses aren’t all that straight and the nastrils are completely that equall either. I am not into any asian pop music or dramas, but a few times when my friends and I search the internet on asian celebrites, I find too many korean have identical faces which the europeans called them the product of plastic surgeries and they even pointed out that there weren’t any koreans celebrities looking like that in the older days. Same eyes, nose, facial shape. I saw a picture of park min young. she only recently admited to plastic surgeries when most korean netizens had aired about her face is totally different than her birth one. Let’s not pick on her cuz she finally admitted to it. It is not just her, but over 95% according to a famous plastic surgeon in south korea. He said he cannot name them and only less than 2% will admit to it. The double eyelids trait is not that of northeast asians including northern chinese, however they may have higher taller noses people. But overall people of mongolia, southern siberia, parts of northern china, korean and japanese having a much larger super mongoloid facial features. Small eyes with no eyelid creases and cheek bones that are very strange looking.
“Real Vietnamese’” or Kinh are not dark skinned! The Kinh originated in what is now Southern China and Northern Vietnam.
Why don’t you go and travel to Northern Vietnam and see for yourself. You’ll see that the majority of people at light-skinned and tall.
Southern Vietnam was not originally Vietnamese territory. The Vietnamese traveled down south and conquered the Champa kingdom. Around the 19th century Emperor Minh Mang annexed the remaining parts of the Champa kingdom. Most Cham and Khmer escaped to Cambodia making Cham and Khmer people a ethnic minority.
koreans are known to used heavy bleaching creme according to articles written by european. Korean can come in different shades. I saw most of them being yellow skinned, a few pale one, and dark skinned koreans. Japanese have the lightest skin. I am not saying all japanese have pale skin cuz japan is made up of many islands. People of japan have different mixture. The ones with small eyes and/or no eyeliid creases are related to the koerans, while the ones with larger or bigger eyes either have ainu blood or chinese blood in them. DNA proof all this so no need to spread any lies. Dna of big eyed japansese have DNA from southern china while the japanese with small eyes and very mongoloid looking or very closely related to koreans.
I’m korean and have very light skin. Lighter than most “white” people, although with that tinge of asian yellow. Worked hard to get tanned but it went away very quickly. I got this from my mothers side as my brother and dad both are darker even when I had spent a lot more time outdoors than either. I have never heard of bleaching creme nor of anyone that uses or would use it. My guess is that Koreans are just lighter skinned as a whole because of geographical location. Not because they en masse use heavy bleaching cream. I wouldn’t which of Japanese or Koreans are lighter, my guess is neither, but in general, Chinese seem to be a shade or two darker.
by the way, I do agreed that the only one on this site that had plastic surgeries is the japanese girl. Real japanese don’t look like that. My sister in law is japanese and she told me many koreans and japanese do get plastic surgeries to alter their looks.
so do Chinese. Japanese people don’t do very much surgery. Chinese population do greater surgery. Check new statistics thank you. More than other East Asian nations combined.
From my research, china is a super huge country. China closed plastic surgery for a long time. it was ilegal there. China opened plastic surgery in 2001. You can find this information on the internet. In china there are mongolians, koreans, tibetians, himalayians, and etc. These are the peole that look like korean people. mostly likely share very common gene people. I read in china since plastic surgeries is legal again, many are doing breast augmentations and eyelid surgery. However, the statistics didn’t mention the age group of these people In China, there is a huge group of aging people, but where the hell they get money for plastic surgeries????????????????????????
Japan used to have the highest population of plastic surgery people. Japanese were the first to start plastic surgeries in asia. Korea followed only 10 years later. From my research, plastic srugery was illegal in China. But China opened it up in the year 2001. Most plastic surgeries in china is for the aging. China is huge and have a huge aging population. I don’t think chinese people want a new face. What for?? To work in the factories??? Right now I know south korean general population are very much into plastic surgeries. I read it is because they saw how all their celebrities look like cuz they are all products of plastic surgeries. Check out all the korean celebrites before in the 80′s and before. They didn’t go into so much plastics as the ones in the past 15 years. Park si yeon queen of plastic.
Actually, it is very possible that she did not have surgery. I know a few full Japanese girls that have never had surgery but yet have double lids and small epicanthic fold. It all depends on what part of Japan you are from. I am half Japanese, and my dad had double lids but he was full Japanese.
I am fully Chinese. I was born in Beijing, and both my parents are from mainland China.
Where I live (Texas), there’s a higher percentage of Asians than most other counties. I have many friends who say that they can tell all the different Asian races apart. To be honest – I can’t. I can make a fair guess, but I generally think most look the same (call me racist if you’d like, but I’m Asian, so..). Anyways, I have friends who are Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese (although I do have to argue that although they are self-proclaimed independent, I still consider them as part of China, but that’s a different arguement), Filipino, Laotion, Malaysian, etc. so I think I’ve been around a fair amount of unique Asian races.
Many of my Asian friends are HUGE Japanese/Korean “fans”, mainly because of their more advanced fashions and their dramas and whatnot. I’d like to say that I’m actually not a huge fan of that. Anyways, I’ve had almost all my Asian friends tell me how “hot” or “pretty” some Korean or Japanese actor/actress is. And the truth is, they are really pretty. But they all look the same. I don’t know much about either culture, but it is apparent that most of their celebrities undergo plastic surgery, so it’s even harder to distinguish them now.
I’ve been mistaken as Korean several times. Going into Korean restaurants and having the waiter speak Korean, and such. I’d say that I have a flatter face, smaller eyes (monolid), and rounder face than most.
But because of surgery and such, I don’t base my guess on what race an Asian is on their facial structure (much) anymore. The first things I (and most others) look at first are clothing, behavior, and speech.
I guess this is off topic, I don’t know, but since I’m already here..
The Chinese are generally seen as much further behind than the Japanese and Korean fashionwise and beauty. I’ve had a part Malaysian/Chinese friend once tell me: “Ugh, I wish I was Japanese or Korean!! They’re sooo much more fashionable.” Frankly, I was offended, but not the point.
Anyways, I think I’ve said enough. And I agree that the first photo is probably not a good one to make comparisons on facial structures.
G’day c:
Koreans are the highest right now. There is no culture stigma to changing one’s face. In south korea, it is a good thing to get plastic surgeries. It shown the wealth of the people. According to a famous plastic surgeon in south korea, over 95% of korean celebrities had plastic surgeries. He said none would admit to it, ecxept the few that had their birth faces blastered on the internet and in the korean media. park min young and Goo Hara recently admitted to plastic surgeries when their pictures were aired on the internet for several years. To me , these girls had a whole different face.
Goo Hara didn’t have plastic surgery. She had a procedure that was too minor to be considered plastic surgery, but media loves to blow things out of proportion. If you look at pictures of when she was younger, you can easily see, that she’s already unusually beautiful by any standard.
Japan started plastic surgeires more than 70 years ago. Korea followed 10 years behind . Japan practiced on unwilling victims of Russian, chinese nationals , korean nationals or descents.
If there was no plastic surgeries, then people can tell much easier. Part of north china, people look like japanese and koreans. Koreans in general have the more harsh facial features. They have the highest population of no eyelid creases population, wide flat faces. if korean didn’t have plastic surgeries, I can tell them from other asians. Japanese and Korean celebrities are products of heavy plastic surgeries. In general , south korea general population do plastic surgeries the most in asia continent. Koreans view plastic surgeries as something good and shows the wealth of the people in that nation.
Ignorant troll where is your stats to prove that?
Mmmm.. when I check it it was the Taiwanese (Chinese) who had the highest rate per capita (per 100,000) people. Then followed by Singapore then Japan. South Korea came in 4th in Asia.
By total numbers its Japan since they have the largest population out of the four countries I mentioned. Even in China or poorer Southeast Asian countries their celebrities all ahve done plastic surgery.
By the way who cares if someone done plastic surgery or not. Subtle changes to enhance one’s appearance I see nothing wrong with it.
I think this article is looking at certain stereotypes. There will always be people who are sort of “exceptions” to the rule. Example: Who is Chinese? Who is Japanese? Who is Korean? You can’t just say it’s someone who lives in their respective country, as there can be foreign people who live in china and Chinese people who live in foreign nations. In china, there are many different languages and ethnicities. And then there’s genetics. Korean people are actually more closely related to “Chinese” people than Japanese people as a whole (read about Y-chromosomal Haplogroups, Korean/Chinese people are mostly O while Japanese are a mix of O and D). The point Im trying to say is, there is not clear formula for telling the difference between so and so because there just isn’t a formula. Okay, so it’s typical for Koreans to have a square Jaw, so then Japanese people can’t have a square jaw?Yes, there may be some certain characteristics, but it won’t apply to all the people you categorize under a group. How would you tell the difference between a British person and a French person? Besides the teeth, hahaha!
After two years of watching the somewhat crazy commentary here I think you hit a lot of nails on the head there. There are really no clear-cut answers here. And yes, British people do have bad teeth (I being one of them)
To Kewl,
The truth is the mongoloid people are all started from the same stock. We spread out everywhere, then mutation happens. Some of it is because of climate/environment. Actually I have never seen a Japanese with square jaws. However round face asians you can find in any asian ethnicities. I read koreans claim that they have longer and narrow faces than other asians, but that isn’t truth. My korean friend told me that in korea there are many round short faces people too. Look at kim jung IL’s face. It is short and round. I met a nice Japanse lady and she told me most japanese girls have round faces and not too pretty. I was shocked she said that. This japanese lady is pretty,and her face isn’t round. I am not saying round faces aren’t pretty .It depend on how the eyes and noses, mouth fits into the face. This conversation I had with her in early 1990. She told her there are so many beautiful chinese and vietnamese women?? I didn’t know what to say to her. I know some of the pretty viet girls are half french blood, but I don’t know about the chinese ones. Anyway this conversion took place in southern california where I used to live a while back. While growing up in a town of no more than 140K people, there were a few chinese girls that was exceptionally gorgeous. People of any ethnicity though they are mixed. They all have light skin, big eyes, small pointy noses, & oval faces. I know these girls are pure chinese and their parents are from china. As for chinese there were a few good looking ones, but their eyes weren’t as big as the chinese gals from s. china. Anyway all thse stuck up bitches hand around with each other. I do not believe any of them had plastic surgeries from elementary school days which make it date by to the 70′s. Right now my niece told me her korean friend went to south korea to do her eyelids. She said what she got done was not overdone. At first glance you can see some difference to her face, but you need to look closer to spot what it is. Her friend didn’t want it look too obvious that she got double eyelid done, so she did the tapered kind. And the creases is very close to her eyelids making it more natural looking. Some people just think she used eyelid glue. I am not saying koreans are the only asian girls that do double eyelids, I saw some vietnamese women from the late 80′s that got it done and it look so damn fake. I think they were going for the latina look. The cuts were made very high up on the eyelids.
To cap this up. I saw the highest single eyelids among korean people, then japaness & northern chinese, then southern chinese. I read the single eyelids were designed to protect the koeans and japanese, and northern chinese from harsh climite. The southern part of china climite is not that harsh. Correct me if this is wrong???
Rank Countries Amount for plastic surgery.
# 1 United States: 90,992
# 2 Mexico: 52,956
# 3 Brazil: 47,957
# 4 Japan: 42,842
# 5 Spain: 40,164
# 6 Germany: 23,140
# 7 France: 21,170
# 8 Argentina: 17,698
# 9 Switzerland: 16,073
# 10 Italy: 14,784
# 11 Australia: 13,305
# 12 South Africa: 11,140
# 13 Canada: 11,102
# 14 Taiwan: 10,048
# 15 Korea, South: 9,560
# 16 Greece: 8,300
# 17 Ecuador: 5,979
# 18 Hong Kong: 5,096
# 19 Turkey: 4,865
# 20 United Kingdom: 4,668
So according to this Hong Kong Chinese have the highest rate in Asia considering its small population but high number of surgeries.
Even Taiwan despite having half the population as South Korea is only slightly behind.
Japan has the most in Asia in total numbers obviously its the largest of developed countries in Asia.
Not true, Koreans aren’t close to the Chinese. I don’t know why the some Chinese are always saying this nonesense. Chinese are closest to southeast Asians such as the Vietnamese, Laotians,Tibetians, etc.
Koreans originated from the southern central areas of Siberia which is part of Russia.
Manchurians (Qing dynasty who ruled China for centuries) are closest people to Koreans. Along with Mongolians.
Manchurians are our brothers, Japanese are our cousins, Chinese are our neighbors.
Plastic surgery is only reported by those that are registered with ISAPS. Just because nationmaster show you what they have does not necessary mean it is even accurate. In south korea from what I read from the british and north americans, they have the highest per capita of plastic surgeons. I just looked it up and only like 16 out of over 2100 are registered with ISAPs. That is like they don’t report. Anyway, I had been to Japan, China, and parts of the southeast asia. In china, the people can look different. Those that live in cold weather usually have a much higher population of very mongoloid looking people. Mongolians, Koeans, some japanese, and some norther chinese have a higher percentage of small eye people than southern chinese, southern islands of japan and southeast asias. Tibets and chinese aren’t even related. Himalayisans & tibetians and mongolians, and koreans have similar mongoloid faces. Sometimes I cannot distiquish, mongoloids, koreans and tibets.
Oh, I’ve been reading your comments and they are so funny! Lol. You clearly are one of those crazy deluded Korean Fobs who try to make your country sound better. You obviously can’t be related to the Chinese because they are poor. The Japanese are rich so they are Korea’s cousins. Remember colonisation? It makes me disgusted to know how materialistic stuck up you are. China is a huge country, the han ethnicity is a not a genetic ethnicity anymore, and has not been for centuries, it is in reality a cultural marker. Han ethnicity is more variable than the Korean and Japanese populations combined. Pls don’t go on with the manchurians are koreas brothers BS, therefore Korean victory! that’s like Vietnamese taking thailands achievements. Let me tell you China and Vietnam may have been ravaged by the horrors of communism and more just as north Korea is, but they will rise again to gain the respect they deserve. China has given much of their culture to Korea and other countries, eg. Clothing, music, knowledge, political system… so I find your derogatory mentionings of the Chinese very annoying and ungrateful.
Does anyone know that Hong KOng is just a super small island with two major island that people live on. Kowloon and hong kong island . Jake you are so dumb. The statistics for hong kong is not taken from the people living there. It is people traveling to hong kong from all over the place to get plastic surgeries. Hong kong population is very small.
According to Europeans, North Americans, and rest of Asia, koreans are the highest in getting plastic surgeries. They think of it as a tool to help them to get better jobs, better mate selection. Right now in south korea majority of women in the 20′s had facial plastic surgeries. Parents saving money for a while to get their kids plastic surgeries in south korea. In south korea, I read it is crazy. Korean men prefer plastic surgeried women than ugly women without plastic surgeries.
I forgot who said the best looking is Thai mixed children. I agreed definitely!!!!!!!!! White men prefer natural beauties and not all the plastic surgeried ones that will produce ugly kids. Cheating is not good!!!!!!!!!!1 God will punish for that. I suggest those that had a new face from plastic surgeries should be honest about it with their spouse before having kids.I hope the korean american kids will stop going to south korea for plastic surgeires for their eyes and noses. They should just be happy with who they are. We all should!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I find it wierd how people keepy saying Chinese people have the SMALLEST eyes out of each group (Korean, Japanese, Chinese) From what I notice China is very diverse. I have double eyelids and minimal epicanthus along with the rest of my family. We speak Cantonese by the way. Japanese people some have big eyes some have small eyes. Koreans definitely have the monolids (not exactly small eyes though, because i’ve seen some with medium size eyes) and bigger cheekbones. It is usually easier to distinguish a Korean from a Japanese or Chinese person.
Out of all asian I seen, koreans have the smallest eyes. Majority have no eyelid creases and large cheekbones that protrudes outward too much making their faces very unique than other people.
Some koreans and japanese look alike and have very small single eyelids and flat faces. I read they are from the similar gene pools. Then you have japanse with large eyes and better looking, then they share same gene pool with southern chinese people. In general northeast people is korean ,and part of japan considered to be super mongoloid people. MOngolians, southern siberians, and some tibets have that harsh looking face. Could they be related cuz of similar types of small eyes, wide flat faces with protruding cheekbones placed too high up on the cheeks???
If you talk about the higher percentage of small eyes people would be northeast people which include korea and some part of Japanese islands. Overall more japanese and korean people had plastic surgeries than chinese people. This is because in China , plastic surgery was illegal for too many years. However, the southern chinese girls look very hot like the Thai girls. Most of the chinese attending my school district ancestors are from soutehrn china. I am not saying anything bad about the japanese are korean people, but in general they have small eyes with no eyelid creases. Some draw a line on it with an eyeliner pencil. Many had opt for double eyelid surgeries. But you can still see a white liine on their eyelid creases when their eyes are close even when it is done by famous dr. Lee of Beverly hills. This is why so many korean girls used very thick makeup cuz they want to conseal plastic surgeries. But people know cuz we all grew up together. Maybe they can hide the fact later when they love elsewhere, but everyone knows in our high school who got eyelid and/or nose surgeries.
They probably could be related. Koreans have been told to have come from the Altaic family just like the Japanese and the Mongolians. But alot of Japanese were mixed with Ainus so they have lighter skin, bigger eyes, and flatter cheekbones. But really, there isn’t much of a difference between Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese people because Koreans and Japanese were once emigrants from China who came to Japan. China has 56 ethnic groups and ‘Korean’ is one of them.
Wtf? The 2nd pic don’t look Chinese at all. Looks more Japanese if you ask me. Japanese tend to have that rounder shorter faces. I think the 3rd girl looks more Northern Chinese.
To Hana, I agreed with you about the 3rd girl. I knew a girl from shanghai that claim to be chinese look like her. She is very tall .
Japanese in general have the rounder faces. Koreans and Japanese in general have smaller eyes than southern chinese. Southern chinese aren’t related to vietnamese, tibetians, cambodians or any other southeast asians. Koreans are 100% mongoloid people and they have very super mongoloid looking faces. Japanese came from northern chinese, southern china, and some are from mongolia and southern siberia. Tibetians and himalayians look very similar and they are not related to the han chinese. Natives of vietnam, thailand, and cambodia are from the Khmer ethnicities = dark skin , rounder and bigger eyes. Some people from the east and north east china intermixed with them. Koreans are a mixture of mongolians, southern siberians (these are super mongoloid people and not caucasians like some koreans like to distort), and northeast China. The 1st girl is not that of a typical japanese face, but in japan facial featuers are different depend on the island. Koreans without plastic surgeries are very easily recongize as korean due to their very unique faces. Northern chinese have smaller eyes than southern chinese. This whole thing among eyes, facial bones, and noses all have something to do with the climate that these people’s ancestors’ lived in. Korean ancestors lived in super harsh climate leading their eyelid skins to be thinck and no eyelid creases is to protect their eyes from the weather. The huge oddly placed cheeck bones that protrudes from their face is something I cannot figure why it is designed that way??? The taller noses of nothern chinese, and some siberians, northeast asians, and some koreans are for better breathing in super cold climate. However, I cannot figure out why some other asians also have tall noses elsewhere. I met some at young age and they didn’t do plastic surgeries. If you see a korean that don’t look ethnic korean, it is due to plastic surgeries or they have mixed blood from other asian ethnic group or they happas.
The Vietnamese/Kinh are not dark skinned, round faced, round eyed people. The Ethnic Khmer or Cham are people that lived in a kingdom called Champa located in modern day Southern Vietnam. Until the Vietnamese conquered the Champa kingdom around the 14-15th century. The pure Vietnamese/Kinh are actually light skinned, tall people and they are also related to some of the ethnic minorities of Southern China.
Please learn about the history and origin of the Vietnamese people before you post anything like this.
I am so disappointed in korean men and how they treat their women in south korea. This lead many korean women to get facial plastic surgeries for less mongoloid featuers. Number one plastic surgeries in korea is for double eyelids. I read too many young teens bring pictures of their plastic surgeried korean celebritiies and ask the korean plastic surgeons to make them look like their idiol. This is so ridulous. Korean men looks way worst than korean women, so why do they complain about it. Korean men rather have a plastic surgeried women than a ugly korean women, but what is the point when the genes cannot be change. Then korean parents ask their kids to get plastic surgery to match their fake faces. This korean lady told me in korea, there is just a lot of advertisment for plastic surgeries. The bottom line is I think korean men is responsible for all this plastic surgery craze in south korea.
I think you are where you were born! who cares how you look like! you can’t tell an american from a canadian from a german or a british until you hear them talk!
I am intresting to know , what has caused , that the homosapiens migrated to far east have got their mongoloid eyes shape. Normally all animals have to adjust with their present envoirments evolutionary.Like African settler need bigger nose holes to get mor oxygen in the very hot climate.
If anyone has any information or references please write me.
I’ve only had 3 Japanese classmates from elementary school to highschool. Two of them are extremely tan, and one of them have a light-peach complexion. One of the tan ones I know is a girl, and she’s around 5’1″ and has small eyes and single eye-lids. The other tan one is a boy, around 5’7″ BIG eyes, and double eyelids. The last one is a guy who’s probably around 5’9, big eyes, and double eyelids. It really pisses me off to see anyone saying that one country’s people looks closer to this country’s people than that country’s people. I’ve seen tall, short, pale, dark, double/single eyelid-ed Japanese and Chinese people, and it’s crazy, but I’ve seen a few really tan, short Koreans. The majority of Korean guys are atleast 5’8″, but if you’re asian, it’s possible to pass you off as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, even if you’re none of the three. Pale Chinese people do exist, you know. So what if a person does plastic surgery? What’s wrong with changing a feature of yourself that you don’t like?
Talking about degree of paleness, I think it’s around the same amongst east Asians, IF they stay out of the sun. This is because east asians have very little skin pigment, but have varying degrees of melainin. I’m half southern half northern Chinese, and my skin gets tanned easily, but not to a very dark complexion, and when I was young, I barely played in the sun, and I was very very pale. I’ve known Thais who are very pale because they stay out of the sun. I also know Vietnamese who are pearly white, and Koreans and Japanese who love outdoor sports and tanning who are as brown as the dark Thais. It really depends on how much sun you get, and environment really influences that.
Lola #
“They probably could be related. Koreans have been told to have come from the Altaic family just like the Japanese and the Mongolians. But alot of Japanese were mixed with Ainus so they have lighter skin, bigger eyes, and flatter cheekbones. But really, there isn’t much of a difference between Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese people because Koreans and Japanese were once emigrants from China who came to Japan. China has 56 ethnic groups and ‘Korean’ is one of them”
Ainu are a very small minority group in Japan and they are discriminated against.
Most Japanese don’t even have Ainu blood, so its irrelevent. And Koreans are definately not related to the Chinese. Koreans in general are the tallest with the fairest skin tone. Japanese look Korean for the most part but many also look southeast Asian with tan skin.
Also Chinese are related to Southeast Asians like Vietnamese, Cambodians, Loatians,etc.
So they are couple shades darker than Northern Asians.
Chinese ignorance on the internet is so hilarious. 56 ethnic groups in China? Guess which ethnicity make up the 95 % of the population in China? Han Chinese ! So that 5% of other groups are also irrlevent.
Are you trying to imply China is diverse as America? GIve me a break.
Well, you can always use the statistics to argue but history is more complicated. Han-Chinese, the major ethnic group, is actually an ethnic group based on culture rather than genetics (because of cultural assimilation for thousands of years). Northern Han-Chinese look very different from Southern Han-Chinese. Generally, Koreans look like Northern Han and Japanese look like Southern Han. Even in South China, people have many different looks. Moreover, many Chinese are mixed, like my mother is mongolian but I am a Han Chinese because my father is Han (though Han is not a genetic group). Perhaps It’s easier for you to understand if you think China as the ancient Roman Empire and Han Chinese as the main population of Romans （including the ancestors of Italian, Greek, French, Spanish…). Most of the overseas Chinese had experience of being mistaken as other Asians because we have so many different looks. (When we are travelling, people tend to think that we are Japanese, and when we are in a college, people tend to ask if we are Chinese) That’s why we tend to ask if someone is Chinese before talking Chinese languages with him/her. It’s easy to generalize Korean looks or even Japanese looks because they are quite homogeneous and their populations are relatively small.
Faces aside, there are distinct differences in body type, as highlighted in Martial arts. Koreans have longer, stronger legs, so their fighting styles involve more kicking. Japanese are smaller and have a higher center of gravity, so they use crisp, quick movements designed to break the opponents balance.
Best ways to distinguish between Asians besides language and name:
1. Hair style
2. Clothing
3. Clothing
(But sometimes you will come up with something like ‘he is an “exception”‘ or ‘she is different’.)
me too i think those chinese, korean, burmese,thai ……. and so, on they do surgery natural face cant be so preety .as, GOD makes everyone different
Overall compared to westeners, Asians have rounder faces.
I find this comment in your article interesting:
“According to more scientific studies both East Asians and Caucasians are more easily identifiable by facial features than others.”
(others being? Africans? Indians?)
I’d be interested to see these “more scientific studies”, could you send me a link? Most modern scientific literature shows that Africans have the largest genetic (and physical) variation by far. Europeans in comparison have some of the least genetic variation.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30502963/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/africans-have-worlds-greatest-genetic-variation/#.T83c5-1rLfU
Very interesting:
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/1859/out-africa-human-odyssey-traced-detail
Interesting links… I found that a strange comment also. I’m of European heritage and I can’t guess a white person’s ethnicity just by looking at them… although, I find it easy to tell individuals from one another, regardless of race. I think these are two different issues being confused as one though. That comment aside, this blog is mainly discussing being able to tell ethnicities apart going by patterns in features, not telling individuals apart within an ethnicity. That “you all look the same” dismissal is more relevant to the latter issues, where a person thinks individuals within an ethnicity don’t have much distinction between them.
I don’t know if this is necessarily reflective of a racist attitude though… there have been studies which show it’s harder for people to distinguish between individual faces within an ethnicity when that ethnicity is unfamiliar to them, whereas they find it easy to distinguish between faces within their own race. Growing up in a racially diverse area, I don’t find this an issue for me, but I have a friend from the Philippines who admits that “all white people look the same” to her, but she doesn’t have any racist attitudes. It’s just hard for her to distinguish between some individuals because she doesn’t pick up on the nuances.
Chinese – rounder and wider face, slant eyes
Koreans – flatter face and smaller eyes
Japanese – oval face and rounder eyes
Base on my observation in the Phil. where lots of those races are seen.
all said in this beautiful blog is amazing and interesting. But the real focus is: what can we do to improve chinise and far east facial attractivness? Really only plastic surgery? or in most cases aesthetic medicine, for the perioculare region, the nose or the perioral as well?
Asian faces are normally square and flat: so the tip is to improve malar area and the nasal one.
What I use? resorbable fillers well reticulated and BTxA.
Only few cases must arrive to surgery!!
Who cares! The reason I even looked this up is because almost once a week I get asked this question regarding my heritage. I have been asked if I am everything under the sun, except for white or black. I know I have two eyes, a nose and a mouth. My husband tells me everyday I am beautiful, even though I am still humble. I do have to brag a little. I am 42 years old this year and have three teenage children and people are so shocked that they tell me I look 30 years or younger, and I never had plastic surgery done. I feel that in every race people have had plastic surgery done and human beings in general are obsessed with beauty not one race more than another.
Well the faces shown of african Women are over generalized by area. I would have to disagree on South African women central African Women. But I do agree on how an average Ethiopian Woman depicted I was born in East Africa and Lived there for 14 years. Through those years I travelled from east of the continent to the west. As I i saw that people from a tribe has similar features and those features were different from those of other tribes and this was in each country. that each person hI saw the tribe had almost the same Kenyans have different Physical features that vary from region same thing for Central Africa West Africa and Southern Africa. This is how Natives Of Africa can distinguish who is which tribe. It is kind of like distinguishing people with same color of skin like whites and Asian and focus on the physical features. I feel that there is more focus on defining European Women and Asian women by origin than the African women. the way they defined the regions was like getting a multi-racial and multi-tribal country like south Africa and put it in one face that fell greatly on the European appearance for both the physical feature and the skin color. This is like trying to create a Face to represent a common an American Woman that would fall greatly to a black woman on both features and skin color even when the race population ratio of America falls greatly on the white race. Every African woman that was depicted on the picture was by region was not defined properly by region. there was over generalization and less definition of the african women. plus there was a no face that defined the Northern African women. Africa Has more countries than Europe and each country in africa has more tribes than each country in Europe. I don’t see how european Women are the are more defined that African women. Overrall
the most Focused here were Asia, Europe and South America. there was not a mention of Australia.
There are two main ethnic races in Japan, the one you describe seem to be Jōmon. For me another race, the Yayoi, its appearance is more close to Korean and northern Chinese (some people in the previous comment say they have more moles). However Japanese usually have a distinct dressing style among East Asians, thus I think there are the easiest one to tell.
I am 100% Filipina, but I look like Polish. My father said we have some Spanish blood. We’ve got a lot of races going on in our clan huh? Haha!
According to genetic research about East Asians, there was a period in the past when an ethnic group was migrating all around Asia, probably closely related to Han Chinese, spreading rice farming. They also spread the gene for low alcohol tolerance around East Asia, which is characterized by drinkers getting red faces and usually becoming drowsy. A study about it can be found here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2846302/?tool=pmcentrez
I know I’ve met Asians of many ethnicities – Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. – with this trait that causes the red flushed face reaction to alcohol, so it’s probably pretty safe to say they have some shared genes.
Most Asians are a mix of an earlier group of people whose gene pool had a contribution from the later groups of rice farming migrants from the mainland. And that’s why it’s often hard to tell Asians apart by facial features, even for other Asians.
The largest ethnic group in Vietnam (Kinh) originated from Southern China and Northern China. The Vietnamese/Kinh travelled down south conquering Champa and parts of Chenla. The Chinese also ruled Vietnam for around 1000 years.
I hate it when people say that ‘they all look the same!’ talking about ANY race, I personally think we are all unique no matter what our race looks like!!!
You need to stop looking at the differences between the three countries in terms of looks. To be honest, There is more variation of facial types within China than there is in both Japan and Korea. Lets face it, China is pretty friggin huge country with a large geographical area. There are however certain traits if I see in someone I would be able to say relatively safely that they are from one place, but these traits aren’t generalizations like rounder faces, larger nose, or flatter faces. They are more like a very specific shape of nose, or a type of eyebrow, a type of lips that I know is not found regularly in the other two, and even then they aren’t dead giveaways as to the race. This is because
People focus on trying to distinguish “asians” by distinguishing between the three China, Japan, and Korea when technically, that northeast asian look is only a very small part of asia as a whole, especially considering the wide variance in asian countries. (Iran, Vietnam, India, Korea, Indonesia).
What I’m getting at is that while you can argue there are differences of appearances between the three races, the differences are very minimal and more based on geography and migration rather than national boundaries. If you are trying to distinguish between the three its easier just to look at what they wear and how they talk. Dont base it on physical looks because technically, they are predominantly from the same gene pool.
what you mean by we japaneses have a double eyelid?
I’m 100% Chinese but people often mistaken me as Japanese and even Malaysian, so I don’t really think you can actually tell whether someone is Chinese, Korean etc.
by just looking at their facial structure.
Therefore its best to just listen to what language they’re speaking (it works easier than the facial observation)
i am 50% indonesian, 25% dutch 12,5 spanish 12,5 chinese. i have been mistaken for being a native american, nepalese, malayian, singapore, japanese and some more. when i travel i allways able blend” in with the crowd.
had no idea asians were so obsessed with eylid thing been reading for hours
beauty doesnt have a race i cant discrib it but know it when i see it
was watching lucy lu earlier and i wondered if asians could tell each other apart by country of all the stuff i have read on eyes face shape etc i dont think they can anymore than ican
i am hite american and we come in all shapes sizes and shades we are mutts lol
thanks for the info
I think you are 100% right… absolutely there are differences, and actually it almost seems like the Asian example is one of the better ones because there seems to be more homogeneity(but I could be wrong), whereas a lot of other areas, like most of Europe, has had all kinds of mixing of ethnic groups…so in that sense, even though that one picture that shows faces for all those different countries is really interesting/awesome to see, I feel like its harder to separate/quintessentialize the different types that have now become all mixed into different countries. Like, there is a very distinctive face shape I’ve seen in girls from places like Poland, Russia & Romania…Eastern European areas…its this ‘thing’ that only some women from these places have… they have these extremely strong, angular jawlines, smaller foreheads, deep-set eyes, prominent cheekbones…etc. To me it feels like this must have been a somewhat homogenous group that existed in a more essentialized way somewhere back in time…so it doesn’t typify any countries or groups we know of, currently… but its a very distinctive thing… I guess my point is that, while most groups have intermixed enough to muddy/obscure any kind of typification…there abso-freaking-lutely [are] Types…and these types are not coincidences by any stretch of the imagination.
This was a fun thread with no clear answers. I just ask as most people are proud of their heritage.
um first of all it is true that alot of koreans do plastic surgery but it doesn’t mean that other asian countries dont like japan they do plastic surgery as much as koreans do its just that koreans more famous for it…and all coutries are beautiful in its own way
and this whatever u call scientific they are not always right they are typical and most likely but srsly how old r those pics?
I’m Trinidadian, Jamaican, and African American. My paternal side is Trinidadian and Jamaican, basically Western Indian. I have almond eyes, curly/wavy hair.
Ok, here is my observation:
Korean have the least flat face compare to other east asian (chinese, japanese, mongol).
most of the flat face human come from the south, this is due to larger size of mouth.
and for the moment korean are least influenced by southern gene a.k.a Austronesian. That’s why you’ll korean have the smallest mouth of all asian
how can you see if people have flat face or not, go to the mirror and tilt your head up, and while looking up look at the mirror…..or looking people face from down below…..
most southeast asian or austronesian influenced people (including the chinese) have the flattest face cus they have the larger than jaw mouth
Aam is right. China has more diversity. However, you can sometimes tell that a Korean is Korean and a Japanese is a Japanese. There is a certain overall look about their face that give them away. Usually, these people are considered to be attractive in their respective countries. Koreans usually look friendly and Japanese look sharp. I think it’s more with the eyes and the cheekbones combined with Japanese people tending to have wider eyes shaped kind of like evil eyes from those animes. But there are way too many asians who can’t be distinguished so easily. It’s the same thing with any other race.
All are very beautiful.