After losing my parents I became more interested in our family background so took a DNA test.. and here are the results...
What I thought I was
Growing up, I was always told that we were fully Han Chinese. With my Dads side originating from North China. I didn't know much about my mums side but I knew my grandparents were Chinese.
Why I took a DNA test and which company I used
After losing my Dad December 2020 I became interested in knowing more about my dads background and ancestors and I looked at a few DNA companies but hadn't decided which one to go for. It was when I lost my mum in November 2021 that my sister and I decided that we needed to do the test now! so we did some research and chose 23andme as they had a huge database of Asian customers at the time.
How does it work?
They send you a kit in the post in which you fill the tube with your saliva, register your kit and post it back in the self addressed box provided.
How long did it take for the results
My sister and I sent our kits back on the 29th November 2021 and I got my results on the 10th January 2022 (my sister got hers a few days before mine) so it took 6 weeks.
My DNA results
55.6% Chinese
26.5% Chinese Dai
16.3% Vietnamese
1.6% Broadly Chinese
WOW! I thought I was 100% Chinese, but I am not surprised to see Dai and Vietnamese and I believe this could be from my mums side. My uncle (mums younger brother) told me that he wasn't sure where his grandparents were born.
My Dads family spoke Cantonese where as my mums side spoke in a different dialect which is probably from the Dai side.
My uncle also told me that my great uncle was from Taiwan.
You can read more on my family background here
Chinese
China is home to one of the world's earliest and enduring civilizations, with over 50 officially-recognized ethnic groups. The Han ethnic group makes up 92% of the country's population, and includes nearly one-fifth of all humans in the world. Over 50 million ethnic Chinese live outside of China, with over 20 million in Thailand, Malaysia, and the United States alone
Chinese Dai
The Dai people of southern China belong to the larger Tai ethnolinguistic group that currently lives in parts of China, Burma, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. In China, the Dai are one of over 50 officially recognized ethnic minority groups, and are united by unique cultural traditions anchored in Dai folk religion or Buddhism. Most Chinese Dai live in southern and western Yunnan Province, and are genetically more similar to their Vietnamese neighbors than they are to the Han Chinese
Vietnamese
Present-day Vietnam was the cradle of one of the world’s earliest civilizations, and one of the world’s first regions to develop rice-based agriculture. A tropical country on the Indochinese Peninsula, Vietnam is bordered by China to the north and by Laos and Cambodia to the west. The country has more than 50 ethnic groups, the largest being the Kinh, who make up more than 85% of the population.
Broadly Chinese
From the expansive plains of central Asia to the islands of eastern Indonesia, the people of China and Southeast Asia share genetic similarities dating back to the arrival of humans in the region over 40,000 years ago. Broadly Chinese & Southeast Asian DNA — likely driven in part by the spread of agriculture within the last few thousand years — matches several specific populations and is difficult to assign to just one.
My siblings DNA results
My sister and I purchased some Kits for my other 3 siblings as A Christmas gift and we waited until all of our results were ready until we shared our results.
The results were interesting. I have 16.3% Vietnamese in my DNA, compared to only 10% in my siblings with my youngest sister having no Vietnamese DNA. Interesting to see which DNA/Genes we inherited from our parents.
More of my cousins are now taking the test and it's been interesting comparing our DNA compositions. My parents are not around for us to ask them but we have been asking our uncles and aunts to find out more.
I've already visited China, Vietnam and Taiwan but now I wan't to visit the specific cities that my DNA has connections with.
It's been interesting using 23andMe and I have connected with quite a few distant relatives using the platform. So if you're interested in your DNA composition for fun or to connect with distant relatives then I do recommend 23andMe.
They have a basic ancestry package or also an ancestry with health package, we purchased with the health package which lists a lot of health traits identified with our specific DNAs which was quite a fun read.
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