国外热议：你能从外貌上区分越南人和中国人吗？如果能，区别是什么？

Dante Wong
I’m Chinese and I can’t.
Not with anywhere close to 100% accuracy, anyway.
When I was living and working in Sydney, I had a Vietnamese housemate for about 3 months.
Upon first meeting him, I had no idea he was Vietnamese.
He looked almost 100% like the man in the picture below.
You can see men who look like him everywhere in Hong Kong and Guangdong.
I only realized he was Vietnamese after he spoke up and shared his name.

我也是中国人，但我做不到。
反正绝对不会接近百分之百准确。
我在悉尼工作住过一段时间，曾有一位越南室友，大约住了三个月。
第一次见到他时，我完全不知道他是越南人。
他几乎看起来和下面那张照片里的男人一模一样。
在香港（特区）和广东，到处都能看到长得像他那样的男人。
直到他开口说话并告诉我名字后，我才意识到他是越南人。


Again in Sydney, I worked with a Vietnamese colleague who looked like the woman below.
If she hadn’t shared her name with me the first time I stopped by her desk, I would have assumed that she was Chinese.

在悉尼我还和一位越南女同事共事过，她长得像下面那位女性。
如果她第一次我到她桌前时没告诉我名字，我会以为她是中国人。


During my time in Dublin, I worked with a Vietnamese colleague who looked like the woman below.
Again, I didn’t know she was Vietnamese until she spoke up and shared her name.
She wouldn’t look out of place anywhere in China.

在都柏林工作期间，我也有一位越南女同事，长得像下面那位女性。
同样的，直到她开口说话并报出名字，我才知道她是越南人。
她放在哪儿都不会让人觉得有违和感，放在中国任何地方都不突兀。


Conclusion (a.k.a. TLDR):
I find it challenging to visually distinguish many Vietnamese and Chinese.
I don’t think I’m the only one.

结论（也就是要点）：
我发现要通过外貌区分许多越南人和中国人非常困难。
我并不认为只有我一个人有这种感觉。

Steven Wells
I live in San Jose, California, the American city with the largest percentage of Vietnamese residents. My own visual observation, which at most is good for barely more than nothing, is that many of the Vietnamese persons that I see have a more pronounced bridge to their noses (similar to many Caucasians) than the subdued nose bridge of many other east Asians. Examine the noses in the above pictures. You may see what I mean.
My former girlfriend of many years, whose ancestors were from southern China, always wished she had more of a nose bridge that might help her wear glasses more effectively.

我住在加州圣何塞，那是美国越南裔居民比例最高的城市。就我个人的肉眼观察（这种观察最多也就勉强算点儿参考），我看到的许多越南人鼻梁比其他东亚人更明显（有点类似许多白人），而很多其他东亚人的鼻梁更低平。看看上面那些照片里的鼻子，你可能就懂我的意思了。
我以前交往多年的前女友，她的祖先来自中国南方，她总希望自己有更高的鼻梁，这样戴眼镜会更合适。

Houmpheng Phonsavath
Vietnamese is a nationality not ethnicity though. Vietnamese is an English given name for the people from Vietnam.
Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Thais, Taiwanese aborigines, Mon-Khmer, Malaysians, Indonesians and Filipinos are also a nationality not ethnicity.

“Vietnamese”是国籍而不是族群——Vietnamese 是对来自越南的人的英文称呼。
同样地，中国人、日本人、韩国人、泰国人、台湾（地区）原住民、孟高棉人、马来西亚人、印度尼西亚人和菲律宾人这些也是国籍的称谓，而非单一族裔分类。

Felix Kwok
At one point, 25% of the Vietnamese population were of Chinese descent. Many of the Vietnamese individuals in San Jose were of Chinese descent or had lixs to China. They were refugees during the China/Vietnam communist conflict. Many Chinese Vietnamese fled from Vietnam due to persecution.

曾有一段时间，约25%的越南人口有华裔血统。圣何塞的许多越南人也是华裔或与中国有联系。他们在中越共产主义冲突期间成为难民。很多华裔越南人因受迫害而逃离越南。

John Tse
such questions are stupid because most people around the world have moved around due to disasters, wars and trade. lots of intermixing. it may not be so obvious, but diluted genes can skip a few generations and suddenly appear. me a local has at times mistaken another local because of stereotyping. just because they are white or black or brown or yellow or something in between, we automatically assigned them into convenient brackets and ended up in embarrassing or awkward situations.

这种问题很愚蠢，因为世界上大多数人都因灾难、战争与贸易而流动迁徙，混血混居广泛存在。基因的稀释可能会隔几代后再突然显现。有时我这个本地人也会因为刻板印象把另一个本地人认错。仅因为他们是白人、黑人、棕色人种或黄种人或介于两者之间，我们就自动把人归入方便的类别，结果往往闹出尴尬或难堪的局面。

Ong Boon Yee
It would be difficult to distinguish a Chinese Vietnamese Koreans or Japanese if they have left their home country for a long time and has assimilated to third countries as they are of the same stock. Only their mannerism may differ slightly and that's where we can separate them in their origins

如果中国人、越南人、韩国人或日本人离开故土很久并在第三国同化了，鉴于他们同属相近血统，确实很难分辨。通常只有举止气质会略有差异，才能在这种细微之处辨别出他们的出身。

Trang Nguyen
Because all of them, Vietnamese, Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese shared the same ancestry from who are a mixture of ancient East Asians (Amis) and devil's gate north Asians. But Vietnamese has one more ancestry from hoabinhians who might be from Negritos.

因为越南人、中国人、韩国人和日本人都共享相似的祖源，源自古代东亚人（如阿美族）与“恶魔之门”北方亚洲人的混合。但越南人还有一部分祖源来自河姆渡文化（hoabinhians），这些人可能与尼格里托人有联系。

Yee Qoo
Unless they're southern vietnamese

除非他们是越南南方人。

Anh Pham
We Northerners can sometimes tell if someone is from the South or the Central, but it usually requires them to speak up to confirm. The things that are more obvious to us aren’t really how they look but how they dress and carry themselves. It’s a bit difficult to explain but it’s more like a feeling than an educated guess. If a Southerner has been living in the North for some time it will become almost impossible to tell unless they have an accent (which many simply can just switch on or off because they can do both).

我们北方人有时能分辨出一个人是来自南方还是中部，但通常需要对方开口确认。对我们来说更明显的差别往往不是外貌，而是他们的穿着和举止。很难解释，更像是一种感觉而不是有根据的判断。如果一个南方人在北方生活了一阵子，除非能听出口音（但很多人能切换口音），否则几乎无法辨认。
Tran Minh Ngoc (陳明玉)

No. Most still have the same look as northern Vietnamese. The misconception that they look different is blatantly disregarding the fact the southern Vietnamese are originally northern Vietnamese in the first place who migrated to the south, took over the land, Vietnamized it and finally annexed it to Vietnam.

不。大多数南方人仍然保留与北方越南人相同的外貌。认为他们看起来不同的误解，明显忽视了一个事实：南越人最初就是北越人，后来迁往南方、占据土地、越南化并最终形成今日的越南。

Phil Nguyen
Once in a shopping mall, I saw a group of Asian people, my friend was curious and asked me, “Can you guess they are Chinese or Vietnamese?” I told my friend, “They must be Chinese because they have single eyelid.” and my friend believed so. Turned out we were wrong. They speak Vietnamese. Soon after, another group of Asian people coming. My friend asked me the same question, “Are they Chinese or Vietnamese?” I replied, ”They must be Vietnamese because they have double eyelid” My friend did agree with my observation. We were wrong again. They speak Chinese when they passed by. HMM. Something is wrong with the world today!!!
Btw, I am Vietnamese. My radar needs a major upgrade to distinguish, I guess

有一次在购物中心，我看到一群亚洲人，朋友好奇问我：“你能猜他们是中国人还是越南人吗？”我告诉朋友：“他们一定是中国人，因为他们是单眼皮。”朋友信以为真。结果我们错了，他们说的是越南语。不久又来了一群亚洲人，朋友又问我同样的问题：“他们是中国人还是越南人？”我回答：“他们应该是越南人，因为他们是双眼皮。”朋友也同意我的判断。我们又错了，他们经过时说的是中文。嗯，今天这个世界是不是有点问题！！！
顺便说一句，我是越南人。看来我的雷达需要大升级才能分辨了，估计得更新了

Lonely Rolling Star
In this stage of life, the friend I go eating with the most is ethnic Vietnamese. He’s a longtime friend of mine, ever since middle school, so we are very natural around each other.

在我现在这个人生阶段，我最常一起吃饭的朋友是越南族裔。他是我从中学开始的老朋友，所以我们相处得很自然。

It is this familiarity that, combined with the fact that Vietnamese and Chinese often look interchangeable, has allowed us to essentially fool every single Asian-run shop in the area. If I speak Chinese, they will often attempt to speak Chinese to him too. If he speaks Vietnamese, they will often attempt to speak Vietnamese to me too. For those curious about trying to find the line in the sand, he is half north and south Viet, and I am half north and south Chinese. I have darker skin than he does, because my darker skin comes from my northerner side. Sometimes genetics just work that way.

正是这种熟悉感，再加上越南人和中国人在外貌上常常可以互换的事实，使得我们几乎能在本地所有由亚洲人经营的店铺里“骗过”店家。如果我说中文，他们常常也会试着对他讲中文；如果他讲越南语，他们也会尝试对我讲越南语。为了那些好奇想划分界线的人说明一下：他是北越和南越混血，我是北中南中国人混血。我比他肤色更深，因为我的深色肤色来自我那边的北方血统。有时候基因就是这样奇怪地起作用。

Sometimes we join with his brother’s friend group. Together we are a very thorough blend of East Asians. Few people know what to make of us because there is enough differentiation within the group to tell that we’re a mix of different types. The most noticeable is the guy who is half Japanese, but it is quite honestly more the way he dresses and cuts his hair. The rest of us? Good luck.

有时我们会和他兄弟的朋友圈一起活动。我们在一起就是一盘彻头彻尾的东亚大杂烩。很少有人能判断我们是什么，因为群体内部已经足够多样，能看出我们是不同类型的混合体。最显眼的是那个半日本血统的男生，但坦白说更多是因为他的穿着和发型。至于我们其余的人？祝你好运。

This is not to say that there are no cases in which one can distinguish one type from another. There are certainly stereotypically Vietnamese looks separate from stereotypically Chinese looks. But the simple reality is that the cases in which we look alike are often due to migrations of the past, and the modern world has the propensity to make distances even shorter. Mixing is the inevitable conclusion, which is why all of this posturing about being super unique compared to those East Asians over there is an exercise in futility. This practice is why there are some Asians who are very proud of their ability to discern the different types of Asians— and they pretzel their logic as to why they invariably get a pair comparison wrong.

这并不是说从来没有能区分的情况。确实存在刻板印象里典型的越南长相和典型的中国长相。但简单的现实是，我们看起来相似的很多情况都源于历史上的迁徙，而现代世界又进一步缩短了距离。混血和融合是必然结果，所以那些自夸和摆出一副“我比那边那些东亚人更独特”的姿态实在徒劳无益。正因为如此，有些亚洲人对自己能分辨不同亚洲面孔的能力感到非常自豪——然后又绞尽脑汁为自己为什么总是分错解释理由。

In the end, the differences that cleave along our lives are much more interesting and useful than race/ethnicity/nationality. I have more in common with ACG fans around the world than Chinese or American bankers. The former I can bond and geek out with, the latter is at best a good neighbor to get to know.

归根结底，划分我们生活差异的那些因素，比种族/族裔/国籍更有趣也更有用。我与世界各地的ACG（动画、漫画、游戏）爱好者有更多共同点，能一起疯一起聊；而中国或美国的银行家充其量只是值得认识的好邻居而已。

Eric Lee
Genetically speaking, Gong Dong wa or Cantonese speakers like yours truly have northern Vietnamese or part northern Vietnamese ancestry. Our true ancestors were the Baiyue tribes that are indigenous to the southern coast of China and the northern end of Vietnam . We’re the farthest apart from the actual Han ethnicity compared to other Chinese ethnic groups. Even our food culture is extremely similar. In Cantonese cuisine, we have sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, and the Vietnamese have their own version of this too. They also have dumplings , which are similar to Cantonese style dumplings .

从基因上讲，像我这样的广东话/粤语使用者往往有北越或部分北越血统。我们的真正祖先是百越部落，他们是中国南部海岸和越南北部的土著。与其他中国族群相比，我们与所谓的“汉族”在血统上相差最远。连我们的饮食文化也非常相似。在粤菜里有用香蕉叶包的糯米饭，越南也有类似的版本。他们还有类似粤式的饺子。

Peter Chan

The proper name for Cantonese is 越语 or 粤语. 粤 and 越 have the same meaning.

粤语的本名可以写作“越语”或“粤语”。“粤”和“越”本义相同。

Huijian Wu's answer to Why the distinction between 粤 and 越? I've read that Han dynasty conquered the Baiyue, and Yue Chinese evolved over time instead. The name seems inherited; it also has the same pronunciation (yuè). The word is likely the same — then, why two hanzi?

Huijian Wu 回答 关于“粤”和“越”之别的提问：我读到汉朝征服了百越，越人逐渐演化为今天的粤人。这个名字似乎是沿袭下来的，发音也相同（yuè）。词义可能相同——那为什么会有两个汉字呢？

It is not extremely similar, more like … the same people.

这并不是“极其相似”，更像……同一群人。

Before Yue region was even part of Zhou, Han dynasty, it was land of hundred different clans. Villages if they were small, city state if they were bigger. 257 BC, some 40 years after the fall of Shu state, descendants fought a war against the local and founded 甌貉, which Vietnamese history called them Au Lac. Later, general Zhao of Qin annexed Au Lac, and founded 南越 (Nanyue). He eventually surrendered to Han dynasty.

在越地尚未纳入周朝及汉朝版图之前，这片土地上生活着上百个不同氏族。聚落小则为村落，大则成城邦。公元前257年，即古蜀国灭亡约四十年后，南迁的蜀人后裔与当地部族征战，建立了"甌貉"政权（越南史称"瓯雒国"）。后秦将赵佗吞并瓯雒，建立南越国，最终归附汉朝。

About 1000 years later, the region rebelled against the weakened Tang dynasty and carved out their own little kingdom. They used the old 南越 name to call themselves 大越. 1838, one of 大越 monarch annexed a Southern country Champa and some land from Khmer empire. This 大越 suddenly had the S shape. In 1945, 大越 call themselves 越南 by flipping 南越 of the 257 BC kingdom. They also officially took up their own Latin scxt pinyin system (developed in 16th century) to have it as official language. This is where Vietnam came from.

大约一千年后，该地区在唐末乱世中起兵独立，开创了自己的小王国。他们沿用古南越的名称，自称“大越”。1838年，大越的一位君王吞并了南方的占婆国和部分高棉帝国领土，于是大越的国土呈现出如今的“S”形。到1945年，大越把“南越”字面颠倒过来称自己为“越南”。他们还正式采用了一个拉丁字母拼写系统（起源可追溯到16世纪），并作为官方书写体系。这就是越南的由来。

Peter Chan
Southern Chinese “Bai Yue” region was not originally part of China. There were hundreds of villages with their own chiefs. At some point they got a few city states. This entire region became part of Han dynasty somewhere around 113 BC.

中国南部的“百越”地区本来并不属于中原。那里有数百个各自为政的村落，也有若干城邦。整个地区大约在公元前113年被并入汉朝。

Around 10th century, the Southern part of this Bai Yue region broke away from the decline of Tang dynasty and became independent. This small nation only had Northern part of modern day Vietnam. Not until 19th century where an ambitious leader invaded and annexed Champa and part of Cambodia to have what Vietnam is today. Yes, the city of Saigon was first settled by Chinese (in Cambodian territory). Saigon(西贡) is a Chinese name. It has no meaning in Vietnamese.

到了10世纪，百越地区的南部趁唐朝衰落而独立，这个小国最初仅包括今天越南的北部。直到19世纪，一个有野心的领袖入侵并吞并了占婆以及部分柬埔寨土地，才形成今天的越南。是的，西贡（Saigon）最初由华人在原属柬埔寨的土地上建立。“西贡”是中文名，在越南语中并无本意。

So unlike other neighboring Asian countries who had their own origins and peoples. Vietnam is literately just Bai Yue people who broke away and founded their own country. 90% of Vietnamese language is based in Chinese. You can look up the name of the country, it is 100% translatable to Chinese characters, word by word.

因此，与其他邻近亚洲国家拥有各自独立起源不同，越南实际上就是百越人分裂出来建立的国家。90%的越南语词汇基于中文。你可以查一下该国名，几乎可以逐字对应翻译成汉字。

Peter Chan
One other similar country is Thailand. They were a group of minority in Southern China who ventured south to fight with Burmese and took over a portion of their land to found their own country.

另一个类似的例子是泰国。他们原是中国南方的部分少数民族，向南迁徙与缅甸人交战并夺得部分土地，建立了自己的国家。

The difference is Siam people are quite distinctive from Han Chinese. But Vietnamese people were literately just Han Chinese at the time of separation.

不同之处在于暹罗（泰族）人和汉族有较明显区别。但在分裂之时，越南人本质上就是汉人。

So Vietnam means South of Yue. This people never wanted to distance themselves from their root. They were happy to be independent politically. They would call themselves independent Cantonese. Only in the late 1970s where China had fallout with the Soviet unxs and Vietnam chose to follow Soviets, they made a huge distinction from China and rejected all Chinese connection.

所以“Vietnam”（越南）意为“越之南”。这些人并不想与根源切割，他们只是政治上希望独立，会称自己为独立的粤人。直到上世纪70年代末中国与苏联决裂、越南选择跟随苏联，两者才大为决裂并切断了与中国的许多联系。

Edward Huang
Yes, you can tell most of the time. Vietnamese usually are more southern looks the annamid or tonkinesid type in looks. There are few East Asian looking Vietnamese who are actually Chinese in the first place or at least partially Han. There are also a lot of overlap in Guangxi and Guangdong areas. It makes sense because they boarder each other. But if you go further south, there are more southeast Asians features khin people. Vietnamese has their distinct looks which separate themselves from Southeast Asia and east Asia, kinda like Hispanic in South America in a way Spanish mixing with indigenous Indians.

是的，大多数时候你能分辨得出来。越南人通常看起来更偏“南方型”，类似安南人或东京湾一带的外貌。确实也有一些看起来像东亚人的越南人，他们其实本身就是华人，或至少部分汉族血统。在广西和广东一带混杂很多，这很合理，因为两地相邻。但往更南走，会看到更多东南亚人特征的人群。越南人有其独特外貌，把自己既区别于东南亚也区别于东亚，有点像西班牙人与当地土著混血形成的南美“拉美人”那样的混合特征。

Josh Bergeman
I wonder why we don't see these kinds of questions in regards to various European nations?

我想知道为什么我们不经常看到有人提这种关于欧洲各国的问题？

Peter Chan
I guess it is impossible to trace European movements throughout history. Well, not impossible, more like too complicated.
For example, is Roman Italian? Maybe they were. But after about 1000+ years, they settled in Constantinople as their capital city. And it is modern day Turkey. Roman/Byzantine identity faded into history.

我猜追溯欧洲人历史上的迁徙太复杂了，不是说不可能，只是难度太高。举例来说，罗马人算不算意大利人？也许曾经是。但经过一千多年后，他们把首都迁到君士坦丁堡（今土耳其）。罗马/拜占庭的身份最终消失在历史长河中。

JimmY LEE
I’d say most East Asians can identify other East Asians 60–80% of the time, but it’s hard to surpass that. Sometimes you can get another 5–10% accuracy by mannerisms, facial expression, or dress. Sometimes accent is a dead giveaway. Then there’s the factor of migration. My friend who is Taiwan born , is 6’4 with high cheekbones. His mother is from northern China.

我觉得大多数东亚人能在60–80%的情况下辨认出其他东亚人的来源，但很难超过这个准确率。有时凭借举止、面部表情或着装可以额外提高5–10%的准确率。有时口音是万无一失的线索。还有迁徙因素。我一个出生在台湾（地区）的朋友，身高6.4英尺，颧骨高，他母亲来自中国北方。

Lonely Rolling Star
And I’d say, internationalization, youth, intermixing, and the realities of the future are degrading this accuracy the longer we go on. About 20 years ago, I was more squarely in the “yeah, you can tell” camp.

我还想说，随着国际化、年轻一代、混合婚配以及未来的现实，这种辨认准确度会随着时间下降。大约20年前，我更坚定地属于“是的，你能看出来”的那一派。

Lucia Millar
Yes, we can. However, you have to to interact with both the Vietnamese and the Chinese long enough to realize how different they are. The Vietnamese appearances have been relatively different from the North to the Central, the South.

可以。但前提是你要和越南人和中国人都长期接触，才能意识到他们的差别。越南人从北到中到南在外貌上也有相对的不同。


The Vietnamese in Central Vietnam

中部越南的人

I think that you need time and experience, interaction with people from both countries to visually realize how different they are. From my experience, I think it is easier to realize the differences between the Southern Chinese with the Southern Vietnamese as well as the Central Vietnamese. The same can be said that Northern Chinese is relatively different from Northern Vietnamese. However, the Southern Chinese in general tend to be similar to the Northern Vietnamese because of historical interactions directly through thousands of years living side by side with each other. The Southern Chinese people could probably be partly descendants of the Bách Việt/Baiyue people - The ancient people community living in South China and North Vietnam.

我认为你需要时间与经验，与两国人民互动，才能在视觉上分辨出他们的差异。以我的经验，比较容易看出南方中国人与南越以及中越之间的差别。同样也可以说北方中国人与北越相比也相对不同。然而，整体上南方中国人与北方越南人往往较为相似，这是因为千百年来他们长期并居、直接互动。南方中国人很可能部分是百越人的后裔——那些生活在中国南部和越南北部的古老族群。


The Vietnamese in Central Vietnam

中部越南的人

Of course, this is just my opinion and it could not be right or wrong depending on case by case. The people in East Asia and Southeast Asia tend to be more similar to each other. It will be difficult for not only you but also the Westerners to realize how different they are. In Southeast Asia, you will meet many difficulties in distinguishing the Vietnamese from Laos, Thai, and Cambodian people, Myanmar people, Northeast Indian too.

当然，这只是我的看法，依具体情况可能对也可能错。东亚人与东南亚人之间倾向于互相相似。对你或西方人来说，要意识到他们之间的差异并不容易。在东南亚，你会发现很难把越南人和老挝人、泰国人、柬埔寨人、缅甸人、以及印度东北部的人区分开来。


The Vietnamese Primer Minister Pham Minh Chinh with his Lao counterpart - Sonexay Siphandone
Lusia Millar.

越南总理范明政（Pham Minh Chinh）与老挝同行索内塞·西潘东（Sonexay Siphandone）合影——Lusia Millar。

The Overseas Chinese Space ·
I know Vietnam fairly well. Had been there about eight times now, and have many Vietnamese friends.
Frankly (I’m not a chauvinist, and have no “agenda” in writing this), I can’t tell the Vietnamese from southern Chinese.
In fact, it’s easier to tell Northern from Southern Chinese, than Southern Chinese from Vietnamese!
There are more and more “Northern” Chinese in Singapore over the past years.
When I see them, very often I could tell from their physiognomy that they are not local (the “original Singapore Chinese are mainly from the south). This is often confirmed when they open their mouths — and I could hear that their spoken Chinese (even putonghua) is different from ours!

海外华人空间 ·
我对越南相当熟悉，去过大约八次，也有很多越南朋友。
坦白说（我不是大男子主义者，也没有写这段话的“目的”），我分不清越南人和南方中国人。
实际上，比起把南方中国人与越南人区分开来，分辨南北中国人反而更容易！
近年来，新加坡的“北方”中国人越来越多。
看到他们时，我常常能从面相判断他们不是本地人（“最早的新加坡华人大多来自南方”）。当他们开口说话时，这判断往往得到证实——即便是普通话，他们的口音也和我们不太一样！