Who are you? DNA tests help Chinese retrace ancient steps
Young Chinese turn to commercial genetic testing firms to help determine where they come from
Li Jun, a 26-year-old government worker in Ganzhou, has spent all his young life in the Chinese coastal province of Jiangxi and knows that his family has lived there since his grandparents’ generation – but still he wonders from time to time how they ended up there.
So when his cousin bought two kits from a DNA testing firm that promised to identify his ethnicity, Li happily spat into a vial and posted the kit back. He downloaded an app from the company to register his details.
Four weeks later his report came back and it confirmed Li’s suspicion: he was almost 100 per cent of southern Han ethnicity. But for Li, a nice little surprise was learning that some of his ancestors were from the Dai.
“This is very interesting to me. I’m wondering when the mixed marriage happened in the long line of my ancestors, now that I know the general direction of my family tree,” Li said.
Many young Chinese like Li are turning to genetic testing for answers to the big question of where they come from, and the mushrooming direct-to-consumer testing companies make it inexpensive and convenient to do so.
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For a basic ancestry test, with some analysis of health risks, the price is usually a little less than 500 yuan, or roughly US$72. (In the US, the 23andMe genetic testing service charges US$139 or more for similar “health and ancestry” reports.)