Is there a Chinese equivalent of DNA ancestry tests like 23andMe?

Absolutely.

WeGene was created just one year ago, so it’s not reached the same level of repute that 23andme enjoys. But it’s there, and it’s growing.

WeGene is a personal genome project that is specifically geared towards people of Chinese ancestry. It can also be used by other East and Southeast Asians, with a few caveats* that I will talk about below.

At the moment, WeGene DNA testing is as far as I’m aware only available in China, but you can upload your raw Ancestry DNA data on the website and/or import your 23andme results to get a better breakdown of your Chinese ancestry. You can also get health reports for your 23andme results (not Ancestry DNA though), but this is currently only available on the Chinese version of the website, which I’ll show you in a bit.

This also makes the Chinese version of the website far more comprehensive, and I’m hoping they roll out a fully-fledged English website soon. But for now, you’ll have to make do with switching between English and Chinese if your Chinese isn’t up to scratch. And of course, thank the heavens for Google Translate, right?

Now, on to the benefits.

WeGene offers are far more comprehensive breakdown of your ancestry compared to 23andme. This is what I see in my results:

WeGene breaks down Chinese ancestry to different categories — along with Southern and Northern Han, you get Gaoshan (Taiwanese Aboriginal), Dai, She, Tibetan, Hmong-Mien, Lahu, Mongolian, Uyghur, Tungusic. This makes it a fantastic resource for Chinese people.

Compared to 23andme, WeGene also offers a better (but still pretty unsatisfactory) range of Southeast Asian categories, namely Kinh (Vietnamese), Thai, Cambodian. This makes it more useful resource for people of those backgrounds as well.

*BUT. Remember the caveats I told you about? Non-Chinese Asians (especially Southeast Asians) should take note of a few things:

• WeGene does not break down Austronesian ancestry very well. I have seen Filipino results get listed under Gaoshan (Taiwanese Aborigine) or Oceanian since there aren’t any similar categories. I suppose it does make sense considering historical migration, but if you’re Filipino with very little Chinese in you and you suddenly get something like 40% Chinese on WeGene, that’s because your Austronesian genes ran away to Gaoshan somehow. I hope WeGene fixes this, or at the very least adds new categories.
• Vietnamese people should also interpret their results differently, because on WeGene their ‘Kinh’ results are often very low, and their ‘Southern Han’ results high. Their results will actually look more or less similar to mine (minus the Japanese, and perhaps with more Cambodian), and I’m Southern Chinese! I believe this is because it is hard to differentiate between Southern Han genetics and Kinh genetics, since there has been a lot of historical migration in the region, and both peoples share similar origins. On the bright side, this means that I’m probably more Vietnamese than I thought I was.
• Lastly … some people have complained that a lot of the categories listed under Chinese (eg. Hmong-Mien, Tibetan, Dai etc.) are not really ‘Chinese’ at all, and should be listed under separate categories (eg. Southeast Asian). These people have accused WeGene as being politically motivated as a result. What they fail to realise, however, is that WeGene is a Chinese website geared towards a Mainland Chinese audience. Those categories listed the way they are because they are officially recognised minorities in China, with the exception of Korean being placed under ‘Other East Asian’ and ‘Gaoshan’ which is in Taiwan — but in a country that recognises the One China principle, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Taiwanese Aboriginals are listed as Chinese.

That’s it for the ancestry bit, folks. I hope you enjoy the features of the website, and be mindful of having to interpret your results differently if you’re a non-Chinese Asian.

Next, we have health reports. I found this to be more useful than I initially thought. 23andme health reports are pretty much geared towards a white, European audience, with trait reports for hair/eye colour, and predispositions towards illnesses that are more commonly found amongst white people. 23andme even pegged me as having a 28% chance of having blond hair. Um, I don’t think so.

WeGene, however, compares your data against that of a Chinese database, so the health traits that they show there are more likely to be more relevant for Chinese people.

For instance, on WeGene, I found out that I was 5.33x more likely to get Diabetes Type 1 than the average Chinese person! By contrast, all my health reports on 23andme came out negative because … well, they weren’t supposed to be targeted towards me.

Look at that, pretty scary eh? :-)

None of this was on 23andme.

They also have other really cool features that may be of interest to a Chinese audience. These include a surname search so you can see how your surname has migrated over time and ‘average’ facial generators of people of your genetic background. I wouldn’t dwell too hard on those features, but it’s pretty cool that they’re there.

That’s pretty much it for now. I hope this answers your question.