Residents of a remote Chinese village are hoping that DNA tests
will prove one of history's most unlikely legends — that they are
descended from Roman legionaries lost in antiquity.
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.