Han Chinese

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Han
(漢族 or 汉族)

Lee Kuan Yew · Sun Yat-sen · Jackie Chan
Soong Ching-ling · Chien-Shiung Wu · Guo Jingjing
Total population
1,310,158,851
19.73% of global human population
(estimate)
Regions with significant populations
Majority populations
 People's Republic of China 1,207,541,842
  Hong Kong 6,593,410
  Macau 433,641
 Republic of China (Taiwan) 22,575,365
 Singapore 3,684,936
Minority populations
      Indonesia 7,566,200
      Thailand 7,053,240
      Malaysia 6,590,500
      United States 3,376,031
      Canada 1,612,173
      Peru 1,300,000
      Vietnam 1,263,570
      Philippines 1,146,250
      Myanmar 1,101,314
      Russia 998,000
      Japan 655,377
      Australia 614,694
      Cambodia 343,855
      United Kingdom 296,623
      France 230,515
      Italy 210,000
      India 189,470
      Laos 185,765
      Brazil 151,649
      New Zealand 148,570
      Spain 147,928
      Netherlands 144,928
      South Korea 137,790


Languages

Chinese languages

Religion

Predominantly Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism. Small Christian, Muslim, Xiantian and other religious minorities. Background of Confucianism and Chinese folk religion.

Han Chinese (simplified Chinese: 汉族 or 汉人; traditional Chinese: 漢族 or 漢人; pinyin: hànzú or hànrén) are an ethnic group native to China and, by most modern definitions, the largest single ethnic group in the world.

Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China (mainland China), 98% of the population of the Republic of China (Taiwan), 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the entire global human population. There is substantial genetic, linguistic, cultural, and social diversity among the subgroups of the Han, mainly due to thousands of years of immigration and assimilation of various regional ethnicities and tribes within China. The Han Chinese are a subset of the Chinese nation (Zhonghua minzu). Many Han and other Chinese also call themselves "Descendants of the Yan Di (Yan Emperor) and Huang Di (Yellow Emperor)" (Chinese: 炎黃子孫 or 炎黄子孙).

Terms and etymology

The name Han comes from the Han Dynasty, which succeeded the short-lived Qin Dynasty that united China. The Han Dynasty's first emperor was originally known as the king of the region of 'Han Zhong' 汉中, which is where the word is derived. Han, as a word in ancient China, especially in classical literary Chinese, can also mean the Milky Way, or as people in ancient China call it, the "Heavenly River" (天河 Tian He).

Prior to the Han Dynasty, the Chinese were referred to as "Huaxia people" (華夏族), citing ancient text description of China proper as an area of magnificent prosperity and culture. The Han Dynasty was considered as a high point in Chinese civilization, in that it was able to expand its power and influence over Central, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, and come to rival its contemporary Roman Empire in population, territory, wealth, and power.^{[citation needed]} As a result of the Han Dynasty's prominence, many Chinese began addressing themselves as "people of Han" (漢人), a name that was since carried down.

In the English language, the Hans are often (and, in the view of many Chinese, incorrectly) referred to as simply "Chinese". Whether or not the use of the term Chinese correctly or incorrectly refers only to Han Chinese often is the subject of heated debate.

Among some southern Han Chinese, a different term exists within various Chinese dialects like Cantonese, Hakka and Minnan – Tángrén (唐人, literally "the people of Tang"). This term derives from a later Chinese dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, which is regarded as another zenith of Chinese civilization. The term survives in one of the Chinese names for Chinatown: 唐人街 (Tángrénjiē); literally meaning "Street of the people of Tang".

Another term commonly used by Overseas Chinese is Huaren (simplified Chinese: 华人; traditional Chinese: 華人; pinyin: huárén), derived from Zhonghua (simplified Chinese: 中华; traditional Chinese: 中華; pinyin: zhōnghuá), a literary name for China. The usual translation is "ethnic Chinese". The term refers to "Chinese" as a cultural and ethnic affiliation and is inclusive of both Chinese in China and persons of Chinese descent residing abroad.

Distribution

Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau

The vast majority of Han Chinese – over 1.2 billion – live in areas under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China (PRC), where they constitute about 92% of its population. Within the People's Republic of China, Han Chinese are the majority in every province, municipality, and autonomous region except for the autonomous regions of Xinjiang (41% as of 2000) and Tibet (6% as of 2000). Han Chinese also constitute the majority in both of the Special Administrative Regions of the PRC, about 95% of the population of Hong Kong and about 96% of the population of Macau.