Frank Liang is a skateboarder who occasionally posts about his training. He’s not a frequent poster, and recently had his first viral post. We’re not sure if the popularity is due to irony, or hilarity, but the post has both in abundance. Frank decided to explore his heritage with a 23andme home DNA kit. He was surprised but not surprised when the DNA test results came back.
What surprised Frank about the results was not the declaration that he is Chinese. He’s known that his whole life. He may have even known about the more direct ties to Northern China and Tibet. What was astonishing is that Frank paid 23andme $100 to affirm that he is, indeed, Chinese. He is entirely 100 percent Chinese and nothing else. We think he might be feeling cheated.
Home kits for DNA testing are fairly accurate. The purchase price includes the lab processing fee. A person can easily collect their DNA sample, place it in the included receptacle, and send it off to the lab. Most results break down percentages from several ethnicities. Frank’s results came back at 100 percent Chinese, which is very rare. Frank’s results mean that his family stayed in one general area in China. They married within their local community and were not world travelers. That will change as future generations travel and marry outside the community.
Fewer and fewer people will have such pure ethnic lines as time passes, and industrial expansion makes travel in and out of remote areas more accessible. Home DNA kits are readily available online and in many retail stores if you are curious about your heritage. Most people are happy about their DNA test results.
You can find the source of this story’s featured image here and here.
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