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This article is about the general concept of peoples relating to China. For the dominant Chinese ethnic group, see Han Chinese. For a list of ethnicities in modern China, see List of ethnic groups in China. For a list of ethnicities in historical China, see Ethnic groups in Chinese history. For the concept of the multiethnic Chinese nation, see Zhonghua minzu.

The Chinese people, or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with China, usually through ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, social construct[1] or other affiliation.[2]

People of Chinese ethnicity or ancestry who live outside Greater China may consider themselves overseas Chinese.[3][4] In some areas throughout the world, ethnic enclaves known as Chinatowns are home to populations of overseas Chinese.

Terminology

The term Zhōngguó zhī rén (Chinese: 中國之人; lit. 'people of China'; Manchu: ᡩᡠᠯᡳᠮᠪᠠᡳ
ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ ‍ᡳ
ᠨᡳᠶᠠᠯᠮᠠ, romanized: Dulimbai gurun-i niyalma) was used by the Qing government to refer to all traditionally native subjects of the empire, including Han, Manchu, and Mongols.[5] In modern Chinese, there is a distinction between Huaren and Zhongguoren. The former term refers to ethnic Chinese, and is often used for those who reside overseas or those who are non-citizens. The latter term refers to people who have lived in China or are Chinese citizens.[6][7][8] The term Zhongguoren has a more political or ideological aspect in its use, and while many in China may use Zhongguoren to mean the Chinese ethnicity, some in Taiwan would refuse to be called Zhongguoren.[9]

People from Taiwan, which is officially called the Republic of China (ROC), may also be referred to as “Chinese” in various contexts, though they are usually referred to as “Taiwanese“. The territory of Taiwan is disputed and the ROC has limited recognition of its sovereignty.

Ethnicity

Further information: Ethnic minorities in China, List of ethnic groups in China, and Unrecognized ethnic groups in China

A number of ethnic groups as well as other racial minorities of China are referred to as Chinese people.[10] Zhonghua minzu (Chinese: 中华民族), the “Chinese nation”, is a supra-ethnic concept which includes all 56 ethnic groups living in China that are officially recognized by the government of the People’s Republic of China. It includes established ethnic groups who have lived within the borders of premodern China.[11] The term zhonghua minzu was used during the Republic of China from 1911 to 1949 to refer to five primary ethnic groups[a] in China.[12] The term zhongguo renmin (Chinese: 中国人民), “Chinese people”, was the government’s preferred term during the early communist era; zhonghua minzu is more common in recent decades.[13]

Han Chinese

This section is an excerpt from Han Chinese.[]
Officials during the Ming dynasty (1368–1662) wearing hanfu

The Han Chinese, alternatively Han people,[b] or Chinese people,[14] are an East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. While officially considered a single minzu ethnic group in a multi-ethnic Chinese nation, in practice Han and Chinese are often used as synonyms.[15] With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the world’s largest ethnic group, making up about 17% of the world population. The Han Chinese represent 91.11% of the population in China and 97% of the population in Taiwan.[16][17] They are a significant diasporic group in Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore,[18] Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Indonesia.

The Han Chinese have exerted a primary formative influence in Chinese culture and history.[19][20][21] Originating from Zhongyuan, the Han Chinese trace their ancestry and culture to the Huaxia people, a confederation of agricultural tribes that lived along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River[22][23][24][25] in the north central plains of China.[26][27]

Han Chinese people and culture later spread southwards in the Chinese mainland, driven by large and sustained waves of migration during successive periods of Chinese history, for example the Qin (221–206 BC) and Han (202 BC – 220 AD) dynasties, leading to a demographic and economic tilt towards the south, and the absorption of various non-Han ethnic groups over the centuries at various points in Chinese history.[24][28][29] The Han Chinese became the main inhabitants of the fertile lowland areas and cities of Southern China by the time of the Tang and Song dynasties,[30] with minority tribes occupying the highlands.

Ethnic minorities

The Chinese government recognizes 56 ethnic groups in China. Other ethnic groups in China include the Zhuang, Hui, Manchus, Uyghurs, and Miao, who make up the five largest ethnic minorities in mainland China, with populations of approximately 10 million or more. In addition, the Yi, Tujia, Tibetans and Mongols each have populations between five and ten million. Ethnic minorities may consider themselves Zhongguoren.

Diaspora

These paragraphs are an excerpt from Overseas Chinese.[]

Overseas Chinese people or the Chinese diaspora are a diaspora people of Chinese origin who reside outside Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan).[31] As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese.[32] As of 2023, there were 10.5 million people living outside mainland China who were born in mainland China, corresponding to 0.7 percent of China’s population.[33] Overall, China has a low percent of its population living overseas

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The Han, the Manchu, the Mongols, the Hui (applied to Muslims as a whole), and the Tibetans.
  2. ^ simplified Chinese: 汉族; traditional Chinese: 漢族; pinyin: Hànzú; lit. 'Han ethnic group' or
    simplified Chinese: 汉人; traditional Chinese: 漢人; pinyin: Hànrén; lit. 'Han people'

References

  1. ^ Chandra Ford; Nina T Harawa (29 April 2010). “A new conceptualization of ethnicity for social epidemiologic and health equity research”. Soc Sci Med. 71 (2): 251–258. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.04.008. PMC 2908006. PMID 20488602.
  2. ^ Harding, Harry (1993). “The Concept of “greater China”: Themes, Variations and Reservations”. The China Quarterly. 136 (136): 660–86. doi:10.1017/S030574100003229X. JSTOR 655587. S2CID 154522700.
  3. ^ Barabantseva, Elena (2010). Overseas Chinese, Ethnic Minorities and Nationalism: De-Centering China. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-92736-2.
  4. ^ Park, Yoon Jung (2008). A Matter of Honour: Being Chinese in South Africa. Lexington Books. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-7391-3553-2.
  5. ^ Zhao, Gang (2006). “Reinventing China: Imperial Qing ideology and the rise of Modern Chinese national identity in the early twentieth century” (PDF). Modern China. 32 (3). Sage: 3–30. doi:10.1177/0097700405282349. S2CID 144587815. Archived from the original on 25 March 2014. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  6. ^ Beeson, Mark (2008). Contemporary Southeast Asia. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 118. ISBN 978-1-137-06880-4.
  7. ^ https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E4%BA%BA Archived 27 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine 生息、繁衍,居住在中国的本地人或者海外有中国血统的侨胞 Local people who live, reproduce, reside in China, or Chinese nationals of Chinese descent living overseas.
  8. ^ https://cwn.ling.sinica.edu.tw/_process.asp?inputword=%A4%A4%B0%EA%A4H&radiobutton=1 Archived 1 October 2022 at the Wayback Machine 普通名詞。中華民族的族人或中國大陸的人民。 noun, ethnic groups of Zhonghua Minzu, or people of China
  9. ^ Hui-Ching Chang; Richard Holt (20 November 2014). Language, Politics and Identity in Taiwan: Naming China. Routledge. pp. 162–64. ISBN 978-1-135-04635-4. Archived from the original on 30 September 2023. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  10. ^ “Chinese”. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Tenth ed.). Merriam-Webster. 1993.
  11. ^ “Brief Introduction Chinese nationality”. Chinatraveldepot.com. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  12. ^ Millward, James A. (2007). Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13924-3.
  13. ^ Jenner, W.J.F. (2004). “Race and history in China”. In Alan Lawrance (ed.). China Since 1919: Revolution and Reform: a Sourcebook. Psychology Press. pp. 252–255. ISBN 978-0-415-25141-9. Archived from the original on 17 January 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  14. ^ Lin, Yutang (1972). Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage. Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong. pp. 458, 1016. ISBN 0-07-099695-4. OCLC 773383696. 五族, n., the Five Races: 漢，滿，蒙，回，藏 Chinese, Manchus, Mongolians, Mohammedans and Tibetans. (p. 458); 漢人, n., the Chinese people. (p. 1016)
  15. ^ Joniak-Lüthi, Agnieszka (2018). “Ethnicity and the Han”. Oxford Bibliographies. doi:10.1093/obo/9780199920082-0150.
  16. ^ 中華民國國情簡介 [ROC Vital Information] (in Chinese). Executive Yuan. 2016. Archived from the original on 18 February 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2016. 臺灣住民以漢人為最大族群，約占總人口97%
  17. ^ The Republic of China Yearbook (PDF). Government Information Office. 2014. p. 36. ISBN 978-986-04-2302-0. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 August 2017. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  18. ^ “Home” (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 February 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  19. ^ Ebrey, Patricia Buckley (2023). “Rethinking Han Chinese Identity”. China Review. 23 (2): 58–59. doi:10.1093/jdh/epw042.
  20. ^ Blackburn, Kevin; Hack, Karl (2012). War Memory and the Making of Modern Malaysia and Singapore. NUS Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-9971-69-599-6. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  21. ^ Liu, Xingwu (2004). “Han”. In Ember, Carol R.; Ember, Melvin (eds.). Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology. Springer. pp. 703–17. doi:10.1007/0-387-29905-X_73. ISBN 978-0-306-47754-6. The name “Han” was derived from the Han River, an upper tributary of the Yangtze River. It was further strengthened by the famous Han Empire (206 BC–220 AD) which lasted for several hundred years when the people began active interactions with the outside world.
  22. ^ Cioffi-Revilla, Claudio; Lai, David (September 1995). “War And Politics in Ancient China, 2700 B.C. to 722 B.C.: Measurement and Comparative Analysis”. Journal of Conflict Resolution. 39 (3): 467–494. doi:10.1177/0022002795039003004. JSTOR 174577.
  23. ^ Liu, Hong (2017). Chinese Business: Landscapes and Strategies. Routledge. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-138-91825-2.
  24. ^ a b Wilkinson, Endymion Porter (2015). Chinese History: A New Manual. Harvard University Asia Center. p. 709. ISBN 978-0-674-08846-7.
  25. ^ Yuan, Haiwang (2006). The Magic Lotus Lantern and Other Tales from the Han Chinese. Libraries Unlimited. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-59158-294-6.
  26. ^ Minahan, James B. (2015). Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-1-61069-017-1.
  27. ^ Duara, Prasenjit (2003). Sovereignty and authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian modern. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 7. ISBN 0-7425-2577-5.
  28. ^ Dingming, Wu (2014). A Panoramic View of Chinese Culture. Simon & Schuster.
  29. ^ Minahan, James B. (2015). Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-61069-017-1.
  30. ^ Szonyi, Michael (2002). Practicing Kinship: Lineage and Descent in Late Imperial China. p. 27.
  31. ^ Goodkind, Daniel. “The Chinese Diaspora: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Trends” (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 February 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  32. ^ Poston, Dudley; Wong, Juyin (2016). “The Chinese diaspora: The current distribution of the overseas Chinese population”. Chinese Journal of Sociology. 2 (3): 356–360. doi:10.1177/2057150X16655077. S2CID 157718431.
  33. ^ “Living outside China has become more like living inside China”. The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 27 April 2025.