Question about ancestry?

Question

We were discussing this after school today. My friend is full Chinese, but she has some phenotypes that are sort of strange for an Asian and more common in other races. For example, she has big brown eyes with long top and bottom eyelashes. She was naturally brown hair. She also has arm hair, more than her Asian friends in comparison. Granted, many Asians are like this, but many also aren't. Is it possible that she may have some other ethnic ancestry in her blood? If so, what kind?

Answer 1

yeee

i think that it is true but i don't know whose blood she has.

Answer 2

The features you described cannot be specifically attributed to any race or ethnicity.  It could just be she has an ancestor of another ethnicity and picked up some traits passed down, or it could be just a variation of her Asian traits.  Even within a specific race or ethnicity, all traits are not identical to all people.  There are always a multitude of dominant and recessive variations.

By the way, you asked a genetics question.  This is the genealogy forum.  Genealogists are not geneticists.  Genealogy is not about genes in regards to appearance or genetic diseases, etc.  It is about individuals.........who are your parents, who are their parents, and so on..........where did they come from, etc.  Many people get the two confused or falsely assume they are the same thing or are related.  They are not really because genetics is a science and genealogy is historical.

Answer 3

Being "full Chinese" is not limiting; Chinese constitute 1/5 of the entire human race.  So, there would be a lot of variety.  Also, your useage of "phenotypes", then mentioning hair color, arm hair, etc., leads me to believe that you are mixing outer characteristics with DNA.

Go to www.familtytreedna.com for a review of DNA and what it reveals.

As to the possibility of some other ethnic ancestry, you already know the answer: that is a definite yes.  Read:  "Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes" by Steve Olson.  On p. 47, he states that everyone alive on earth today is descended from Nefertiti, Julius Caesar and Confucius!  In other words, everyone has a mix of "ethnic ancestry".

If she were to have a DNA test done, she could find out just what ancestry she does have.