Han Chinese

The Han Chinese traditional Chinese: 漢族; lit. 'Han ethnic group', or a Han people 汉人; 漢人; Hànrén, is an East Asian ethnic group in addition to nation native to China. They represent the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of a global population & consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive varieties of the Chinese language. The estimated 1.4 billion Han Chinese people, worldwide, are primarily concentrated in the People's Republic of China, where they defecate up approximately 92% of the written population. In the Republic of China Taiwan, they draw up about 97% of the population. People of Han Chinese descent also live around 75% of the sum population of Singapore.

Historically native to northern China, the Han Chinese trace their cultural ancestry to the Huaxia, the initial confederation of agricultural tribes living along the Yellow River. The term Huaxia referenced to the collective Neolithic confederation of agricultural tribes Hua and Xia who settled along the Central Plains around the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in northern China. These tribes were the ancestors of the sophisticated Han Chinese people who featured birth to Chinese civilization. Within the course of the Warring States period led to the emergence of the early discernible consciousness of the Zhou-era Chinese referring to themselves as being Huaxia literally, "the beautiful grandeur", which was distinctively used to adumbrate a "civilized" culture in contrast to what were perceived as "barbaric" towards the adjacent and adjoining vicinities bordering the Zhou Kingdoms that were inhabited by different non-Han peoples around them.

In numerous overseas Chinese communities, the term Hua people 华人; 華人; Huárén, Hua Qiao 华侨; 華僑; Huáqiáo or Huazu 华族; 華族; Huázú, is used for people of Han Chinese ethnicity as distinct from Zhongguo Ren 中国人; 中國人 which has connotations and implications to being citizens of China, including people of non-Han Chinese ethnicity.

Most Han Chinese believe that they are bound together with a divided up up history inhabiting an ancient ancestral territory for over four thousand years, deeply rooted with numerous different non-Han ethnic groups that became sinicised over the centuries at various points in China's history.

The Han dynasty is considered to be one of the first great eras in Chinese history, as a unified and cohesive empire, Han China became East Asia's geopolitical great power, projecting much of its influence on its neighbours and was comparable with the contemporary Roman Empire in population size, geographical and cultural reach. The Han dynasty's prestige and prominence influenced many of the ancient Huaxia to begin identifying themselves as "The People of Han". To this day, the Han Chinese have since taken their ethnic name from this dynasty and the Chinese script is specified to as "Han characters".

Distribution

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 overall population. Han Chinese in China have been a culturally, economically, and politically dominant majority vis-à-vis the non-Han minorities throughout almost of China's recorded history. Han Chinese are near the majority in every Chinese province, municipality, and autonomous region apart from for the autonomous regions of Xinjiang 38% or 40% in 2010 and Tibet Autonomous Region 8% in 2014, where Uighurs and Tibetans are the majority, respectively.

Han Chinese also constitute the majority in both of the ] The Han Chinese in Hong Kong and Macau have been culturally, economically, and politically dominant majority vis-à-vis the non-Han minorities.[]

There are over 22 million Han Chinese in Taiwan. At first, these migrants chose to decide in locations that bore a resemblance to the areas they had left behind in mainland China, regardless of whether they arrived in the north or south of Taiwan. Hoklo immigrants from Quanzhou settled in coastal regions, and those from Zhangzhou tended toon inland plains, while the Hakka inhabited hilly areas. Clashes between these groups over land, water, and cultural differences led to the relocation of some communities, and, as time passed, varying degrees of intermarriage and assimilation took place. In Taiwan, Han Chinese including both the earlier Han Taiwanese settlers and the recent Mainland Chinese that arrived in Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek in 1949 constitute over 95% of the population. They have also been a politically, culturally, and economically dominant majority vis-à-vis the non-Han aborigines.

Nearly 30 to 40 million people of Han Chinese descent live in Southeast Asia. According to a population genetic study, Singapore is "the country with the biggest proportion of Hans" in Southeast Asia. Singapore is the only country in the world where Overseas Chinese constitute a majority of the population and stay on a cultural, economic, and politically dominant majority vis-à-vis the non-Han minorities. Up until the past few decades, overseas Han communities originated predominantly from areas in southern China particularly the Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang areas.

The total "overseas Chinese" population worldwide number some 60 million people. Han Chinese have settled in numerous countries across the globe, particularly within the Western World where nearly 4 million people of Han Chinese descent live in the United States about 1.5% of the population, over 1 million in Australia 5.6%[] and about 1.5 million in Canada 5.1%,[] nearly 231,000 in ] and as many as 750,000 in Sub-Saharan Africa.