Dark skinn(ed) Chinese

[nyong]

Hello!

The discussion about Lou Jing made me wonder if dark skinned Chinese are really that rare.

Many foreigners are unaware of the fact that the native population in southern Japan are actually pretty dark. A medium brown skinned Black American girl who lived for a year in southern Japan was surprised by the fact that at least half of the people around her had her skin tone or even darker. You just don't see them in the media because they mostly show light skinned people.

I personally haven't been to China, but considering the fact that Shanghai is approximately on the same latitude as Kagoshima one could expect that dark skinned Chinese wouldn't be that rare.

Assuming that one can't rely on the people shown on the media, I'm interested to hear from people who have been in China themselves to throw light on the question of how rare dark skin is among Chinese people.

Thank you in advance!

Nyong

[taijiphoenix]

When I was in china, I didn't see any chinese that were as dark as you describe. Howerver, I did see a lot that were very tan, especially in the south. I remember when I was out hiking a group of chinese, came up to me and were comparing there skin color to mine and pointed out how much whiter my skin was than theirs.

[xiaotao]

Skin tones varies from dark brown like a south east asian or filipino to whiter than a white person with pink not yellow undertones.

[BrandeX]

The only really dark locals I have seen here in Guangdong are people who have heavy tans from working outside daily for years. I have also met a few local people who are whiter than I am as well.

[anonymoose]

Wa people (in Yunnan) can be quite dark-skinned.

[Hofmann]

Many factors affect skin color, not just latitude.

[aristotle1990]

I have seen at least two Chinese people with skin dark enough to pass as Indian or African American (not tans, mind you). One was a guy of high school age (I assume he was a high school student -- he was always playing basketball with the other high schoolers), the other a girl (college student). At first I thought they were foreigners -- except for their eyes, they didn't really look Chinese. They looked Indian, and had hair to match. But their Chinese was perfect (no trace of any accent, fast and fluent), and they hung out only with other Chinese people, so I assume they were Chinese. Perhaps some ethnic minority? I never saw them together.

[trien27]

It really depend on who you're talking to. Chinese people are all over the world. Those who live in the southern parts or close to the coast get exposed to the sun more. Therefore, their skin color tend to be darker. Chinese people are in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Guam, Puerto Rico, all 50 states in the USA, Ghana [Western Africa], Nigeria, Norway, Germany, Russia, Jamaica, The Philippines, Ecuador, India, Mexico, and many other countries and territories, etc... Not just in Mainland China, etc... due to trade, migration, business, etc...