To be brief, in South East Asian countries (Philipines, Malaysia,Thailand,Laos,,Vietnam,Indonesia, Singapore) most of people are either indigenous or Chinese descendants. Except Singapore where most people are Chinese descendants. To Oriental people the indigenous look different than the Chinese descendants. Iam talking about the face (eyes,nose,etc)Generally, they are also a little bit darker than the Chinese descendants. The last ones, thus the Chinese descendants in S.E.Asia mostly are also darker than the Chinese in China. That makes sense, because of the geographical situation( South East Asia is warmer and sunnier than China, Japan, Korea). In sothern Europeans (Portuguese, Italy, Spain, France) some people are blond but still they are different than the indigenous of North Europeans( Danish, Swedish, Norways, Germans). If you are interested, you can go to www.worldatlas.com. It is always good to know about other culture. You can always learn something from that.To be honest, I don't like people who are insular and inbred. I hope this short answer is useful to you.

When I was teaching, Chinese girls said they could tell if someone was truly Chinese by their straight eyelashes! I don't know if that is true, but it shows that even they have to look hard sometimes. Yet there are differences. While all Asians originally came out of the area we know as China, there are huge differences in facial features. The most similar are the Chinese, Korean, Japanese, although I think Japanese have their own distinct features. They usually have yellowish, brown-yellow skin, and straight black hair. Their eyes are slanted and black. The Filipino, Indonesian/Malay group is brown skinned, with wavy brown hair. They do not have the slanted eyes of the Chinese group. Cambodians are not unlike the Filipino/Indonesian group. I have not had enough dealings with Cambodians to be able to pick them by sight, but I know that, like the Filipino/Indonesians, they have brown hair and wide brown eyes. The Burmese are a mix of South-East Asian features and Indian, which is to be expected because that is where there country is located. Now, some of the confusion comes from the fact that, when asked where they come from, most people, naturally, will say, where they were born. So: "I am from Vietnam". But most of the refugees of the 70s were ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, not ethnic Vietnamese. Similarly, many of my friends from Indonesia and Malaysia are Indonesian and Malaysian citizens, but ethnic Chinese. Ethnic Chinese have often been persecuted in their adopted homelands (some have been there 100s of years) and so are the first to flee if there is political unrest or war. Their facial features, however, will not give you any hint of what the native peoples look like, just what their genetics gives them. Does that make sense?

There are significant differences between some. South East Asians who look Chinese will almost always be originally Chinese, because the more indigenous population don't normally look Chinese at all. In Indonesia, being of so many islands, there is already huge variety of people, but I think the Javanese can sometimes be quite dark (that's just my impression) and have bigger eyes. Indonesians often have Indian and Arab ancestry, and this might be visible in their faces. Filipinos have a slight Latino look to them, especially the women I think. I think Malay natives are normally darker than Filipinos, and Filipinos a little darker than Indonesians. All of them can have curly hair, whereas Cambodians and Vietnamese normally have straight hair. Cambodian/Viet also often look more Chinese than Fili/Indo/Malay. And Japanese often have slightly more European features than Chinese. I've seen many Japanese with long, curved noses very different to Chinese. And Japanese men often have facial hair, unlike most East Asians.

Geography and history plays a big role. I literally wrote on essay on here earlier but it wouldn't post, so I am a little disappointed right now. SO here are the straightforward points that probably won't make sense, so I recommend looking it up on a search engine. One's environment affects one's physical features in order for one to survive in such conditions. People living in higher elevation are most likely have shorter legs and larger lungs than the average man. People living in an area on the equator are most likely to have darker skin. A fair person from a colder region will just suffer in a tropical area from sunburn. They need time to adjust and to adapt to the area. Thank the geniuses for inventing sunblock. As for the Pacific Islanders, Malaysians, and Filipinos, they are from an Austronesian (look it up) descent. The more indigenous ones are more darker with big eyes, rounder face, so on and so forth. When we get into depth about history then you will have a better understanding of how most people get their features. Many of the Filipinos have a more Caucasoid/Austronesian feature because of Spanish intermarriages. Cambodians have the features of the Tai Kadais (Southern Chinese)/Austronesian look. However their looks may very, even the most indigenous ones because of Chinese and East Indian influence many centuries ago. Thus, their features can vary from looking pale with a yellow tint, slanted eyes, dark hair to dark skin, wavy hair, and almond shaped eyes. So there are many factors to an Asian physical feature. You just have to do the research. I would go on, but I am too exhausted from using all my time to write my first response. It's just so heart-breaking that it won't let me post it (my PC was slow). I went into depth about the history on the other one. Oh well. =/

i suppose there are differences - but i cant really detect them?

Well, remember that so much as people claim, unless they're actually going up to the person and saying "hi, you look Vietnamese, are you vietnamese?" -- they have no idea. Imagine if I'm flipping over playing cards, saying what each one is, very confident, but never actually looking to see if I'm right. Some people might be better than average, especially if they grew up with a particular group, but it's not the ace of hearts just because I said it is. ;)

No one can 100 percent distinguish them .Of course Southern Chinese people looking very similar to Vietnamese people.Especially if they living near to border :). But Mongolian can distinguish Chinese form Vietnamese or Cambodian.But not Korean and Japan or Chinese.And Vietnamese can distinguish Combodian from orean or Mongolian. And so on.One need to live and grow in Asia to have a 90 percent success to make a difference in facial features.

Hmm...I'm Shawnee (Native American)and I have pale skin, high cheekbones,and straight brown hair & eyelashes.

Yes and no is the simple answer. As others have said the people may have originated in one area, the largest being China, but they have over the centuries migrated to others and interbred with the local population. This continues today. In Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, Burma, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, Taiwan, China, Japan, Korea and even Russia you will see people with different features and skin colour from white to almost black, large eyes, hooded eyes, flat noses, long noses, tall people, short people, thin to slim and muscular – and increasingly fat. If you are in a smaller region, you will see, not surprisingly, people with similar features; they are likely to be related and dominant genes carry down the line. You can probably recognise an Asian, but anything more than that is probably luck. There are Indians and Chinese and everything in between that look like other races or ethnic groups. If you are Chinese, Burmese, Malaysian or Filipino you will be probably be mistaken for a Thai in Thailand – at least until you obviously don't understand what someone is trying to say to you!

im a malaysian chinese.. but i was born to look like a chinese.. but in my country.. they r some chinese descendent who look like malay.. but they are actually chinese.. i think is bcoz of our tropical climate.

Japanese people tend to have loner,oval shaped faces with a more pronounced nose. While the Chinese have rounder, circular faces. Koreans have flatter faces with high cheek bones and smaller eyes.