Han Chinese subgroups


The subgroups of the Han Chinese people, also known as Sinitic peoples, 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", used in Mainland China or "zuqun", used in Taiwan. Other than Hui people, which is a classification for Muslims of all backgrounds, no Han subgroup is recognized as one of People's Republic of China's 55 official minority ethnic groups.

Summary

The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates and were rounded:
NumberBranchNative SpeakersDialects
1Mandarin850,000,00051
2Wu95,000,00037
3Yue80,000,00052
4Jin70,000,0006
5Min60,000,00061
6Hakka55,000,00010
7Xiang50,000,00025
8Gan30,000,0009
9Huizhou7,000,00013
10Pinghua3,000,0002
TotalChinese1,300,000,000266

Han subgroups by language

The number of speakers derived from statistics or estimates and were rounded:
NumberPeopleSubgroupsMain AreaPopulation
1Cantonese PeopleTaishanese people, Hongkongers, Macau people, Macanese peopleGuangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, Macau120,000,000
2Hakka PeopleNgái peopleGuangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan120,000,000
3Min PeopleFuzhou people, Hoklo people, Hoklo Taiwanese, Putian people, Teochew peopleFujian, Hainan, Southern Zhejiang, Guangdong115,000,000
4Shandong PeopleShandong Province100,000,000
5Sichuanese PeopleSichuan Province, Chongqing Municipality100,000,000
6Wu PeopleShanghainese people, Ningbonese people, Wenzhou peopleZhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian90,000,000
7Hebei PeopleHebei Province75,000,000
8Jianghuai PeopleSubei peopleJiangsu Province, Anhui Province75,000,000
9Gan PeopleJiangxi, Eastern Hunan60,000,000
10Hunanese PeopleHunan, Northeastern Guangxi40,000,000
11Taiwanese PeopleTaiwan23,000,000
12Tanka PeopleFuzhou TankaGuangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Hainan5,000,000
13Hainan PeopleHainan, Southeast Asia5,000,000
14Chuanqing PeopleGuizhou700,000
15Gaoshan PeopleYunnan, Guizhou400,000
16Waxiang PeopleHunan400,000
17Tunbao PeopleGuizhou, Anshun300,000
18Hui'an PeopleQuanzhou, Fujian, China50,000
TotalHan Chinese GroupsChina930,000,000

Mandarin-speaking groups

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

Wu-speaking peoples, in particular, are concentrated in the Yangtze River basin, 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

Yue or Cantonese speakers are predominant in the Pearl River basin, 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

Min speakers are scattered throughout southern China but mostly concentrated on province of Fujian, Taiwan and Hainan, with some parts in Guangdong.
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, 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

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

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

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

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, the Hakka in eastern/central Guangdong and western Fujian, and the Shanghainese in Shanghai.

Taiwan

In Taiwan, the main distinction within the Han Chinese is between two groups:
  1. The Pen-sheng-jen, who are early Hoklo and Hakka migrants from Fujian and Guangdong provinces of mainland China.
  2. The Wai-sheng-jen, 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 Pen-sheng-jen at 84% and the number of "mainlanders" at 14%. 70% of Taiwan's population is Hoklo, while 10-15% is Hakka.

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

Macau

According to the CIA World Factbook, 85.7% of Macanese speak Cantonese.
The term "Macanese people" or Macanese of mixed Cantonese and Portuguese descent.

Overseas Chinese subgroups