Can the typical person tell physical differences between southeast and east Asian?

I can almost always tell if someone is Vietnamese and if they are from the Philippines. Many times I guess Chinese correctly also, but not always. Other parts of Asia are more difficult for me to guess correctly.

Since my uncle married a Japanese woman and lives in Oki, and my best friends growing up were Vietnamese, I can almost always tell. I got a little obsessed as a teen and made my room up with tatami mats and all kinds of silliness…lol

@JLeslie I used to not know what Cambodians looked like until I met my bf and saw more of them. Now I can definitely see a difference lol.

But I mean, to the typical person like say a person living out in the country never meeting an Asian. Do you think they’d assume they were all Chinese? Because we get that a loooot.

Frankly, the typical person barely knows where Asia is.

@thorninmud True…I get “Are you Chinese or Asian?” a lot.

@chelle21689 I was around a lot of people from Vietnam and Philippines growing up, so I think that is why I easily figure those out.

I think many Americans use the term Chinese to mean anyone who looks Asian. Same as they use Mexican to mean anyone from Latin America. Some of those people use Mexican because they truly are ignorant, and some of them know better, but just accept that Mexican is used as a term to describe Hispanics. It usually is used in a derogatory way, but I am not sure what people think when they say Chinese. I am kind of oblivious to all of it. I didn’t realize the Mexican thing until in my late teens a friend of mine used to call my boyfriend at the time Mexican and his family was from Equador. That would never happen where I gree up, this was in MI, when I was in college. Just a few years ago I leanred it is sometimes deragatory, because someone was asking what we, my husband and I, think about the term Hispanic, and during the conversation I said i just say he is Mexican. They were shocked, and that is when I learned how people think of, or use, the word. Idiots. Anyway, I think at least some of the time when someone says, “the Chinese guy,” they don’t literally mean from China, but rather the east Asian looking person. If they actually are guessing your nationality, that would be different.

I think I can.

My wife’s good friend for years was Cambodian, my daughter is Chinese, and we spent three weeks in China — so I’ve had some exposure.

I’m no expert, but I can usually identify Chinese, Japanese, Cambodian, and Korean. I get fuzzy on Vietnamese, Philipino and others.

I can see the difference as well in general, but there’s always exceptions.

I don’t know about the typical person. I think I could distinguish Southeast and East Asian people with a fair amount of reliability, but I have strong empirical evidence that I’m not very good at determining ethnicity in any fine-grained way.

There’s an interesting test here that challenges its takers to distinguish among East Asians (Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans). I consistently do better than chance, but I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten above 50% accuracy on it.

SavoirFaire, I did terrible on that one lol. But funny cuz I usually do better in-person. I think cuz of the style of clothing I usually know before I even hear them talk or see their name.

I couldn’t before I moved to California from the East Coast, where the Asian population then was low in most areas. Exposure to much larger samples of populations from all the Asian countries helped me see differences where before I’d seen only similarities.

And it’s not just exposure. I could look at people all day long and think “That person’s Japanese…that one’s probably Vietnamese…” and if there were no corroboration, I wouldn’t be adding any information, just reinforcing whatever notions I already had. I might as well be saying “Swedish…Italian…” Without knowing which population you’re looking at while you’re inferring patterns, as well as being fairly good at inferring the correct patterns, how can you draw any useful conclusions?

And of course there’s tremendous variation within ethnic groups, not to mention the effects of intermarriage.

After a little while, though, I stopped seeing patterns and started seeing individuals. In most cases there was no reason to pay attention to ethnicity.

I can usually tell but I guess I wouldn’t be considered average. I grew up in a very mixed neighborhood and I lived in Japan for almost 3 years. We also lived in military bases for over 20 years and there is a large number of mixed marriages. I really don’t find Chinese, Koreans or Japanese to be that similar. There is also a difference between the Japanese in mainland Japan and the islands, like Okinawa. Okinawans are often darker and sometimes can look like a mixture of Japanese and Philippinos or even spanish features or chinese.

I took the test linked in @SavoirFaire‘s post.

I got 50%. About the only thing I know about distinguishing Eastern Asians, is that Fujii Chiho and Yip Tung are total babes! ;-p

I can easily see a difference in skin tone and features. I think Filipino women are some of the most beautiful in the world.

I think This is how most average white Americans percieve Asians.

But I’m guessing that those same people and everyone else, probably couldn’t tell from what country any particular average white American’s ancestors came from (or if they didn’t hear them speaking, from what current European country they are from) My ancestors came from France, but I could not tell by looking at any particular Caucasian, whether they are currently from, or had ancestors from France or Germany or Switzerland or Scotland, etc. But I probably could figure it out, if they are currently from a particular European country, if I heard them talking.

Although I do tend to guess that young men wearing Capris Pants is not from the U.S.

All I know is that these folks are Gorgeous and Gorgeous and Gorgeous and Gorgeous and Gorgeous and Gorgeous and Gorgeous and Gorgeous and Gorgeous and Gorgeous

And then there’s This Hottie who I was convinced was of Asian descent. And this Famous Fellow and This Lovely Singer Just goes to show that you never can tell : )

@Kardamom When I was in Thailand I was able to point out which caucasians were from America or not lol. I think dress clothes had to do with it but there’s something…or some vibe you get even if you put them in “our” clothes.

@Kardamom I can guess pretty well if an American is from Greece or Italy or Germany. Russia and other eastern block countries I can sometimes pick out. A girl once asked me if I was from Latvia. Which is the majority of my heritage, but she was Latvian, in America about 5 years.

@chelle21689 I think it is especially easy to pick out American men when touring outside of America. If the have on sneakers it is an easy give away, unless other countries the men are wearing them now. Also, if a woman has a severe reverse mullet they are usually American, American from somewhere in the middle of the country. Or, middle aged, average to overweight, slightly sallow skin, wearing cropped pants and sneakers. Middle America woman. I think when America. Women look fit, have some color in their skin, and dress with some fashion sense they don’t give away where they are from so much when they are out of the country. What do you think?

@JLeslie Ha Ha Ha severe reverse mullett that sounds like a name for a heavy metal band : )