The Han Chinese are the largest ethnic group in the world, constituting roughly 90 percent of the population of mainland China and Taiwan and comprising, by most measures, the largest single ethnic group on Earth. Han identity encompasses substantial internal linguistic and regional diversity, including mutually unintelligible spoken varieties (Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Min, Hakka and others) unified by a shared written script and, for most of the group's history, a shared imperial Confucian bureaucratic and lineage-based social order. The scale and internal diversity of Han Chinese identity has made 'what unifies Han identity' a genuinely documented subject of scholarly discussion, generally resolved by reference to shared script, historical imperial administration and a common core of ancestral and cultural narrative rather than language alone.
Facts
Group TypeSourced to the subject's own account Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountEast Asia (China, Taiwan, and a large global diaspora) 1 Population EstimateSourced to the subject's own accountapproximately 1.3 to 1.4 billion 1 Primary LanguageSourced to the subject's own accountChinese languages (Mandarin as the standard, alongside Cantonese, Wu, Min and other varieties) 1 Subsistence ModeSourced to the subject's own accountHistorically agrarian (rice and wheat cultivation depending on region) with a long tradition of urban craft, commerce and bureaucratic administration. 1 Group Type
Group Type (category)Sourced to the subject's own account Subsistence Mode
Subsistence Mode (category)Sourced to the subject's own account Population Band
Population Band (category)Sourced to the subject's own account Connections
Associated With
The zongzu lineage system, with its ancestral halls, genealogies and corporate lineage estates, developed historically among Han Chinese communities, especially in south China.
In Rule Category
Source Countries and Their Cultures (Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Gale): Han - Kinship
In the Other Atlases
Used In
Also in Language Atlas: which uses this subject.
Source Encyclopedia.com (Encyclopedia of World Cultures): HanLanguage sectionQuote, Language section
The majority of Chinese speakers, including most inhabitants of the Yellow River drainage and parts of the Yangzi drainage as well as southwestern China, speak one of the dialects collectively known as Mandarin.
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source Wikipedia: Han ChineseIntroductiontier 3Quote, Introduction
The Han Chinese, alternatively Han people or Chinese people, are an East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Han Chinese
WikipediaIntroduction
The Han Chinese, alternatively Han people or Chinese people, are an East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China.
Introduction, first sentence
alternatively Han people or Ethnic Chinese
View the Source Countries and Their Cultures (Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Gale): Han - Kinship
Countries and Their Cultures (Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Gale)In Rule Category: Patrilineal Descent, Kin Groups and DescentQuote, In Rule Category: Patrilineal Descent, Kin Groups and Descent
Han people have had patrilineal kin groups since the period of the earliest written history, and a hierarchical arrangement of clans was the basis of stratification in the feudal order of the Shang and Zhou periods.
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