Han Chinese subgroups

The subgroups of the Han Chinese people, Chinese dialect groups or just dialect groups, are defined based on linguistic, cultural, ethnic, genetic and regional features. The terminology used in Mandarin to describe the groups is: "minxi" (Chinese: 民系; pinyin: mínxì; Wade–Giles: min² hsi⁴; lit. 'ethnic lineages', pronounced [mǐnɕî]), used in Mainland China or "zuqun" (Chinese: 族群; pinyin: zúqún; Wade–Giles: tzu² ch'ün; lit. 'ethnic groups', pronounced [tsǔtɕʰwə̌n]), used in Taiwan. No Han subgroup is recognized as one of People's Republic of China's 56 official minority ethnic groups. Scholars like James W. Hayes have described the Han Chinese subgroups as "ethnic group" outright, at least in the context of Hong Kong society.^[1]

Han subgroups[]

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The eight main dialect areas of Mandarin in Mainland China

The main varieties of Chinese in mainland China and Taiwan

The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates (2019) and were rounded:^{[2][3][4][5][better source needed][6][7]}

Mandarin-speaking groups[]

• Total Native Han Speakers: 885,000,000^[8]

Mandarin, also known as the Northern dialects, is the largest of the Chinese languages. Native speakers, even in regions where non-Mandarin speakers historically dominated, Mandarin is being brought in as a lingua franca. The Mandarin-speaking groups are the largest group in mainland China, but in the diaspora the Min, Hakka and Cantonese dialects are more numerous. The Dungan people of Central Asia are native Central Plains Mandarin speaking Hui peoples. Other notable Mandarin-speaking peoples include the Sichuanese people and Jianghuai people.

Wu-speaking groups[]

• Total Native Han Speakers: 77,175,000^[8]

Wu-speaking peoples, in particular, are concentrated in the Yangtze River basin (southern Jiangsu, the whole Shanghai, most of Zhejiang and parts of southern Anhui), northern Fujian, and northeastern Jiangxi. Scattered remnants of Wu-speaking Chinese are found in other parts of China, such as in Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing and Xinjiang, as a result after 1964. Most of them outside of Jiangnan region usually speak variants of Taihu Wu dialects. Wu Chinese is spoken chiefly in the Wu region. Jiangnanese people consist of both Shanghainese people and Ningbo people, as well as other ethnic Han in Jiangnan. They mostly speak variants of Taihu Wu Chinese. Other languages spoken are Jianghuai Mandarin and Xuanzhou Wu Chinese.

The Shanghainese people are centered around Shanghai and speak the Shanghainese dialect of Wu. Ningbo people are another Wu-speaking Chinese group and speak the Ningbo dialect. Wenzhou people are a Wu-speaking Chinese group who speak Wenzhounese. Though a significant minority are also speakers of a dialect of Min Nan known as Zhenan Min. If Huizhou Chinese was fully considered to be a subdivision of Wu Chinese, then people from Huizhou are considered to be Wu-speaking.

Wu Chinese is also spoken by a minuscule minority, particularly by Mainlanders, both in Taiwan and in Hong Kong, as also other overseas Chinese communities.

Yue-speaking groups[]

• Total Native Han Speakers: 66,000,000^[8]

Yue or Cantonese speakers are predominant in the Pearl River basin (western-central Guangdong and eastern-central Guangxi), as well as in Hong Kong and Macau. The Yue dialects spoken in Guangxi province are mutually intelligible with Cantonese. For instance, Wuzhou is about 120 miles upstream from Guangzhou, but its dialect is more like that of Guangzhou than is that of Taishan which is 60 miles southwest of Guangzhou and separated by several rivers from it. Cantonese is also spoken by some locals in Hainan. For example, the Mai dialect which is closely related to Cantonese, is spoken in Hainan Province.

There are Cantonese-speaking communities in Southeast Asia, particularly in Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and to a lesser extent, in Indonesia. Many Cantonese emigrants, particularly Taishanese peoples, also migrated to United States and Canada, and later in Australia and New Zealand as well. As a result, Cantonese continues to be widely used by Chinese communities of Guangzhou and Hong Kong/Macau origin in the Western World and has not been completely supplanted by Mandarin.

Min-speaking groups[]

• Total Native Han Speakers of Min (all groups): 60,000,000^[9]

Min speakers are scattered throughout southern China but mostly concentrated on province of Fujian, Taiwan and Hainan, with some parts in Guangdong (especially in Chaoshan and the tip of southern Zhejiang).

There are several main dialects in Min Chinese. The Fuzhou dialect of Min Dong, is spoken by the Fuzhou people who are native to the city of Fuzhou. The dialect of Puxian Min is represented by the Putian people (also known as Xinghua or Henghua), the Puxian-speaking people are native to Puxian.

The Hokkien dialects of Min Nan spoken in Southern Fujian and Taiwan is the largest Min division and spoken by larger Hoklo population compared to other Min dialects. Furthermore, Hokkien is further extended into other unique Min Nan groups who speaks variants of the Min Nan dialect. The Teochew people who are native to eastern Guangdong and Hainanese people who are native of Hainan island are all Min Nan dialect groups. The dialect of Cangnan, which is Zhenan Min, is spoken in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. Outside of Mainland China and Taiwan, Min Nan also make up the biggest Chinese dialect group among the overseas Chinese populations in Southeast Asia such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines.

Xiang-speaking groups[]

• Total Native Han Speakers: 36,015,000^[8]

Xiang speakers mostly live in Hunan province, and so are often called Hunanese people. Xiang-speaking people are also found in the adjacent provinces of Hubei, Jiangxi and Sichuan.

Hakka-speaking groups[]

• Total Native Han Speakers: 34,000,000^[8]

The Hakka people speaks Hakka and are predominant in parts of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Jiangxi and Taiwan. They are one of the largest groups found among the Ethnic Han in Southeast Asia.

Gan Chinese-speaking groups[]

• Total Native Han Speakers: 20,580,000^[8]

The origin of Gan-speaking peoples in China are from Jiangxi province in China. Gan-speaking populations are also found in Fujian, southern Anhui and Hubei provinces, and linguistic enclaves are found in Taiwan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Hunan, Hainan, Guangdong, Fujian and non-Gan speaking Jiangxi.

Smaller groups[]

Other minor subgroups include speakers of the Tanka people, Peranakans, Chuanqing, and Kwongsai people

Han subgroups by subculture[]

The culture of the Han Chinese is complex and diverse. The vast geographic scale of China has led the Han to culturally separate themselves into northern and southern divisions.

North[]

• Zhongyuan culture (中原)
• Beijing culture (燕京)
• Shandong culture (魯/鲁)
• Jin culture (晉/晋)^[10][11][12]
• Dongbei culture (東北/东北)

South[]

• Hubei culture (楚)
• Lingnan culture (粵/粤)
• Hakka culture (客)
• Teochew culture (潮)
• Hokkien culture (閩南/闽南)
• Fuzhou Culture (闽都/闽东)
• Jiangxi culture (贛)
• Huizhou culture (徽)
• Hunanese culture (湘)
• Sichuanese culture (蜀)
• Wuyue culture (吳/吴)
• Wenzhou culture (瓯)
• Haipai culture (海)
• Hong Kong culture (港)
• Macanese culture (澳)
• Taiwanese culture (台/臺)

Han subgroups by region[]

Greater China[]

Mainland China[]

The Han people originated in Mainland China. Each Han subgroup is generally associated with a particular region in China; the Cantonese originated in Liangguang, the Putian in Puxian, the Foochow in Fuzhou, the Hoklo in Southern Fujian, the Chaoshan/Teochew in eastern Guangdong,^[13] the Hakka in eastern/central Guangdong and western Fujian, and the Shanghainese in Shanghai.

Taiwan[]

Demographics of Taiwan

In Taiwan, the main distinction within the Han Chinese is between two groups:

1. The Benshengren (Chinese: 本省人; pinyin: Běnshěngrén; Wade–Giles: Pen³-sheng³-jen² [pən ʂɤŋ ʐən]; lit. "Native Province Person", meaning "People of the local province"), who are early Hoklo and Hakka migrants from Fujian and Guangdong provinces of mainland China.
2. The Waishengren (Chinese: 外省人; pinyin: Wàishěngrén; Wade–Giles: Wai⁴-sheng³-jen² [waɪ ʂɤŋ ʐən]; Chinese: 外省儂; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Gua sieng lang [gua ɕiəŋ laŋ]; lit. "External Province Person", meaning "People from other province"), who are descended from recent migrants from all over mainland China who emigrated during and after the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

The CIA World Factbook puts the number of Benshengren at 84% and the number of "mainlanders" at 14%.^[14] 70% of Taiwan's population is Hoklo, while 10-15% is Hakka.^[15]

Hong Kong[]

In Hong Kong, a majority of the population are Cantonese. According to the CIA World Factbook, 89% of Hong Kongers speak the Cantonese language.^[16]

Other Han Chinese peoples present in Hong Kong include the Hakka, Teochew, Hoklo and Shanghainese besides ethnic minorities like the Tankas.

Macau[]

Macau, like Hong Kong^{[citation needed]} has a Han (Cantonese) majority.^{[citation needed]} According to the CIA World Factbook, 85.7% of Macanese speak Cantonese.^[17]

The term "Macanese people" can either refer to anyone from Macau,^{[citation needed]} or Macanese of mixed Cantonese and Portuguese descent.

Overseas Chinese subgroups[]

See also[]

• Overseas Chinese
• Regional discrimination in China
• Ethnic groups of Southeast Asia

References[]