Han Chinese

"Han people" redirects here. For the Han people of Korea, see Koreans. For citizens and residents of China, see Chinese people.
For the Chinese imperial dynasty, see Han dynasty. For the spoken language, see Standard Chinese.
Han Chinese
汉族; 漢族
Total population
1.4 billion[1]
Regions with significant populations
China1.29 billion[2]
Taiwan22 million[3][4]
Thailand10 million[5][6]
Malaysia6.91 million[7]
United States3.80–5.79 million[8][9]
Indonesia2.83 million[10]
Singapore2.67 million[11]
Myanmar1.64 million[12]
Canada1.47 million[13]
Philippines1.35 million[14]
Australia1.21 million[15]
Vietnam992,600[16]
Japan922,000[17]
Languages
Chinese
Religion
Irreligion, Chinese folk religion (Confucianism, Taoism), Buddhism, Christianity, Islam
Related ethnic groups
other Sino-Tibetan peoples
Han Chinese
Traditional Chinese漢族
Simplified Chinese汉族
Literal meaningHan ethnic group
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinHànzú
Bopomofoㄏㄢˋ ㄗㄨˊ
Wade–GilesHan4-tsu2
Tongyong PinyinHàn-zú
Yale RomanizationHàndzú
IPA[xântsǔ]
Wu
RomanizationHoe zoh
Hakka
RomanizationHòn-tshu̍k
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationHon juhk
JyutpingHon3 zuk6
IPACantonese pronunciation: [hɔ̄ːn tsʊ̀k]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJHàn-cho̍k
Teochew Peng'imHàng-tsôk
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUCHáng-cŭk

The Han Chinese or the Han people,[a] or simply the Chinese,[18] are an East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 17.5% of the global population. The Han Chinese represent 92% of the population in China and 97% of the population in Taiwan.[19][20] Han Chinese form large diaspora populations throughout Southeast Asia, comprising large minorities in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In Singapore, people of Han Chinese or Chinese descent make up around 75% of the country's population.[21]

The Han Chinese have exerted the primary formative influence in shaping the development and growth of Chinese civilization.[22][23][24] Originating from the Central Plains, the Han Chinese trace their ancestry to the Huaxia people, a confederation of agricultural tribes that lived along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River[25][26][27][28] in north central plains of China. The Huaxia are the progenitors of Chinese civilization and the ancestors of modern Han Chinese.[29][30]

The lands of southern China were acquired through conquest and colonization during the Qin and Han dynasty. Han Chinese people and culture then spread south from the northern heartland in the Yellow River valley, driven by large and sustained waves of migration during successive periods of Chinese history, leading to a demographic and economic tilt towards the south, and to the absorption of various non-Han ethnic groups over the centuries at various points in Chinese history.[27][31][32] By the time of the Tang and Song dynasties, Han Chinese were the main inhabitants of the fertile lowland areas and cities of southern China,[33] with minority tribes occupying the highlands.

  1. ^ Minahan, James B. (2014). Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 89–95. ISBN 978-1-610-69018-8. Archived from the original on 7 June 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  2. ^ CIA Factbook Archived 17 February 2023 at the Wayback Machine: "Han Chinese 91.1%" out of a reported population of 1,416,043,270 (2024 est.)
  3. ^ "Taiwan snapshot". Archived from the original on 15 March 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  4. ^ "Population structure of Han Chinese in the modern Taiwanese population based on 10,000 participants in the Taiwan Biobank project | Human Molecular Genetics | Oxford Academic". Academic.oup.com. Archived from the original on 8 September 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  5. ^ John Draper; Joel Sawat Selway (January 2019). "A New Dataset on Horizontal Structural Ethnic Inequalities in Thailand in Order to Address Sustainable Development Goal 10". Social Indicators Research. 141: 280. doi:10.1007/s11205-019-02065-4. S2CID 149845432. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  6. ^ "Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission, R.O.C." Archived from the original on 4 January 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  7. ^ "confirmed latest statistics". 2022. Archived from the original on 14 February 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  8. ^ "Race Reporting for the Asian Population by Selected Categories: 2010 more information". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  9. ^ "Selected Population Profile in the United States". census.gov. United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 5 February 2024. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  10. ^ "Jumlah dan Persentase Penduduk menurut Kelompok Suku Bangsa" (PDF). media.neliti.com (in Indonesian). Kewarganegaraan, suku bangsa, agama dan bahasa sehari-hari penduduk Indonesia. 2011. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 July 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  11. ^ "Topic: Demographics of Singapore". Archived from the original on 27 August 2021. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  12. ^ "The World Factbook". Archived from the original on 10 February 2021. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  13. ^ Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. "Population by Ethnic Origin by Province". Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Archived from the original on 22 March 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  14. ^ Macrohon, Pilar (21 January 2013). "Senate declares Chinese New Year as special working holiday" (Press release). PRIB, Office of the Senate Secretary, Senate of the Philippines. Archived from the original on 16 May 2021.
  15. ^ "Australia". 2016 Census QuickStats. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original on 30 October 2018. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  16. ^ Poston, Dudley; Wong, Juyin (2016). "The Chinese diaspora: The current distribution of the overseas Chinese population". Chinese Journal of Sociology. 2 (3): 348–373. doi:10.1177/2057150X16655077. S2CID 157718431. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  17. ^ 在日华人统计人口达92万创历史新高. www.rbzwdb.com (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  18. ^ "Ethnicity and the Han". Oxford Bibliographies Online. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
  19. ^ 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%
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ "Home" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 February 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  22. ^ Ebrey, Patricia Buckley (2023), "Rethinking Han Chinese Identity", China Review, 23 (2): 58–59, doi:10.1093/jdh/epw042
  23. ^ 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.
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ 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. S2CID 156043981.
  26. ^ Liu, Hong (2017). Chinese Business: Landscapes and Strategies. Routledge. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-138-91825-2.
  27. ^ a b Wilkinson, Endymion Porter (2015). Chinese History: A New Manual. Harvard University Asia Center. p. 709. ISBN 978-0-674-08846-7.
  28. ^ Yuan, Haiwang (2006). The Magic Lotus Lantern and Other Tales from the Han Chinesen. Libraries Unlimited. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-59158-294-6.
  29. ^ 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.
  30. ^ Duara, Prasenjit (2003). Sovereignty and authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian modern. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 7. ISBN 0-7425-2577-5.
  31. ^ Dingming, Wu (2014). A Panoramic View of Chinese Culture. Simon & Schuster.
  32. ^ Minahan, James B. (2015). Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-61069-017-1.
  33. ^ Cite error: The named reference :11 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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