Why is that Han people are taller, while south chinese are shorter?

Question

what's the evolutionary process that made one of them taller, the other shorter?

Is it because Han people were hunters while southern chinese were farmers? were Han people somewhat mixed with russian and mongols?

Answer 1

Hm, I would say there is definitely that influence; otherwise, where would have all the northern nomadists gone? They would not have fit into the Republic of Mongolia, or dispersed into the frozen northern Siberia. (although a small percentage might have)

In modern terms I would say, there's a general tendency to grow taller and bigger as you go to higher latitudes - this is a physical/pysiological phenomenon verified by modern science.

Polar bears are huge the more north you go, for isntance. Arctic animals all follow this pattern - bigger bodies fare bettere in colder weather.

The other end of the spectrum also has to do with heat management in the system - shorter, smaller bodies can handle heat dissipation much faster, which is a great advantage if one must survive in extremely hot climate.

Russians came relatively late in Asia; I think they crossed the Ural mountains annexing Sibir only in the 1600's, so I suspect there's minimal Russian influx into the Chinese population.

As for the Mongols, and earlier nomadic peoples of the central Asian steppes, there must have been early contacts in the pre-Qin period, the most well-know of which would be the Xiongnus, who are consdiered either identical or closely related to the Huns in Europe.

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edit: I forgot to mention the Southern inhabitants of what is now modern China; the Souther Mans (蠻) and the Mins ((閩), the Southern Yue (南越), the Hundred Yue (百越), and the southwestern tribes (西南夷), who are believed to be the underlying ethnic fabric of modern southern China. It has recently been shown that these southern peoeples were originally non-Sino-Tibetan, speaking an unrelated language, but who became Sinicised for political reasons. Highly interesting stuff coming out early Chinese history and historical linguistics. One should be on the lookout for stuff by Jerry Norman, James Matisoff, Richard Cook, William Baxter, Laurent Sagart, and a Chinese scholar by the unique four-syllable name of Zhengzhang Shangfang (鄭張尙芳) among others; the latter's work on the Chu culture and language is a fascinating study of a non-Chinese people that lived, loved, and warred with their neighbors in the dawn of sounthern Chinese history. A related people are believed to have migrated south~southwest to establish what became today's Thai dynasty.