Alicia is please speed that
sub-provincial but the video I mail but
gold today we're going to talk about DNA
tests and specifically ancestry tests
because if you're an East Asian
background and you've ever taken a test
with big companies in the West like
ancestry or 23andme
you probably found that the results can
be a little lacking I did this DNA test
like three years ago with ancestry and
when I cut back the result it said that
I was 99% East Asian and 1% Pacific
Islander that's fair apparent looking at
this I guess right so it's like a
hundred dollars wasted so for someone to
tell me that I'm basically an Asian so I
did the test myself a couple years ago
with my heritage and I got ninety four
point four percent Chinese and
Vietnamese that means they didn't split
it out and I got four percent Japanese
and/or Korean and for some reason
inexplicably 1.6 percent finish so that
is quite unsatisfying for me I wanted to
know where my family's from I'm pretty
sure my family's mostly Chinese but I
wanted to know which part and so to get
this sort of like big lump of East Asia
is highly unsatisfying to me so why is
this happening it's essentially a
database problem since companies can
only match your DNA with the DNA samples
they've collected the results are
limited by the pool of people they have
so if you're in the United States you're
not likely to have a whole lot of
specific information about someone in
China but that's why a whole bunch of
Chinese DNA test companies have popped
up in recent years
companies like 23 bull Fong and eg
promise more specific results down to
which part of China your ancestors are
from based on their proof Chinese
people's DNA so we wanted to try it for
ourselves because we both had questions
about where our families came from that
means a lot to someone like me because
on my dad's side my dad is Hakka and
that means that supposedly there was a
big migration from north to south in the
Jin dynasty how long ago is that like
more than 16 hundred years ago okay so
big migration and my dad's side of the
family doesn't have any records about
where they come from or who they are and
I'm just curious I've been curious my
whole life so he spat it on all the
amount of spit into a tube in an
envelope and should be it and shift our
spit to 23 more phones headquarters
interview our results came back three
weeks later so let's see what they say
about my Chinese ancestry I'm apparently
81 point seven three percent southern
Han 11.4% Jong or Die okay and where's
that from
it's to the ethnicities in Yunnan
province which borders Vietnam and
Myanmar and Lao okay and I am apparently
six point eight seven percent Korean I
got Korean so let me tell you about my
results I'm 88 percent southern Han
Chinese also 11 percent Korean I don't
know if the percentages actually mean
say that I'm like actually six point
eight seven percent Korean just that six
point eight seven percent of my DNA
matches someone who also said they were
Korean and that sort of one of the flaws
of these DNA test it's based on someone
saying that they were of this ethnicity
and what's more because companies often
don't share the same samples the results
can vary from service to service and
just to illustrate how widely varying
the data is
I sent my DNA to another Chinese DNA
testing company called me gene they gave
me very different ancestry results they
said I was 57 point two six percent
southern Han Chinese and 26.1% northern
I'm Chinese the other thing is that
these results are based on how big the
sample sizes so if it's very small like
say a couple hundred or thousand people
you might get very unsatisfying results
we talked to a genetics professor at the
University of Hong Kong about the sample
size issue and this is what he said to
get a really good coverage you may need
millions of people to kind of have a
movie called statistical power to
discern like differences between north
and south of China at the CEO of 23 war
font thinks that's possible if you can
do teaching violence would you make
water
Harleen yummy kamio-san sweater told so
jamie has committed a ginger the hotel
learning experiences shows each a number
her in Japan until social engineer so
what I already see yes for the song it's
a girl so what can call us advance while
she's on and on me Volumnia
in the end us to do you guys would come
up in the minute and as the sample sizes
of these companies where we could
actually see our results changes most
importantly have you told your parents
I did but they didn't really give me
much of a reaction they're just sort of
like okay this is what like one company
says about what they think we are but we
know who we are and we know like our
family history and so what does it
matter what our ancestry is what do you
know like what our family is fair enough
well my family is different I think we
don't know as closely where we've come
from so they were curious as well
and they just know that we're most
probably not Finnish or Korean but when
I explained it to them they said yeah
you know it kind of checks out that the
Hakka thing you know going all over the
place yeah that's that's how they
processed it and they were quite amused
actually yeah but then at the end of the
day it's really just about whether our
DNA matches someone who reported what
they are trust me when I explain that to
them they lost interest immediately yeah
I guess it's sort of like a horoscope
you can always just take it or leave it
we want to hear our DNA stories too so
if you've taken any one of these tests
tell us about it and as always subscribe
to go thread - hello hello I was
wondering what you thought about us
being 1.6%
almost aren't you surprised I just I
just wanted to know your feelings about
this
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you
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