Why are Vietnamese people so big?

[Anonymous]

They are taller and bigger boned (not fat) than most Asians. I'm 5'2 and I've met several full-blooded Vietnamese people, and they are always taller or bigger than me unlike some Japanese, Chinese, and Korean people I've met.

Updates

+1 y

My point here is Vietnamese women, I've met who are first or second generation are always bigger than me "a white person", compared to other Asians I've met. Therefore most are not very small like the media and internet say.

[doireallyneedone]

Lol you sure? I don't think you've met enough Asians then. I've spent significant time in China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam as well in Australia where you get a good mix of them. And almost always it goes like this if you talking about physical size:

Korean > Chinese > Japanese > Vietnamese.

Especially Korean and Chinese. I have met HEAPS of guys (especially westernised koreans/chinese) who are easily over 6 foot.

[NZDSTR]

Yes Koreans are my Korean girlfriend is 5'7 1/2 " or 171cm which is tall for an Asian woman of 31 years old some of her friends are women are even taller at 5'9"

[Asker]

In my personal experience Vietnamese have always been the biggest. For some reason they are either taller, bigger (or both) than me.( And I'm not a small size, I'm like 4 in women's.) Similar to this-Vietnamese>Chinese>Korean>Japanese

[doireallyneedone]

Well maybe because you're of smaller stature and so most guys will seem big to you? But based on my observation, definitely Koreans are the biggest. The others might be debatable. What nationality are you?

[NZDSTR]

Each race has it's own mix of tall and short. I've found Koreans to be the tallest in my experience.

[Asker]

Yes, Koreans can be tall but they are much thinner than Vietnamese.

[Asker]

I'm white, 5'2, 117 lb, size 4. I'm not a small size. I'm half Norwegian and Irish, but I'm third generation American.

[doireallyneedone]

That may be true, but can also be due to the popular culture in korea - where the skinny, hipster look is popular. Koreans/Chinese are definitely in my opinion two tallest Asian nationalities. In terms of bone structure I don't think there much difference between Asian males of any nationality, comparatively with caucasians/africans, Asians are generally smaller framed. Muscular size and width is often the result of going to the gym and lifting weights, high protein/calorie diets. That is a lifestyle choice and not really reflective of genetic predisposition.

And for the record, I have a lot of Vietnamese male friends too. And lot of them do like to gym and can be considered wide, but out of all my Vietname male friends (~10-15) only 2 are taller than 5'7.

[Asker]

I was thinking Vietnamese women are always bigger or much taller like I met one that was 5'8 at the store the other day, but she was pretty thin. The men are kinda short but always taller than me too. To be honest I've never been taller than a Vietnamese person like the other asians. So idk, maybe location.

[doireallyneedone]

Yeah you could be right. Any guy who is shorter than you would be very far left of the bell curve though.

[Asker]

Not that I dislike it, just shocked me that many of the Vietnamese women I met were so tall or wide. I've always seen or heard that they where supposed to be much smaller or shorter than me, but it could be how I expected them to be because I compared them to other small Asian women I met before, idk.

[doireallyneedone]

Possibly. The average Vietnamese woman I'm guess would probably be around your height, so it's entirely possible you just ran into a group a "tall" Vietnamese girls.

[Asker]

That's pretty odd since I've lived in three different states. When I lived in Cali they were thin and tall. When I lived in Minnesota they were near my height but they were wide. Now living in Texas they wide and tall! Maybe its just ones that move to the US? Most where right off the boat that I met, but some where second generation Americans.

[doireallyneedone]

That's possible. A lot of Vietnamese people have some Chinese Ancestry in them too, could be due to that as well.

[Anonymous]

No they're not. I've met Vietnamese guys and I'm taller and my brother is even taller. I came from the same region as them, South East Asia. Oh and Korean, Chinese and Japs are taller than Vietnamese by average height.

[Asker]

Maybe in Asia but not in the States.

[Opinion Owner]

But I'm in EU.

[Asker]

I've heard people in EU are generally tiny.

[Opinion Owner]

Hahaha that's funny

[Asker]

Remember I'm from the US.

[abundantlyrich]

From what i know, they eat a lot of rice in their diet daily. Rice noodles. Rice. Rice cakes. Rice pastry wraps. Rice. Rice again at supper. It's a neverending rice world in their food culture. Rice is carbs.

[pr3ttybr0wn]

the ones at the salon I got to are usually small but I do see a few big chunky ones. they aren't really tall maybe like 5'6 or so but can be pretty overweight/stocky

[springocelot]

most vietnamese i come across are typically short and top heavy

[cavmanier]

I'm pretty sure Vietnamese people are statistically the shortest in the world.

[Asker]

Chinese are usually shorter from what I've experienced.

[doireallyneedone]

Yeah agree. I'm hardly a tall guy myself (~5'9'-10). But when I was in Vietnam, I was literally the tallest guy there, only people I ran into taller than me were a few Western Expats.

[Asker]

Maybe its just the women I've noticed are bigger?

[cavmanier]

According to Wikipedia, the most credible site ever, the average female is 5' and average male is 5'4". They are amount the shortest in the world.

[djjohnsen13]

You want big? Visit Denmark and try to find the person under 6'2". Its actually kinda hard to do.

[Asker]

Yep, tell me about it, that's like my whole family. Lol

[Anonymous]

I think you're mixing up Viets and Koreans lol

[Asker]

Nope, they had las name of pham, phan, or nygen none of those last names are Korean. Koreans can be tall but they are always thinner than me or shorter unlike Vietnamese I've met.

[Opinion Owner]

Interesting. Haha. All of the viets I know are small and you're right about their last names lol!

[doireallyneedone]

I have the same experience, Koreans are the biggest in my opinion.