Disgusting Europeans
I remember reading that the Chinese found the smell of the first European travelers intolerably offensive, combatting it with burning incense. When these first impressions were compounded with the observation of ear wax leaking from the filthy ears of the pale skinned barbarians, the image was complete. Interestingly, a single nucleotide polymorphism of ABCC11 gene is responsible both for such wet wax
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16444273
and the offensive smell from apocrine glands in European armpits
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/4465
as well as the higher frequency of breast cancer.
http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/reprint/23/6/2001
...There are two distinct genetically determined types of earwax: the wet type, which is dominant, and the dry type, which is recessive. East Asians and Native Americans are more likely to have the dry type (grey and flaky), whereas Caucasians and Africans are more likely to have the wet type (honey-brown to dark-brown and moist). (Wiki)
This genetic division appears to be one of the oldest having a racial basis. How these traits are connected is a mystery, but the interesting thing is that East Asian reaction to smelly Europeans (which in less educated times would be dismissed as racist prejudice) retrospectively made perfect sense: the strong body odor and leaky ear wax betray a mutant whose defective genes cause a lethal disease. The extreme aversion was not irrational eventhough its possible causes were obscure to the Chinese and Europeans alike. Perhaps such correlations are not uncommon; the "prejudice" is more rational and entrenched than we would like to believe.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16444273
and the offensive smell from apocrine glands in European armpits
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/4465
as well as the higher frequency of breast cancer.
http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/reprint/23/6/2001
...There are two distinct genetically determined types of earwax: the wet type, which is dominant, and the dry type, which is recessive. East Asians and Native Americans are more likely to have the dry type (grey and flaky), whereas Caucasians and Africans are more likely to have the wet type (honey-brown to dark-brown and moist). (Wiki)
This genetic division appears to be one of the oldest having a racial basis. How these traits are connected is a mystery, but the interesting thing is that East Asian reaction to smelly Europeans (which in less educated times would be dismissed as racist prejudice) retrospectively made perfect sense: the strong body odor and leaky ear wax betray a mutant whose defective genes cause a lethal disease. The extreme aversion was not irrational eventhough its possible causes were obscure to the Chinese and Europeans alike. Perhaps such correlations are not uncommon; the "prejudice" is more rational and entrenched than we would like to believe.