Scientists have taken blood samples from 93 people living in and around Liqian, a settlement in north-western China on the fringes of the Gobi desert, more than 200 miles from the nearest city.
They are seeking an explanation for the unusual number of local people with western characteristics — green eyes, big noses, and even blonde hair — mixed with traditional Chinese features.
"I really think we are descended from the Romans," said Song Guorong, 48, who with his wavy hair, six-foot frame and strikingly long, hooked nose stands out from his short, round-faced office colleagues.
"There are the residents with these special features, and then there are also historical records about the existence of these people long ago," he said.
Studies claiming that Liqian has Roman ancestry have greatly excited the impoverished county in which it is situated. The village is now overlooked by a pillared portico, in the hope of attracting tourists. A statue at the entrance of the nearby county town, Yongchang, shows a Roman legionary standing next to a Confucian scholar and a Muslim woman, as a symbol of racial harmony.
Even entrepreneurs have caught on: in "Imperial City Entertainment Street" there is a Caesar Karaoke bar.
The town's link with Rome was first suggested by a professor of Chinese history at Oxford in the 1950s. Homer Dubs pulled together stories from the official histories, which said that Liqian was founded by soldiers captured in a war between the Chinese and the Huns in 36BC, and the legend of the missing army of Marcus Crassus, a Roman general.
In 53BC Crassus was defeated disastrously and beheaded by the Parthians, a tribe occupying what is now Iran, putting an end to Rome's eastward expansion.
But stories persisted that 145 Romans were taken captive and wandered the region for years. Prof Dubs theorised that they made their way as a mercenary troop eastwards, which was how a troop "with a fish-scale formation" came to be captured by the Chinese 17 years later.
He said the "fish-scale formation" was a reference to the Roman "tortoise", a phalanx protected by shields on all sides and from above. Gu Jianming, who lives near Liqian, said it had come as a surprise to be told he might be descended from a European imperial army. But then the birth of his daughter was also a surprise. Gu Meina, now six, was born with a shock of blonde hair. "We shaved it off a month after she was born but it just grew back the same colour," he said. "At school they call her 'yellow hair'. Before we were told about the Romans, we had no idea about this. We are poor and have no family temple, so we don't know about our ancestors."
Another resident, Cai Junnian, 38, said his ruddy skin and green eyes meant he was now nicknamed Cai Luoma, or Cai the Roman, by friends. He has become a local celebrity, and was recently flown to the Italian consulate in Shanghai to meet his supposed relatives. The professor's hypothesis took almost 40 years to reach China. During Chairman Mao's rule, ideas of foreign ancestry were not ideologically welcome and the story was suppressed.
Mr Cai said his great-grandfather told him that there were Roman tombs in the Qilian mountains a day and a half's walk away, but he had never connected them to the unusual appearance he inherited from his father. "People thought I had a skin problem," he said.
The blood tests are part of a project undertaken by scientists and historians after local authorities loosened control over genetic research. The results will be published in a scientific journal. But Prof Xie Xiaodong, a geneticist from Lanzhou University, cautioned against over enthusiasm.
"Even if they are descendants of the Roman empire, it doesn't mean they are necessarily from the Roman army," he said. "The empire covered a large area. Many soldiers were recruited locally, so anything is possible."
The issue has split the university's history department, with some scholars supporting the claim, some rejecting it. Prof Wang Shaokuan poured scorn on Prof Dubs's thesis, saying the Huns themselves included Caucasians, Asians and Mongols.
早就有人got answer liao
the people living in the Xinjiang, Kazakhstan area are the ancient Tocharians �� people
these writers should read more
the stuffs are inaccurate n misleading
If this folks are really roman descendents then at least this once great people is not lost living among us....yes maximus We will see each other again but not yet not yet
Originally posted by Catknight:They are seeking an explanation for the unusual number of local people with western characteristics — green eyes, big noses, and even blonde hair — mixed with traditional Chinese features.
"I really think we are descended from the Romans," said Song Guorong, 48, who with his wavy hair, six-foot frame and strikingly long, hooked nose stands out from his short, round-faced office colleagues.
It is very true these people have ruddy skin and blue/green eyes and blond hair
but they are so naive to claim they were ROMANS
jus read the whole history and anthropology of central asia will know the answer the ancient Parthians and Tocharians and Scynthians were the blond people there
these writers ah.... æ— ä¸ç”Ÿæœ‰
Frankly speaking even romans are said to be descended from ancent trojans who fled troy..so facts and legends can be mixed up making historical research difficult
Originally posted by Catknight:Frankly speaking even romans are said to be descended from ancent trojans who fled troy..so facts and legends can be mixed up making historical research difficult
dats why we must separate the facts and legends
u see now how come central asia is lidat? Kazakh & Kygryz on the northeastern fringe of central asia are mongoloid stock, Uygur and Uzbek on the central-southern central asia are mongoloid-caucasoid stock, Turkmen and Tajik are caucasoid stock
and out of the above all, only the Tajik speak a different language from the rest of them. the tajik speaks the iranian branch of the language and not the altaic family
in the history buddhist monks like 安世高 and é¸ æ‘©ç½—ä»€ were also angmo looking and came from central asia countries of that time
Just imagine that the roman bloodline ends in western china Lijiang and it will be true:)
as far as i know, only those enthic tribes (turks, uighurs etc.) are descended from romans (if it's true), and these are the ones whose ancestry are mixed with the middle easterners and even westerners.
the mainland chinese orinates from the peking man.