Comments by "Yo2" (@yo2trader539) on "What Country Has The Prettiest Girls? | JAPAN EDITION" video.
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Perhaps a translation issue. He said 『気が強い』, which is a difficult phrase to translate. "Aggressive" won't be the word I would use to translate it. It can have a wide connotation from strong-willed, assertive, masculine, entitled, or sell-centered, depending on context. It's a description on personality for both men and women, and has no relation with work/careers. We often see these traits in professional athletes like football/baseball players, or with entrepreneurs. In case you don't know, most women in Japan work too. And if you knew any of women in Asia, you'll never be calling them submissive, vulnerable, or weak.
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Russians are respected in Japan for their literature, classical music, ballet, ice-skating, architecture, cuisine and culture, so I don't think Russians are seen the same as Americans. We love Baseball, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell...but it's hardly the same.
And you have to read between the lines. Russians (and Eastern Europeans & Central Asians) are considered pretty in Japan because of their varying degree of Eurasian admixture. They're also preferred culturally as they assimilate/adapt far better to Japan, especially since they're not liberal/woke like some people from North America and Western Europe. And if you flip the answers, you should notice certain countries/regions/continents are purposely absent by almost all the interviewees, which unintentionally displays our racial bias and cultural preferences.
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@2WheelsGood.01 We have 200,000 Brazilians and 50,000 Peruvians living/working in Japan, many of whom are Japanese Descendants and their spouses. The guy who said Spain in this video is a half-Peruvian YouTuber who speaks Spanish.
But you're correct about cultural differences. Soft-spoken, calm, polite, classy, and elegant are traits often associated with beauty standards in Japan. We do see a difference in children of Nikkei-Brazilians and Peruvians who were educated in Japan, and those who were raised in Brazil/Peru. Differences in mannerism, vibe, personality, fashion, make-up, hairstyle stand out.
Colombians are known to be pretty in Japan too. Eurasian admixture (or Europe and Indigenous admixture in the case of Latin America) would generally fit Japanese beauty standards, some more so than others. If I recall the wife of a former GK for Japan's national team was spotted on Japanese media a few times for her beauty. She's half-Colombian/Japanese.
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@Alexandra_Indina Tuva, Altai, Sakha...people who descend from original Turkic people. They're sometimes called "Siberian Turkic" to differentiate from Kipchaq Turkic (like Kazakh, Nogai Tatars, Kazan/Volga Tatars, Crimean Tatars, etc.)
Original Turkic was a nomadic Northeast Asian language and culture, and homeland was in South Siberia and Mongolia. We know from their tombs and inscriptions that they lived near Altai Mountains to Lake Baikal region, and ruled the Mongolian Steppe before the Mongol Empire. (The Sakha/Yakut people were also originally from Lake Baikal region.) Xiongnu, Gokturks, Uyghurs, Yenisei Kirghiz were all descendants of Turkic clans who lived around the Altai Mountains.
Contrary to popular perception, Mongolian clans actually were historically more dominant in Inner-Mongolia to Manchuria region. Some of the Turkic clans (known as Huns, Avars, Bulgars, or Khazars) eventually migrated all the way to modern-day Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.
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@harryhaller7153 People have been migrating and mixing in all directions in Eurasia since the last ice age. Thus, language, culture, and identity is not the same as genetics.
Rus are already a pre-mixture of Scandinavian and Baltic people. Have you not learned why Russian phonetics diverged from Belarusian and Ukrainian (aka Ruthenian) in the past few centuries? Or why some in Russian aristocracy had Tatar ancestry, or why Turkic/Tatar words entered Russian vocabulary.
Just look at a map from 500 years ago, you'll quickly realize that many "ethnic Russians" living in modern Russian Federation are descendants of Russified indigenous people who were absorbed into the Russian sphere. (Ironic as it may sound, Tatars were the most loyal supporters of Imperial Russia till the end. And Turkic-speaking Gagauz in Moldova are still loyal to Russia.)
And it's not just in Russia. Ukrainian "Cossack" is also a Turkic/Tatar word, having the same cognate with the name Kazakh. Cossack weapons, music, culture, hairstyle, or lifestyle is heavily Turkic/Tatar in nature. They Slavicized and became foot soldiers of Imperial Russia, and were given lands all across newly conquered territories. So a descendant of a Ukrainian Cossack living in Krasnodar...is he a Ukrainian, Russian, or Tatar?
By the way, Putin also has partial East Eurasian genetics, but his family roots is with Belarus. And he identifies as an ethnic Russian. There is nothing wrong with that, because culture/identity is not the same as genetic ancestry.
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You're not wrong but there is a Japanese context. We've always casually referred to all people under Imperial Russia and Soviet Union as "Russians." Therefore, Russian beauty in Japan is referring to all people who live in the Baltics, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.
And Japanese exposure and interaction is mostly with people from Siberia and Russian Far East, which has an unusually high percentage of "Russians" with Ukrainian ancestry due to past voluntary and involuntary relocations. (If I'm not mistaken, Russian Far East was briefly independent after the Russian Revolution and called itself Green Ukraine.) Just by historic accident, Japanese perception of "Russian" beauty is actually heavily Ukrainian.
I suspect most Japanese people don't realize that many of their favorite Russian ice-skaters have Tatar ancestry. Or that Lenin had partial Kalymk/Oirat/Mongol ancestry. But again, if one were to look at a map of Russia 500 years ago, there is no way 80% of current Russian citizens can have Rus/Eastern Slavic ancestry.
In other words, they are mostly indigenous people who were Russified/Slavicized under Imperial Russia. Which I presume is why a number of Russian aristocracy had Tatar ancestry. And Russian vocabulary has words derived from Tatar/Turkic, because Turkic was the common language for trading in the Eurasian Steppe for over 1,000 years. Turkic was used from the Mongolian Steppe all the way to Modern-day Hungary and Romania.
(Put differently, Ukrainians and Russians are fighting over Crimea which should historically belong to the Crimean Tatars.)
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@ohhi5237 I don't wish to sound like Putin, but defining "Ukrainian" genetics, culture, or ethnicity isn't easy.
I'm sure you're aware of the Greek-origin city names along the Black Sea coast of Ukraine and Russia, because they were once Greek outposts in ancient times. (Homer was writing about real Greek expeditions.) Scythians were highly civilized Eastern-Iranic speakers, who descended from proto-Indo Europeans that didn't migrate to Western Europe, North India, or Iran. Scythian artifacts are found in the border region of Ukraine and Russia.
They were eventually absorbed by successive waves of nomadic Eastern Eurasian Turkic clans (such as the Huns, Avars, Bulgars, and Khazars) who ruled the Caspian Sea and Black Sea coastal region. They heavily mixed with indigenous people and migrated all the way to modern-day Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria by 5th or 6th centuries. Which happens to be why Turkic/Tatar was the common trading language of the Eurasian steppe for over a thousand years.
And the ethno-genesis of the "Rus" are Scandinavian Vikings/Varyags who mixed with indigenous Baltic people, and settled along the Dnieper River, casually known as the "Kievan Rus." They were trading with/along the Black Sea, particularly with Constantinople/Istanbul as it was the cornerstone of the Silk Road trading route.
Descendants of all these various migrations mixed heavily. In later centuries some became Slavs, some became Tatars. Some identify as Ukrainians, others identify as Russians. There is varying degree of Eastern and Western Eurasian genetic admixture, but the classifications and divisions are often political, religious, linguistic, or cultural...but not genetics.
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@SophieHanna-sn9hc "Ethnicity" is a modern, artificially-created social and political construct. Ukrainian or Russian is a political, national, cultural, linguistic, historical, or ethnic identification, depending on era or who you ask.
And identity has been always been fluid throughout history. Cultures/languages/religions are replaced and altered all the time.
For instance, many in Russia Far East have partial Ukrainian ancestry for historical reasons. But most of them identify as ethnic Russians. In fact, many "ethnic Russians" living within Russia are descendants of Russified indigenous people, which is why there is varying degree of Eurasian genetic admixture throughout the population.
And many people migrated to Ukraine from all over Imperial Russia and Soviet Union for work, education, marriage, or retirement. Many of their descendants now identify as Ukrainians.
Historically, so many countless waves of migration has occurred in the past few thousand years. There are many cities with Greek-origin names along the Black Sea Coast. Scythians were East Iranic speakers. The Huns, Avars, Bulgars, or Khazars were nomadic East Eurasian Turkic-speaking clans from South Siberia and Mongolian Steppe. They dominated the Eurasian steppe, mixed heavily with indigenous people, and migrated all the way to modern-day Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. ("Bulga" means Mixed people in proto-Turkic. Old Bulgar Language is known as Chuvash. And those who migrated to Danube were absorbed by Slavic people, but people in Bulgaria have significant Balkan genetic ancestry. )
If you look at paintings of Ukrainian Cossacks, their weapons, lifestyle, hairstyle, dances, musical instruments, culture, or clothing is heavily nomadic Turkic/Tatar...because they were living in Turkic/Tatar lands for over 1,000 years. The word "Cossack" is actually a Turkic/Tatar word too. As Ukrainian Cossacks were foot soldiers of the Russian Empire, they were given huge chunks of land all across the newly conquered territories. Krasnodar (or Yekaterinodar) was given to the Black Sea Cossacks by Catherine the Great. But their descendants now they identify as ethnic Russians.
Even the Russian language has been altered as the Rus/Eastern Slavs expanded eastward and absorbed the local populations. In the past, Russian language should've been phonetically more closer to Belarussian or Ukrainian (aka RUTEHNIAN.) Again, ethnicity is modern social construct, mostly for political usage.
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@JesterEric If they were all descendants of Kievan Rus, their genetics would be near identical to Nordic Swedes and Baltic people. In reality, so much migration has occurred in the Eurasian steppe, language/culture and genetics are often different categories. People living in modern Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus are a fusion of Greek colonies, Iranic (aka Proto Indo-European) speakers, Turkic/Mongolic nomadic Huns, Avars, Bulgars, Khazars, etc. Just look at a map from 500 years ago, and you'll realize that most modern ethnic "Ukrainians" and "Russians" are Slavicized people. And Scythians weren't speaking Slavic.
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@MW_Asura If I were to be honest, it's not the looks but the mannerism and mindset. We can easily tell the difference in behavior and body language from somebody from Eastern Europe & Russia, North America, and South America.
Even if all of them had identical genetics, those who would be considered most beautiful/attractive in Japan would be the ones from Eastern Europe and Russia. The way they walk, talk, dress, eat, sit, laugh, or interact is much more relatable and socially desirable. It's difficult to explain, especially as many people from North/South America have European ancestry. I think it's simply a cultural difference between Eurasia and the Americas.
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@M_SID21 If you're talking about paternal Y-DNA Haplogroups, most Germanic-speaking males have R1b and most Slavic-speaking males have R1a (excluding the Balkans). Northern Indians and Iranians also have R1a due to Aryan migration from a few thousand years ago. The Sogdians who traded between Central Asia and China were also Eastern Iranic speaking Aryans. You can find their descendants in modern-day Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China, etc.
As for Scythians, who are partial ancestors of many people living in the Eurasian steppe, their languages were majority Iranic and Turkic. Sorry to break it you but it's very unlikely that your ancestors spoke a Slavic language before around 1,000 years ago. Why do you think there are people like the Lipka Tatars in Poland and Baltic states? The common tongue in the Black Sea region and Eurasian steppe was Turkic from around 1,500 years ago. Many of their descendants were later Slavicized. Just look at old paintings of the Cossacks. Their hairstyle, clothing, weapons...are all nomadic Turkic. Even the name Cossack has a Turkic cognate.
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