Regarding the height issue in China, Japan and South Korea, there has always been an accepted fact: Koreans are the tallest, Japanese are the shortest, and Chinese have the least sense of existence.
In recent years, this consensus has been "controversial" between China and Japan: Most Chinese netizens believe that "Japanese are now taller than Chinese".
But the interesting thing is that China and Japan are very modest in terms of height.
In September last year, Japan’s Nikkei Chinese website came out to refute the rumors, saying that the Japanese are taller than the Chinese "It is a rumor" because they found themselves shorter again.
In 2018, a study published in the "Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health" showed that Japanese adults born in 1978 and 1979 have an average height of 171.4cm, female158.5cm;
But for men born in 1996, the average adult height is 170.82cm, women’s 158.31cm, which are 0.64cm and 0.21cm shorter than before.
So, are Japanese people taller than Chinese people?
Why does the height of Japanese people go up and down?
Regarding the height PK between China and Japan, no one really cared a few years ago.
This is mainly because of the height of Japan, which has been overlooked by us for more than a thousand years-after all, Japan has long been wearing a Japanese hat.
The height of the Japanese is so "prominent", this must be from the 6th century AD: The people of the island country who used to eat whole grains, chicken, duck and fish, suddenly changed to vegetarianism.
At this time, the period corresponding to China was probably the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Chinese Buddhism spread to Japan, and it has since become a spiritual belief that has influenced Japan for thousands of years.
Buddhism not only brought spiritual beliefs, but also brought Buddhist creeds such as the prohibition of killing and prohibiting meat to Japan.
The matter of not eating meat is not just a simple matter of private consciousness and self-discipline. Japan has strictly restricted it from the government: Emperor Tianmu and Emperor Shengmu twice issued and implemented the "Killing Prohibition Order", "prohibition of meat." It gradually became the golden rule of the Japanese.
If you really can’t help it, you can only catch some fish for the tooth festival (in the Kamakura period, even fish was banned).
Even the monk Jueyuan in the movie "Shaolin Temple" knows "If there is no meat, how can you have the strength to ward off demons and defend the way?" But the people of the island country can't even eat a rabbit. If you say too much, it will be tears...#反正， The severely unbalanced nutritional structure gives the people of the island country a height that is not excellent, and creates a new “ceiling” .
How high is the ceiling? No blowing, no black, only has 160 cm .
Moreover, the ceiling is very strong, and it has pressed the Japanese people for more than 1,200 years: Before
"meat ban", the average height of Japan was 163 cm, but only after more than 100 years In the Heian period, the average height was only 155 cm.
In the 15th and 16th centuries AD, during the Warring States Period in Japan, the height of the "forbidden meat" for more than 900 years was even more "excellent"-only 145 cm.
For example: We are familiar with the Sengoku Shuangxiong, Toyotomi Hideyoshi is only about 140 cm , his old opponent 德川家康 is high altitude-159cm ; and Germany The No. 1 Mighty General of the Sichuan Family, Duo Zhongsheng 05588, known as "Warring States 吕布" #， His height is estimated to be only 140cm , "Japanese military god" 武田信玄身高 But 153cm .
丰臣秀吉像
Attention, this is really not brainless, these data are calculated based on the armor left by the "heroes" of the Warring States period-now Look, is basically the children's wear configuration .
From private to official, Japan is implementing "no meat, no meat". This incident continued until the Meiji Restoration period. Japan, which was forcibly opened its doors, suddenly discovered that all the people who got off the "black boat" were tall and mighty. Looking at it again, they all ate meat and all drank milk.
Therefore, the Emperor Meiji of Japan began to take the lead in eating meat and drinking milk, and at the same time shouted to the people of the whole country: "I want to fly to the sky, shoulder to shoulder with the sun, the world is waiting for me to change..." was suppressed for a thousand years Only then did the long-lasting "Type 160" ceiling begin to collapse and disintegrate.
日本美治天皇
However, it takes time to grow taller: statistics in 1914 show that the average height of Japanese men is only 155 cm.
After World War II, there were a large number of American soldiers stationed in Japan. Many of them were mixed with Japanese women, and eventually gave birth to more than 200,000 mixed children. The opera "Madame Butterfly" and the movie "Human Testimony" all tell It's a story of American-Japanese mixed blood.
And their genes have brought new opportunities to Japan's "altitude". At the same time, thanks to the rapid economic development, the height of the Japanese began to increase by leaps and bounds.
In the golden 20 years after World War II, with the rapid development of the Japanese economy, Japan’s height has also risen all the way, from 1914 to 2017 in the 100 years, nutritious and mixed, Japanese The average height is longer than about 16 cm .
Are Koreans really as tall as TV shows?
Let’s talk about Korean height.
Many of us came to know South Korea through Korean dramas, and Korean drama stars, regardless of gender, have a characteristic-腿长.
"Oba with seven heads, Nuna with nine heads" makes Korean dramas full of youthfulness, as if tall people are the standard for Korean dramas. Of course, for the time being, Koreans are indeed with the highest average height among the three East Asian countries.
It must be said that the Koreans are not bad.
Because Koreans are in the colder Northeast Asia, they tend to develop into a big trend. This is the result of selection from the perspective of biological evolution (this is the same reason that we northern Chinese are taller), and South Korea does not The implementation of "meat prohibition", so Koreans have a good height foundation.
and The national military service system has also played a positive role in boosting the height of South Korea. , all Korean men over 20 years old must perform military service, which can temper the physical fitness of Smectans. 100% helpful.
In addition, just like Japan, South Korea was also a beneficiary of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. After World War II, the economy rose rapidly, and it was rich—that is, eating well and absorbing the essential nutrients for growing up Naturally, it will not suffer.
and more radical is their use of growth hormone. Since the 1990s, South Korea has begun to inject growth hormone into teenagers at , which also makes Korean youths have better heights.
Therefore, the height of many Koreans is the result of "Nutrition Balance + Growth Hormone" .
Of course, there is also a mysterious invisible magic weapon——增高鞋垫, this can also make people 3-4 cm high instantly.
Statistics from the World Health Organization in 2017 show that South Korean men have an average height of 174 cm , which is not only the first in East Asia, but also the highest in height in Asia. Compared to 1914 100 years ago, Koreans have grown nearly 20 centimeters taller.
However, for Koreans of the same species, the 2017 version of "elevation" data is miserable-only 158 cm, not to mention that it is comparable to the Korean Obaby of 174, even if it is compared to 162 Korean Ounis. All are inferior.
As for the reason, everyone knows it.
The Chinese used to be the tallest
Although now in China, Japan and South Korea, the height of the Chinese is the most nonexistent. But once the "elevation" of our Greater China, just like the international position that has ruled Asia for two thousand years, it disregards Asia for two thousand years.
The hero in the famous books "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" is always eight feet (1 foot is approximately 23 cm), such as Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, Lu Zhishen, Wu Song...converted today, he is probably 184.
This height is not just about romances or legends, but many historical materials have clear records:
"史记" Zeng said 孔子 "Long people are different", its real height is about 197, which is an absolutely hopeful existence.
In the pre-Qin era, the general height of Chinese people is actually not up to the level of Confucius. The general standard is 1.61米——for example, 吕不威, Shangyang , etc., are all This level.
In the Han Dynasty, the height increased further. "Han Shu" records that the prime minister at the time 霍光 was 7 feet 3 inches tall, equivalent to the current 1.68 meters, which was of medium build at the time.
After the Three Kingdoms era, 刘备 is 7 feet 5 inches, which is 1.72m -this is only the standard height of that era.
Like Cao Cao, who is 7 feet long, I don’t feel embarrassed, so I asked Cui Yan to come forward to "catch the knife." Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu, Zhang Fei and others are about 8 feet tall. , Is the burly man.
到了唐宋期, the average height of a Chinese man is about 174 or so , compared with Korea and Japan, which were less than 160 at the same time, the height contrast is really not too obvious, so we At that time, it was not for no reason to call Japan the Japanese country-it was a comparison.
The people of Tang and Song dynasties said that "the height is so excellent, which attracted Japanese people to bend their waists." During this period, Japan, who admired the height of China, even sent a special person to the Central Plains to "sweet" in an attempt to improve its own country. The height level, but the effect, it's just the same.
But starting from 元明期, the average height of Chinese people has dropped sharply to 164, which is a total of 10 cm, and in 1914, the height of Chinese people has decreased even more. It's 161. There are many reasons for
, but it is definitely inseparable from one thing-长年的战乱.
is completely different from the scale of a battle of hundreds of people in Japan. Our battles are always in the unit of ten thousand and one hundred thousand, and is usually a powerful, tall and mighty battle on the battlefield. Type , over time, the tall genes have been diluted among the Chinese, and the overall height of the nation has naturally fallen. This can also be said to be the result of the survival environment selection.
In addition, there are also changes in statistical standards: 唐宋前 China’s political and economic center of gravity is in the north, so the height data is naturally with the northern data as the standard ; In China, the political and economic center of gravity is gradually shifting to the south, and the height data also includes the relatively short southern compatriots. The north-south average is also a reason for the decline in the data .
Therefore, Japanese and Koreans are indeed taller than Chinese. There are fewer people in these two countries, and the region is relatively closed. The Chinese have a large population and different levels, but they are also improving. Aspects of development.
With the rapid development of China’s economy, Chinese children’s lack of nutrition has greatly reduced as they grow up. According to this trend, the height of Chinese has once again become the first in East Asia. It's just a matter of time.
