HGN: Hakka origin, a biological genetic point of view (fwd)

[sllee <sllee@mail.asiawind.com>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 09:46:50 -0400
From: teoh@cs.utk.edu
To: sllee@infinet.com
Subject: HGN: Hakka origin, a biological genetic point of view 

>From kaihsu@ugcs.caltech.edu Fri Sep 13 09:32:56 1996
From: Kai-hsu Tai <kaihsu@ugcs.caltech.edu>
Subject: HGN: Hakka origin, a biological genetic point of view

Back in December 1994, I went to a seminar about applications of genetic
analysis in East Asian ethnology in the National Taiwan University.  
Allow me to mention one of the key results (if I haven't before on HGN):

The "ethnic group" we now call "Han" is no longer a single ethnic group
_genetically_.  It might had been a pure clan before, but not anymore. 
The speaker actually showed us slides with exact historic events
corresponding to the biological/genetic evidence.  It was quite stunning
to see the genetic evidence matching up with what we know as "history",
or lack of correspondence thereof, and also my (our?) general
misconception of Han as a single unchanged/unchanging ethnic group.  The
thing we call "Han", or much more vaguely, the (heterogeneous) "Zhonghua
*Minzu", is merely a political aggregation, and there the "blood
relation" among the Han people is not so close as many still imagines
and claims.

I am sorry that I did not bring the handout here in the U.S., or else I
could provide exact bibliography.  However, as I am going back home this
December, it will be a piece of cake to dig the stuff out by then.  I
think I have a diagram showing genetic relevance among the "claimed"
ethnic group and geography.  It will be easy to look up "Hakka" and see
what was going on genetically a few centuries (or up to a dozen
centuries) ago.  I have no recollection of the genetic origin of Hakka
mentioned (hypothesized) in that research, though, so I am relatively
less prejudiced.  [:)]

For anyone who has less patience, what I can remember now is that this
research was done in Academia Sinica, Taipei, and the investigator was
probably named "Chen[?], [something]-ho[?]" or something like that.  I'd
appreciate if someone actually digs up the book before I go back home.

It is definitely _NOT_ my intention to imply that 
1) Hakka people is not a mixture of different genetical origins, and
2) genetics alone will define or determine the culture and the
language    of an ethnic group, the latter two being much more
complicated,       especially in ethnic heritage, than the former.

Thank you for your attention.
-- 
hlo: TE3, Khai2-su7 | hak: TAI4, Khai3-si4
http://nanigani.caltech.edu