What do you think of 23andMe's update w/3 parts of China?

[gk]

I didn't even realise 23andme was inclusive of China, this is so interesting! I was just wondering if there was a Chinese version of 23andme and now I learned this - thank you for sharing. It would nice to know if there was more defined data availabe via an asian site.

[gk]

Good morning! 
I just ordered the 23andme and Ancestry.com kits for my mum, it will be interesting to see what her tests show. Her lineage should be from south china according to the new 23andme new delineations, but we shall see!

[gckimm]

Hi:

I think this has been mentioned elsewhere on this forum, but I remind everyone that there is a Chinese website called WeGene (https://www.wegene.com/en/) where people can upload their DNA data for free. This company is located in China and specializes in analyzing the DNA of people from China, so the results you receive will be more specifically Chinese. Note, however, that you may receive results indicating that you have some DNA matching that of various ethnic groups living in China, that is, DNA other than Han Chinese. Han 漢 is the largest ethnic group in China and the group that people think of as "pure" Chinese.

I am not an expert in DNA analysis. I am really only beginning to understand how these DNA tests work. But I will share a couple of simple insights that I have learned. First, most DNA results will accurately reflect ancestry going back only about 5-7 generations (see this article: www.crigenetics.com/blog/how-many-generations-can-a-dna-test-trace-my-ancestry). Also, and this is very important, we receive less and less of our ancestors' DNA with each generation. For example, each of us receives 50% our our parents' DNA but only 25% from each grandparent, and so on and so forth. The rest of the DNA is lost and it will not be detected by a DNA test. This is why we can have genealogically verifiable distant cousins with whom we no longer have any shared DNA (and why someone who thinks he/she has some particular ancestry may not see it show up in DNA test results). Furthermore, each person's DNA is different and the DNA we receive from our ancestors is random. So two siblings can take DNA tests and get slightly different results.

Regarding DNA results that say people have ancestry from northern China, southern China, etc. I am not sure how to explain that. Many families in China have lived in their ancestral villages for many generations, with little or no movement, especially on the part of men. However, their wives would generally come from outside their ancestral villages, most likely from a village nearby.

Note that most Cantonese people, and certainly those with family origins in the Pearl River Delta, claim that their ancestors moved to the south of China from the north of China (usually around the 12th to the 13th century). Genealogies often take great pains to explain this. One reason for this is that in ancient times, what is now southern China was the home of various groups of native people (not Han Chinese) and southern clans wanted to make sure people knew that they were truly "Chinese."

Greg