Ancestry.com for ethnic Taiwanese people

If you or someone you know or love is Taiwanese and has taken an Ancestry.com or 23andMe DNA test, please share.

I took an Ancestry.com DNA test about four years ago. I got this result:
dna
By “Polynesia” they probably meant “Austronesia,” I figured, naturally, that was the aboriginal component of my DNA. I think at the time, they only sampled 18 people from Polynesia to serve as a baseline. Also, “East Asian,” according to their description, includes Southeast Asian.

Recently, I checked online again, to see if they updated it. The following was my result:
dna_updated_02_06_2020


I’m naturally inclined to trust this more, because, after all, it’s been four years and they’ve gathered more and better data for a baseline. They’re able to further refine the region to country instead of “East Asia.” But I also wonder if there were political considerations into these categorizations (for instance, assuming Taiwan is part of China, and aboriginals are “Chinese.”)

Is the test available in China? If so, it’s likely the case that they are lumping together a dozen different ethnicities as “Chinese”.

Yeah I hope you didn’t pay much for that. :sunglasses:

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I paid 150 Benjamins.

Yes.

Too much.

AFAIK almost all Taiwanese should show some Austronesian DNA due to mixed bloodlines with indigenous tribes here. In fact even Fujian Chinese can show this DNA due to assimilation of non-Han ethnicities in Fujian. @hansioux probably has a better handle on this.

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Chinese is a catch all term, you already know you are ethnic Chinese , but actually your real ethnic background is buried underneath that.
Did it not pinpoint where in China your ancestors should hail from ?
I also think it’s weird that they just state 100% Chinese.

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Just a FYI

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Nope. I know my father’s side is Hakka from Canton and mother’s side is Hoklo from Zhangzhou, Fujian. I don’t expect it to be that refined. When I first took it was even more blunt: East/Southeast Asian.

That’s honestly a useless test then. They should be able to pinpoint to village or district , they did for my bro !

They probably have more complete samples for Western Europe.

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You should ask them for a refund.

Congratulations!
the ChiComms just cloned 2 of you for tactical advantage in battle :slight_smile:

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The thing with these DNA ancestry companies is that the detail they show greatly depends on their database. Your genes alone can’t tell you where you are from, someone has to match it to a location first. Most of these companies has great data on European DNA ancestry, and can get down to separating Irish from the English, but there are more blanks in the data when they go outside of Europe. So they can only give you a more general region.

Though that 9% Polynesian in you is significant because it is a very clear indicator that you indeed have Aboriginal blood, as Taiwanese Aboriginals were the one that expanded into South East Asian islands and Polynesia after being isolated from the Eurasian continent for 10 thousand years and developed Austronesian language and culture. Austronesian have distinct enough haplogroup type to be separated from Southern Han Chinese even for these DNA companies.

If it says Polynesia, Ancestry.com probably included mtDNA tests, and to have 9% it will mean that your great great great grandmother, and your great great great great grandmother were Taiwanese Aboriginals.

Congrats, I’ve been wanting to do something like this as well, but it’s hard to get a kit in Taiwan.

Lately, it’s starting to become a trend among Taiwan youtubers to do these tests as well.

If you want to get one with actual database of detailed Taiwanese aboriginal tribes, then you will have to go to Tamsui’s MacKay Memorial Hospital and ask for a 基因探源 test.

https://www.facebook.com/台灣溯源基因-103895129675804/

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There is Austronesian background in south east China too, especially in Fujian, so the 9% is maybe not that surprising.

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Yep many people forget that .
In fact China is where they first came from…They moved to Taiwan and developed their local culture over thousands of years and ability to sail long distances…then took off …And reached as far as Easter Island and New Zealand.

Also it’s thought that wasn’t just one wave of migration from Taiwan either, nor from China to Taiwan.

So to says 'ethnicity 100% Chinese ’ is pretty damn pathetic especially as you they are supposed to be the experts and you paid them for it. And those people back in the day didn’t always identify themselves as ethnic Chinese either. Neither Austronesian nor some other ethnic groups in China . You may as well lump everybody in Europe to be 'ethnic European '. Complete joke to be honest.

However their BIGGEST failure is failing to pinpoint your ancestral village(s), where the most residents should have similar DNA to you , it’s rare that they will be completely replaced by another population I would say.

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I think people keep forgetting the fact it’s not about where you first came from, distinct haplogroup develops due to isolation.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4083334/

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Yes, although the austronesian culture is one that is characterized by massive expansion, perhaps the largest cultural expansion ever before the colonial age. They spread rice based agriculture, a range of domestic species (pigs, dogs, etc ), and pests (rats) and of course transport. They revolutionized transport…

Yes, but their expansion wasn’t back into South China, with the exception of Hainan island which wasn’t part of China when they moved there.

They expanded Southwards first, into the Philippines, Vietnam, the Malays and Thailand. That’s where Austronesians incorporated DNAs from the Austroasiatic peoples and Papuan peoples before they eventually moved into Polynesia.