Asian Americans Take A DNA Test

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(tinkly music) - Today, we are getting our DNA tested to see where our ancestors are from. - Many of our coworkers have done this before and have gotten wild results, and we wanted to see if this might apply to some of our Asian-American coworkers at the company. (techno music) - My folks have always been really private about our family history. Not only were they private about it, I felt like they'd go out of their way to even hide stuff from me sometimes. - My family is really open to talking about our Filipino heritage. - They have never really told me even where in China I was from. They're just like, "China." - My mom and dad always talked about our immediate family. Aside from that, we don't really interact with aunts, uncles, cousins, or any of that. - We can't trace my family history back that far. - Now, I think that's because they actually don't know too much, either. - The things they told me, I'm like, "Is that real? Are you sure?" (tinkly music) ^- The Philippines has always been conquered ^by various other cultures and countries. ^So it's kind of hard to say what real Filipinos are. ^According to my dad, we came down ^from the mountains, so we weren't as conquered. ^- I've always believed my whole life ^that I was 100% Korean. ^- And my parents have always said ^my family's from China, but then ^my parents were born in Vietnam, so Chinese. ^- And my parents have always told me that I am 100% Indian. ^I started thinking that I might have other genetic codes ^in my DNA because my mom was born with blonde hair, ^and then she has an uncle with blue eyes and blonde hair. ^- My parents had always told me I was Vietnamese. ^Recently, I found out I was part French. ^- Southeast Asia is a bit of a melting pot. ^I was raised to believe that I am 100% Lao. ^I don't think I'm a 100% Lao. ^- And my mom is Japanese, and my dad is white, ^and I found out that my great-grandfather ^was adopted, so who knows? ^- And I'm 50% Chinese and 50% Scottish and Irish. (techno music) ^- As a first guess, most people do think I'm Korean. ^- When I was in the Korean market, a older Korean lady ^started asking me things in Korean. ^- It's weird because my dad, he works ^as a mechanic, and his client sometimes thinks ^he's white, which is also very odd. ^- They've never guessed anything other ^than Indian or Persian. ^- I would get Chinese, Thai, and sometimes Filipino. ^- I've heard Filipino. ^I've gotten Chinese. ^I've gotten Thai. ^I've gotten mixed race. ^People think I'm half Lao, half white. ^- I get Latina a lot, Native American, ^Native Hawaiian, Filipino. ^Usually people are surprised when I ^tell them that my mom is Japanese. ^People think I'm Latino. ^A lot of people just come up ^to me and start speaking Spanish. ^I went to China; some people still ^didn't think I was Chinese. ^Breaks my heart because I grew up ^in a Chinese restaurant with a Chinese family ^eating Chinese food almost every day, speaking Cantonese. ^I'm a mixed race guy. ^Sometimes you feel like you belong everywhere, ^and sometimes you feel like you belong nowhere. ^- It's hard to say what does Japanese look like, ^and what does Asian look like? (techno music) - So we got these little kits from 23andMe. - And we're going to spit in a tube. Mm. (techno music) Wow. - Mail this out. (techno music) ^Because of history keeping in the Philippines, ^and not a lot of access to those records -- ^- And I've always wondered what my lineage was. ^Bloodlines is a really important thing in Korean culture. ^- I am hoping to find out whether there ^was some mixing back in the day, or there wasn't. ^I just honestly hope that I kind of get ^this understanding of who I am. ^My entire family is really pale, and I'm tan ^Why am I tan? ^- As an individual, it is nice to feel proud. ^- My family, this is also information ^I can share with them, too. ^- So I just got married, and I'm really hoping ^when I have kids, I can tell them what they are. ^- It will be a way to bring my family closer together. ^My grandmother passed away. ^She was our family matriarch, and she was always the one ^to pass down stories about our family ^and our family's history, and now that she's gone, ^I want to keep that conversation going. - So I really hope that with this DNA test, feel like I really, truly do belong somewhere. (techno music) - So it's been a few weeks. - We're gonna get our DNA read ^- My name's Jhulianna Cintron. ^I'm a senior product specialist ^on the Customer Care Team at 23andMe. It can confirm what you already know, or it can totally surprise you. (cheering) - I'm so excited. - According to my mom and my dad, we are full Filipino. - Ray, you are not 100% Filipino. ^Pretty close, though, 99.1% to the Philippine. ^You do have 0.8% Iberian DNA. ^What is that? ^Which could be Spain or Portugal. ^That makes sense. My dad wasn't exaggerating when we came down from the mountains. I haven't been this proud about being Filipino in a while. - He's gonna have a flag on his desk. - No, I know. - I hear you think you're 100% Korean. Is that correct? - I think so, yeah. ^- So you are 100% East Asian, 97.3% ^Korean. ^- Wow. ^- 1.2% Chinese, and 1.2% Japanese, ^0.3% broadly East Asian. ^- That's all in his DNA? ^- Yeah. - I feel good about it. I'm proud to be Korean. It feels good to be validated. - Are you now more fond of pot stickers? - Yes, and gilgai, for sure. - I'm pretty sure I'm 100% Chinese, that's all. (laughter) - You are not 100% Chinese. ^You are 92.2% Chinese, mostly from mainland China. ^You are 7.5% Vietnamese. ^- Oh. ^(exclamations of surprise) ^- What? ^I literally always just tell people ^I'm culturally Vietnamese. I think it does make me feel more connected to my Vietnamese side. It does make me want to go to Vietnam. I'm going to have to go learn to read in Vietnamese. I just kind of picture my arm as Vietnamese. That's how I kind of... I'm splitting myself up. - Well, I know my relatives are from India, and when my mom was a baby, she had golden hair. I know the north, in general, there is mixing, I just don't know if that mixing affected my family. ^- You are 100% Indian. ^- I mean, at the some time, I'm still like ^why the hell does my great uncle ^have blonde hair and blue eyes? ^It doesn't affect me and the way I live my life. ^I've been raised Indian. - I think it's also cool to compare with your siblings because siblings share 50% of their DNA, and so your results are expected to be similar, but not exactly the same. - Well, my parents always acknowledged that we were just Lao. I assume that means 100% Lao. - Because you look pretty mixed. - That's the thing; I get that a lot. - I thought you were mixed this whole time. ^- You are 100% East Asian, broken down ^into 79.8% Thailand. ^(exclamations of surprise) ^- What? ^- That is mind blowing. ^- Are you ready for the other percentage? ^- Oh, yeah, do you know ... ^I didn't even know there was another percentage. ^I'm still too in shock. ^- So you are 19.8% Chinese. ^- That's a big -- ^- That's a big chunk. ^- One match strain with Taiwan. ^- I think I'm still processing it all, ^and there's just many levels to my shock right now. ^It feels like my identity's been changed. I had never considered being Thai at all. It's gonna be a lot of fun information to give my parents, and then, maybe, hopefully, one day, claiming my rightful place in the Taiwanese government. (Laughter) - I'm pretty sure I'm mostly Vietnamese. ^There is some French in me. ^- Broken down into 76.4% Southeast Asian from Vietnam, ^20.8% Chinese, ^and 0.7% broadly East Asian. ^2.1% broadly East Asian and Native American. ^Let's take a look. ^- What? ^- Wait, did you just say Native American? ^I'm not even a little bit French? ^I'm talking to my mom tonight. - It's important to keep in mind that just because you don't have this particular ancestry in your DNA doesn't mean that your family history is wrong. You inherit 50% of your DNA from each of your parents, so it could just mean if there is French DNA, you just didn't inherit any. The best way to see this is to have one of your parents geno typed. - I am mind blown. I don't know if I can handle this right now. I didn't even think I could be a little bit Chinese. That's a part of me that's so uncharted. - You like pot stickers more than Gene. - Yeah. My family is going to be nah, that's all wrong. I'm like, I spit into a tube. - I'm thinking 50% Japanese, 50% British. - [Kane] What's that smile? (Laughter) ^- You are 49.5% Japanese, 0.3% Native American. ^- Oh. ^- Oh, interesting. ^- 0.4% Broadly East Asian. ^The European is 48.8%, ^but you are not just British. ^- Oh, okay. ^- 21.9% French and German. ^- Oh. ^- 21. ^- Ah, bonjour. ^- You're more French than Kevin. ^- Oh, my God, Kevin's gonna be so sad. ^- Our British and Irish reference population, ^you have 19.1% the United Kingdom. ^You also have 2.2% Scandinavian ^and 4.6% broadly Northwestern European. ^You also have 0.5% West African. ^(exclamations of surprise) ^That's so many different regions. ^- If you were ever looking to travel based ^on your DNA, you have a lot of places to pick from. - So you said that I was 0.3 Native American? Does that mean I have a Native American ancestor for sure? - It's in your DNA because it was passed down to you from some ancestor. We're looking at the last 500 years. There are people that might not see Native American ancestry in their DNA. It doesn't mean that the family history that they know about themselves is not true. It just means that in terms of DNA, they just didn't get any. - I've always just thought I'm half Chinese and half Scottish and Irish. ^- You are 24.2% ^French and German. ^- What? ^Are you serious? ^(laughs) ^That's insane. ^Oh, my God. ^- And 22.9% British. ^You have 4.1% broadly Northwestern European DNA, ^which is where your Scottish ancestry could also be. ^- All right, let's talk the Asian side now, ^and please tell me my life is not a lie, ^and that I actually am Chinese. ^Otherwise, I'm totally gonna freak out. ^- You're 47.1% Chinese. ^- Yeah, my life is not a lie. ^- And then you do have 1.3% Southeast Asian. ^- What? ^That is just mind blowing. ^This really explains why I've had sort of ^this connection to France that I couldn't explain. ^- So after finding out that I was ^100% Indian, I was still curious as to whether there was any mixing at all. My mom took a DNA test, and it turns out that she's 7% Irish, Scottish, and Welsh, and 4% Scandinavian, so there was some mixing. I just didn't get any of that DNA. Still cool to know. - I kind of came into it thinking that my parents were private because they don't want to talk about it, but now I kind of get a sense that they're private because they just don't know. - You very often identify with where you were born or where your parents were born. 500 years ago, you don't have records. You're not into genealogy, then there's no way that you would know. There's a difference between your ethnicity and how you identify and then your genetics.
Info
Channel: BuzzFeedVideo
Views: 4,585,619
Rating: 4.8217115 out of 5
Keywords: BuzzFeed, BuzzFeedVideo, BuzzFeed Video, Video, asian americans, take, an ancestry dna test, ethnicity, dna, 23 and me, 23andme, ancestry, geneaology, genes, genetics, dna test, ancestry test, dna results, heritage, racial identity, asian, asian american, european, african, native american, french, chinese, filipino, japanese, korean, indian, british, uk, america, north america, latino, mixed race, race
Id: 2ZR_vMU8db8
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)
Published: Wed Apr 18 2018
Reddit Comments

I literally always tell people I'm culturally Vietnamese. I think [the test] does make me feel more connected to my Vietnamese side. It does make me want to go to Vietnam; I'm going to have to go learn to read in Vietnamese.

Totally culturally Vietnamese, everybody.

👍︎︎ 43 👤︎︎ u/Brackwater 📅︎︎ Jan 07 2019 🗫︎ replies

Half the videos from Buzzfeed should be on here.

👍︎︎ 19 👤︎︎ u/Teemomarryme 📅︎︎ Jan 07 2019 🗫︎ replies

"It's hard to say, like, what does Japanese look like and what does Asian look like"

Pretty confident I can tell if someone's Asian.

👍︎︎ 7 👤︎︎ u/GROUND45 📅︎︎ Jan 08 2019 🗫︎ replies
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