Why do we see so many people in the West left handed, than the Orientals.?

Question

Really it seems like every other person in the US is left handed, whereas in Asians, you rarely come accross any.

Answer 1

asian culture views left handers as inferior. even if you are left handed by nature, your parents WILL force you to use your right hand. I was originally left handed but my parents always made me use my right hand bcuz of this little phenomenon

Answer 2

In some asian cultures, left handed is bad luck and evil. My brother is left handed and he was forced to eat and write with his right hand when he stayed with my Chinese grandparents. To this day he still eats with his right hand but he does everything else with this left hand. I suspect that the % of left handed ppl (genetically speaking) in Asian countries is the same as the rest of the world, except that perhaps there has been some cultural pressure to be right handed. I don't know if a left handed person can become right handed though, interesting question. Maybe we could get some frequency # .. in western countries it's around 9-11%

Answer 3

Well, first off you don't use Oriental. It's considered non-PC. Secondly, Asians consider left-handedness unlucky. Additionally, Asians are big on uniformity. Schools, parents, and peers would have likely trained "to-be" left handed people to be right handed people very early on in life.

Answer 4

Part of the answer lies in the olden customs and traditions of those eastern and oriental cultures. These customs are also heavily entwined with religion. Many eastern cultures believe that left handedness is unnatural or even evil. Although something like this does exist in western thought, society is more lenient with left-handed individuals. In the east, however, most left handed individuals are forced to train themselves to become right handed, in hopes to reverse the 'abnormalities' of those individuals. THis is most likely why there are more left handed individuals seen in western cultures than in eastern ones- it has nothing to do with genetic predisposition or anything scientific.

Answer 5

Well it is discouraged in the schools in Japan and China. It's part of their uniformity and non-individualist societies. It's also easier to right the letters in their languages with your right hand.

I went to school (in America) with a lot of Asian kids, but I never actually noticed whether they were left handed or right handed. I know for sure some were and some weren't.

I don't think race has anything to do with handedness, moreso society and culture impacts it more.

Answer 6

In our culture, left-handed children used to be killed because they were believed to be spawns of the devil. Either that, or they were left out to die. Nowadays we obviously no longer do that but there's still a huge amount of superstitution surrounding left-handed people, and so they're more conditioned out of it. My own brother does everything with his "left" side except when he writes, eats, and plays golf. He plays bball, soccer, holds things, is stronger, etc with his left hand. My mom was really adament about him not being purely lefthanded so he's really ambidexterous and it's rather cool...but yea...that's why. Western cultures don't really have that stigma as Orientals do.

Answer 7

In many Asian countries there is a taboo against left-handedness. The children are forced to use the right hand for most purposes.

Answer 8

This is a stupid question.

I'm half Chinese, half English. I write with my left hand, but am right handed with everything else.

It makes no difference what your ethnicity is. Maybe you know more Americans than you do Asian?

Answer 9

Just FYI, "Oriental" is an offensive term to use. It refers to things, not people. My daughter is Chinese and I cringe every time I hear the term.

Answer 10

http://www.csun.edu/~djo41504/left.html
http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/360/15765_lefthanded.html
http://www.neoteny.org/a/lateralization3.html
http://ask.yahoo.com/20020628.html
Here are some sites that deal with left handedness, Ive been reading them myself so you likely have 50 other answers!