Hypothesis Regarding Guangdong Ren

["C. Louie" <qingjing@sj.bigger.net>]

Dear Mr. Herz,

I agree with you that basing an ethnic-cultural identity on genetics is
dubious but no one, today, is basing our modern ethnic-cultural identity
on genetics. And genetics is not a political issue for us as it was in
the Third Reich ideology. Studying our genetics is a useful tool that
would help researchers understand the transitions of cultures throughout
our history to paint a better picture of our heritage. Many of us
Southern Chinese are in denial that we can possibly have genes other
than Han Chinese because most of our surnames originated from the
northern plains of China. There seems to be a "special honor" within our
culture for having this cultural association linked to the epicenter of
Chinese civilization. Genetic research is helping break down the
cultural taboos that we all aren't 100% pure Han Chinese and that it is
O.K. to accept this as fact and having non-Han blood is NOT a cultural
shame.

Genetic research and understanding does aid in placing language,
culture, and belief system into a different academic perspective. For
example, a linguist could follow the gene patterns from one population
to another in order to better guide his or her study in linguistic
etymology. An anthropologist can use gene studies to understand the
movement of civilizations and find the origins and transfer points of
certain cultural thought patterns. 

A true scientist is always in a unbiased mission to search for the
"why", "how", "when", "where", and "who". The politicial activist that
misuses this information biasly to manipulate society to an advantage or
disadvantage is what should cause us to worry.

Yours sincerely,
Charles Louie

P.S.

I'm not familiar with the Welsh language, however, the SiYiHua "schl-"
sound in my observation is best represented by the German pronunciation
of "schl-".