That Indo-Europeans founded Chinese civilization is not "fringe." Post-war academia will censor & downplay it, as they do most pre-WWII archaeology/history. One must read the researchers’ own words to see these are still highly-plausible theories.

Crying Han Tweetstorm:

1/20

Today, China is 90% ethnically Han. This cultural & genetic identity had its ethnogenesis during the Han dynasty.

However, the Han period only started in 200 BCE, and Chinese civilization definitively dates back to 1400 BCE, maybe earlier. Were they always homogenous?

Mainstream opinion is "no."

The first historically confirmed dynasty was the Shang.

Chinese tradition has legends of earlier Kings (and even a legendary dynasty, Xia) but there is little extant evidence.

For that reason, I will start with Shang. Who were they?

It is common theory that the Shang dynasty was founded by "invaders." The establishment of this polity corresponded directly with the sudden appearance of chariots in a region where the local people have never invented the wheel.

Here's 4 major historians positing IE origins.

This map dates the introduction of the chariot and aligns flawlessly with the Indo-Iranian/Indo-Aryan invasion timelines. Note the spread and the date also align perfectly with the start of the Shang dynasty.

The map below shows how this may have happened, with the Afanasyevo culture, genetically proto-Indo-Aryan/proto-Tocharian (more on that later), possibly traveling through something known as the Hexi corridor, connecting Aryan-occupied lands with Chinese-occupying lands.

Mere chariots is just one thing. Indo-European historian Kuzmina points out that the Shang/Yin rulers had numerous cultural-religious similarities to Indo-European peoples, including royal horse burials and the worship of Gods that should be strangely familiar to us. (Hail!)

The idea that China is the only example of a civilization in the Bronze Age that magically adopted all these customs and technology but were otherwise completely physically isolated from their neighbors is plainly absurd and mostly a cope by crying Han Chinese.

India had Aryan invaders who brought chariot, the Levant had Aryan invaders who brought the chariot, Persia had Aryan invaders who brought the chariot, Europe had Aryan invaders who brought the chariot…. China had… OH NO CHINA STRONK. NO ARYANS HERE. NO DISHONOR.

Further, we do see evidence of Chinese artifacts identical in appearance to those found in the Andronovo culture. Note that DNA studies have confirmed that the Andronovo and Afanasevo cultures share the same genetic haplogroup (R1a/R1b) as modern Europeans. Reconstruction below.

"Okay, so founders of the Shang may have had Indo-European origins. So what? The Zhou dynasty germinated the most significant period of Ancient Chinese history!"

Thing is the founders of the Zhou/Chou dynasty were probably also IE. The dynasty's origin myth even says it.

"Fine, but that doesn’t mean We Wuz China. After all, the Chinese language isn’t indo-European. It’s a Chinese creation!"

Well... sort of. The earliest form of Mandarian, the bone oracle script, may have originally been a creole of an IE language and a Tibeto-Burman language.

"That's absurd! Chinese is nothing like PIE!"

World-renowned Sinologists Edwin Pulleyblank and Tsung-Tung Chang have proposed the oracle bone script have PIE origins. Not necessarily Tocharian (which may have been later loans) but rather taken from an even older proto-Tocharian.

Unbelievably (or perhaps believably) Sinologists have expressed fatigue as the international academic communities (especially the Chinese) refusal to acknowledge the immense evidence of Indo-European origins.

Read these HILARIOUS exerpts of EXASPERATED RESEARCHERS.

"Okay, okay... um... but what about Chinese legends on their own origin? Why wouldn’t we find evidence of these Indo-European founders in Chinese myths?"

Touche. Or maybe not.

The wildest theory I've come across is from a Chinese scholar.

Hold on for this snowteppery:

Yan Huang Zisun refers to the Descendants of Yan[di] and Huang[di]' -- and according to Chinese myth, all Chinese civilization comes from the merging of the ancestors of Yangdi (The Flame Emperor) and Huangdi (The Yellow Emperor).

The Flame Emperor (known as Yan Emperor) was an ancient forefather leader who "came from the South" and whose people, researchers think, used the slash and burn agriculture technique, hence his name.

The Yellow Emperor is said to have come from the North, and he and his people "defeated" the Flame Emperor in battle, and later merged his people with theirs to create Chinese civilization.

Read this wild theory as to where his moniker may originate from:

tl;dr - There's either two theories to subscribe to regarding Chinese civilization. Either:

a) it was the only Bronze Age civilization to develop COMPLETELY INDEPENDENTLY from the rest of the world, with all similarities being through coincidence or convoluted transmission.

b) like literally every other major civilization around it, it was founded by a similar stock of Indo-European steppe people that invaded India to its South and Central Asia to its West.

Occam's Razor.

Cry more.