Talk:Ryukyuan people

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Contents

[edit] "She"?

The first sentence of the second paragraph states, "The Ryukyuan islands were unified by the Ryukyuan Kingdom in the 12th century. She paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty…" Who is this 'she' being referred to? I'd find out, but I'm lazy. >_> <_< DTM 04:11, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Response to "She"?

I think that "she refers to the Ryukyu kingdom. It commonly is used to refer to countries, ships etc. Leon Trotsky 10:05 25 November 2005

[edit] Origins of the Ryukyuans

Where did the Ryukyuans come from before they came to Japan? Leon Trotsky 10:06 25 November 2005

Probably Taiwan

[edit] Independence movement

I removed the reference to an "independence movement" due to lack of evidence for its existence. If someone can produce a citation, it would be appreciated! Turly-burly 00:58, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Anonymous user re-added the "Independence Movement" section but added no content. I am removing it b/c an empty section is clutter. Turly-burly 17:26, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

I am not sure what people think justifies a gesture in this article to the existence of a "Ryukyuan independence movement". If such a movement exists, why not create an article about it, and THEN link to it in this article's "See Also"? I know *I* would be interested to read such an article. Turly-burly 10:06, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ryukyuan Appearance

Do Ryukyuans appear different than Japanese people?

They do have a distinct appearance, but I don't know of any skeletal structure or facial features studies of the kind that would make this information worthy of inclusion in the article. They also believe they're hairier than mainland people; I don't know how this stands up against evidence, either. Turly-burly 23:38, 16 March 2006 (UTC)
The appearance of most Ryukyuans is basically the same as that of most Japanese. The main difference is that Ryukyuans less frequently display certain "Korean-like" or "Chinese-like" features that can often be found among Japanese of the main islands. So, one could say that Ryukyuans look even more "Japanese" than Japanese people do; that is to say, Ryukyuans tend to resemble the "uniquely Japanese" aspect of Japanese people's appearance more often than Japanese people of the main islands do. Ebizur 02:02, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
Ryukyuans are typically attributed as having somewhat darker skin and having harder features, but this may be due to Japanese stereotype or the belief that Okinawa's ancestors were various cast-aways from many different countries.AnkhAnanku (talk) 00:11, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Corrected" Origins?

Any citations available to justify removing the information about coming from China later than Austronesians? There are some other things that were added to this section that I'm not sure about as well. I'll check it out this weekend. Turly-burly 23:41, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Ryukyuans do not come from China at all; they come from Japan (specifically, southern Kyushu). Please take a look at any report by a reputable geneticist. It will show you that the Ryukyuans are very closely related to the Japanese in general, although they have received a comparatively larger genetic contribution from the populations that have been resident in the area of the Japanese Archipelago since the Paleolithic era, of which the most "pure-blooded" modern representatives are the Ainu people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuriles. The Japanese of northern Kyushu, Honshu, and Shikoku are generally about half-Jomon and half-Korean, but their genetic histories vary quite greatly depending on the individual's family history; in general, Japanese from rural areas show a greater genetic resemblance to Ryukyuans and Ainu, while Japanese from urban areas show a greater genetic resemblance to Koreans. Ebizur 01:35, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article renamed

I've renamed this article from Ryukyuans to Ryūkyūans in accordance with the guidelines in the Manual of Style for Japanese articles. Bobo12345 12:02, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Many Ryukyuans would beg to differ that this is indeed not a Japanese topic ;-)

[edit]  !

This article focuses on Okinawans, by which I mean people from the Okinawan archpelago, not the prefecture. Other island areas in the Ryukyus have distinct cultures (although they do have many similarities), which are very interesting to note how especially the southwesternmost cultures have many similarities to Austronesian cultures (decoration patterns of boats, for example). They can also be said to have distinctive appearances in some cases. --Node 13:28, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

The problem is that there is absolutely no evidence of any genetic relationship or interaction between any Ryukyuan population and any Austronesian population. The sea between Yonaguni and the east coast of Taiwan forms one of the sharpest genetic boundaries found within the human species anywhere in the world. Ebizur 15:59, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

In the article it says that Okinawan language cannot be understood at all by the mainland Japanese. My Fiance is Okinawan and she tells me that she can speak Okinawan (not the formal Japanese usually used when talking to a mainland person) and although the person may have some difficulty understanding, they still can.

[edit] Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.


Many articles on ethnic groups follow the titular format "X people". There are a few notable exceptions, like Han Chinese, but French people, Japanese people, Mon people, Ainu people do follow this format, and I like having consistency and standards. What do people think? LordAmeth 09:49, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

Generally, when X has a plural form, that form is used instead of "X people". See discussions at Talk:Koreans#Requested_move and Talk:Greeks#Requested_move. --Kusunose 12:17, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
I see. Those didn't come up in my (very small sample) of a random choice of ethnicities to test for a standard. Makes sense. Thanks for pointing that out. LordAmeth 15:43, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
I'm fine with either format, though I think one style should be used for all such articles in order to maintain consistency and make it easier to find the articles. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:27, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
You can read a little more about the different naming formats for this type of article (there are a lot) and why there isn't a standard at Wikipedia:WikiProject Ethnic Groups. Anyway, I'm going to weakly oppose this change based on the general feeling here that "Ryukyuans" as an acceptable plural form and the fact that they are roughly equal in Google hits; don't need to move for moving's sake. If the titles are going to be standardized, it can be done through a guideline, and otherwise it's fairly clear per discussions like the ones Kusunose mentioned that such efforts won't be widely effective. Dekimasuよ! 04:13, 9 May 2007 (UTC)


The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

It was requested that this article be renamed but there was no consensus for it be moved. --Stemonitis 11:10, 13 May 2007 (UTC)