The truth about East Asians....
 

I was debating with my Chinese friend who thinks that he can tell which country an Asian comes from (from physical appearance alone) because apparently he's Asian and notices the subtle differences that us White folk can't pick up on.

I completely disagreed with him and went as far as to call bullsh-t so we got into this (friendly) argument over it.

There is NO WAY that they can tell each other apart purely on physical appearance (of course I'm not talking individually). What I mean is that there is no way to distinguish a Korean from a Chinese from a Japanese. The best anyone can do (even amongst East Asians themselves) is narrow it down to a group of countries or region within Asia, but that's about it. (For example I could guess from complexion that someone is from Thailand/Phillipines/Cambodia etc rather than Japan/Korea/China etc... but I suppose even that isn't foolproof).

I mean think about it... White people (I'm white) can't distinguish visually as to whether someone is Swedish, French, German, Scottish, English etc. How is it possible for Japanese to be able to tell Koreans, Chinese apart from looks alone?

I pretty much told my friend that he was profiling according to stereotypes rather than actually noticing anything different.

What do you think? Am I right?

AllLookSame

Being Asian doesn't give you an insight, but working and living with them does. I have lived in Japan and taught Japanese to many Thai, Korean, Chinese (mainland, HK, and Taiwanese) and most of the time I can tell. The first clues are always fashion, but even just by facial features and skintones I can usually guess where someone is from.

That has nothing to do with profiling and stereotypes. It's generalizations based on experience. The Korean male chinline and eye-shape is often (not always) distinct from the Japanese. Skintones vary among the groups as well.

I have included a link to a site which tests this very question.

I have a lot of UK blood, and was often mistaken for British or Irish when I lived in Japan, mostly by UK residents. They saw something familiar in my features, I guess.

My mum can tell and I can most of the time...
I mean chinese and japanese look so different IMO
Although I couldn't tell that BoA was Korean from her appearance

I cant tell the difference between them.

My cousin - who is "African American" - can tell the difference between Japanese, Korean, and Chinese people, ironically, and because of him, I've noticed the differences too. So it is possible, especially if you've worked with them or been exposed to them in some way.

Lol, I was just arguing about this with one of my siblings a couple days ago.

First, it's not entirely true that white people are unable to guess a region-of-origin from appearance alone. If you put two people in front of me, one with blonde hair and blue eyes and fair skin, the other dark skin with brown hair and eyes, I could tell you that the former is most definitely North/North-Eastern European, most likely German or Polish and the later is most definitely Mediteranean, likely Italian or Spanish. There are other features, also, that give those things away such that both individuals could be brunette with brown eyes and one could still differentiate them.

Asian people are no different, really. It's harder, but not much. I usually look at the shape of the eye and face, how flat vs how wide the forehead is, where the cheekbones are, and the eyelids.

Obviously I'm not always right. A little less accurate than with european-descended people.

And Japanese and Chinese definitely look very different.

I can kinda tell, but not by every kind.

its pretty easy to tell for me (most of the time)
but not with europeans ^_^;

i have to disagree with the OP because i can tell most of the time, especially chinese and japanese. that one is pretty easy. sometimes i have a little difficulty with koreans but most of the time i can tell.

as for westerners, more specifically europeans, you can get learn to pick up where they are from by their features as there are indeed differences. of course there is the simple fact that someone from a spanish blood line could be born in germany and then it would be difficult to know they are from germany but we are talking about their race/family heritage not their nationality.

Yes there is I'm not even Asian and I can tell...