Some pictures of SE Asians from various countries

I think there's a quite strong overlap between Guangdong/Guangxi peoples and SE Asians, what do you think?

A cute Vietnamese girl



A group of Vietnamese women



A Laotian beauty



Another 2 Laotian beauties



Indigenous Murut people from Indonesia in traditional costume (the middle one could be a tourist)



Indigenous Dusun people from Malaysia in traditional costume



Nias people, Indonesia (courtesy of Quoran Harya Dony Pratama originally answered under this question: www.quora.com/When-Southeast-Asians-look-East-Asian-do-they-do-so-only-because-of-the-many-Chinese-that-went-there)



Javanese people, Indonesia (again courtesy of Quoran Harya Dony Pratama)

Hello MNOPS, Im Kheshigten/Tsakhur from Anthroscape/Anthrogenica.

Hmm it seems like pure Austronesians without AASI, Negrito, South Asian/West Eurasian, Papuan/Oceanian ancestry are lighter skin and look very Mongoloid indeed. Ppl tend to think of Philipinoys, Indonesians, Malaysians as what Austronesians look like when they actually have a lot of Negrito, Papuan/Oceanian and South Asian/West Eurasian (especially for Malays and a lot of Indonesians) ancestries.

And those three Laotian beauties (the police/officer girl and two other girls) look very light skin like they can easily pass as Vietnamese. Which would make sense since Viets/Kinh are genetically mostly Tai-Kradai with some Han and Austroasiatic (Mlabri-like) ancestry. Tbh, I notice that Laotians seem much lighter and look more like Viets than to fellow Thais even Isaan people, many who are dark skinned and look like Khmers even if they speak Lao. I think it has to do with the very minor to negligible Indian ancestry and probably less Austroasiatic/Mlabri/Htin-like ancestry among Laotians compared to Thais.

Registered here a long time ago but barely ever get to use this forum.

Yup, I think a lot of people just has this thought that Austronesians and SE Asians in general must be dark skin and show AASI, Indian and Hoabinhnian/Negrito influence in their phenotypes so when they see purer isolated Austronesians from interior Borneo, Sumatra and Philippines with lighter skin who look very Mongoloid, they can't accept it.  Also I notice some people like certain Pinoys have this agenda to show Taiwanese Aborigines as having Caucasoid facial features and look very different from SE Asians. Just want to ask you, do Taiwanese Aborigines really look distinct from the rest of SE Asians or are some people having an agenda here to portray them as such?

They do have but its minor compared to Thais, Khmers, Malays, Indonesians, Burmese and even many Pinoys, at least from the DNA results and G25 of Lao that I have seen. I believe in SE Asia, Laotians along with are the most East Eurasian shifted nationality after Viets in the region (without counting hill tribes who are originally from Southern China or some ethnic groups in Myanmar such as Kachin who seem to be Naxi/Yi-like genetically).Yep I notice a lot of similarities as well. Also if you ever visit Northern Thailand and Northern regions of Isaan/Northeast Thailand (Southern Isaan and parts of Central Isaan is very different; the locals there are heavily Austroasiatic shifted and there are a lot of Khmers and other related groups) , you will notice a very big overlap between the looks of the locals there and the Vietnamese/Kinh. People there are also light skin and look Southern Chinese-ish as they tend to have very negligible to zero AASI, Hoabinhian, South Asian ancestry unlike the rest of Thailand.

I feel when people including Thais themselves say that Thais look the most like Philipinoys even more than neighbor Khmers and Malays (according to what some Thais told me), they are thinking of Central Thais/Siamese, Eastern Thais or many Central Isaan and Southern Isaan folks who are literally assimilated Mons and Khmers with Indian and Chinese admixture (especially in the cases of Central Thais), who can resemble Pinoys in their looks, as they are the majority of Thailand's population and with Bangkok being the center of power. I presume that if Chiang Mai or Udon Thani (a city in Northern Isaan) was the capital of Thailand or Northern Thais and Northern Isaan folks makes up most of Thais, people will be saying Thais look like Viets or Southern Chinese.


Indeed. Completely agreed with you.

Genotype doesn't correspond to phenotype entirely that's true, but there's still a large overlap between the two.

Hmongs are generally more northern-looking than Laotians and Thais from my experience. Some Hmongs can pass as Central or Northern Chinese with relative ease, whereas very few Laotians and Thais can pass (unless they're of Chinese descent)

You can tell Nara to come here if she's still interested in such topics.

The girl in the video can definitely pass as South Chinese. IMO she could pass even in places like Fujian or Sichuan, let alone Guangdong and Guangxi.

mnopsc1b

 Just want to ask you, do Taiwanese Aborigines really look distinct from the rest of SE Asians or are some people having an agenda here to portray them as such? I notice some people like certain Pinoys have this agenda to show Taiwanese Aborigines as having Caucasoid facial features and looking very different phenotypically from SE Asians. I think there is some propaganda though as one of their closest relatives, the Igorots of Philippines look very Mongoloid and a lot of them can even resemble/pass as  Southern Chinese or Vietnamese in looks.

Yep most of the most more Northern-shifted-looking Thais or Laotians without Chinese ancestry would pass mainly as Vietnamese or Southern Chinese at most but definitely not anywhere north of that.

Btw can these girls pass as Central or Northern Chinese? They are ethnic Phu Thai from Northeast Thailand. I'm not sure how typical are their phenos among the Phu Thai though as a lot of their pics that I have seen (I never really interact with this ethnic group before), they look much more Austroasiatic and Hoabinhian or AASI admixed than these girls.




She can pass easily as a Thai of Chinese descent as well.

I don’t think either of them can pass as Han Chinese anywhere in China. They’re both too distinctly SEA looking, the one on the right actually has a distinctly Thai looking eyes + nose + mouth shape combo.