Han Chinese

Total worldwide: 1.310 billions.

92% of the population of Mainland China, 94% of the population of Hong Kong, 95% of the population of
Macau, 98% of the population of Taiwan, 74% of the population of Singapore, 24.5% of the population of
Malaysia, and about 19% of the entire global human population
Origin
The name comes from the Han Dynasty. The Han's first emperor Liu Bang was originally known as the king
of the region of Hanzhong after which the dynasty was named. The name Hanzhong, in turn, is derived
from the Han River, which flows through the Hanzhong Plain.
Prior to the Han Dynasty, Chinese scholars used the term as "Huaxia people" (, interpreted to mean
"civilized society. As a result of the Han Dynasty's prominence, many Chinese began addressing themselves
as "people of Han" ()
Han in other languages
Among some southern Han Chinese, in dialects such as Cantonese, Hakka, Minnan and Teochew a different
term exists Tngrn (, literally "the people of Tang"). This term is derived from the Tang Dynasty.
Also an element in the Cantonese word for Chinatown: (Tngrnji); literally meaning "Street of
the people of Tang".
Han overseas
Another term commonly used by Overseas Chinese is Hurn ( / ), derived from Zhonghua, a
literary name for China.
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.
Culture
Chinese culture has been heavily influenced by Confucianism. Credited with shaping much of Chinese
thought, Confucianism was the official philosophy throughout most of Imperial China's history,
institutionalizing values like filial piety which implied the performance of certain shared rituals.
Thus, villagers lavished on funeral and wedding ceremonies that imitated the Confucian standards of the
Emperors. Mastery of Confucian texts provided the primary criterion for entry into the imperial
bureaucracy, but even those degree-holders who did not enter the bureaucracy or who left it held
increased social influence in their home areas, contributing to the homogenizing of Han Chinese culture.
Other factors contributing to the development of a shared Han culture included urbanization and
geographically vast but integrated commodity markets.

Language
Han Chinese speak various forms of the Chinese language that are descended from a common early
language; one of the names of the language group is Hanyu / .
Qin dinasty
Since the Qin dynasty which standardized the various forms of writing that existed in China, a standard
literary Chinese emerged with vocabulary and grammar that was significantly different from the various
forms of spoken Chinese.
A simplified and elaborated version of this written standard was used in business contracts, notes for
Chinese opera, ritual texts for Chinese folk religion, and other daily documents for educated people.
Qing dinasty
In the late imperial period, more than two thirds of the Han Chinese population used a variant of Mandarin
Chinese as their native tongue. However, there was a larger variety of Chinese dialects in certain areas of
southeast China, like Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Guangxi.
Language 20th Century
Written vernacular Chinese based on Mandarin dialects, which had been developing for several centuries,
was standardized and adopted to replace Literary Chinese.
Residents of different regions generally share a common written language.
In the 1950s, Simplified Chinese characters were adopted in mainland China and later in Singapore, while
Chinese communities in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and overseas countries continue to use Traditional
Chinese characters.

Names
There are 4,000 to 6,000 surnames in China, of which about 1,000 surnames are most common.
Surnames are typically one character in length, though a few uncommon surnames are two or more
syllables long, while given names are one or two syllables long.
In historical China, hundred surnames () was a crucial identity of Han people.






Clothes
They usually wear Western-style clothing. Few wear traditional Hanfu on a regular basis.
It is preserved in religious and ceremonial costumes. For example, Taoist priests dress in fashion typical of
scholars of the Han Dynasty.
Now, the most popular traditional Chinese clothing worn by many women on important occasions such as
wedding banquets and New Year is called the qipao. However, this attire comes not from the Han Chinese
but from a modified dress-code of the Manchus.
In other countries
-- Japan = The ceremonial dress in Japan, such as those of Shinto priests, is largely in line with ceremonial
dress in China during the Tang Dynasty.
-- Korea = The Hanbok in Korea were heavily influenced by traditional Chinese Hanfu during Ming Dynasty.
-- Vietnam = The Vietnamese Ao dai bears similarities with the Chinese Cheongsam but ultimately
descends from the o t thn, which was influenced by the fashion of China's imperial court. In Vietnam,
the court attire or royal clothing worn by the Nguyen dynasty descended from Ming clothing with some
influence from the newly established Qing dynasty.

Family
Han Chinese families throughout China have traditionally had a certain set of prescribed roles, such as the
family head (, jizhng), who represents the family to the outside world; and the family manager (
, dngji), who is in charge of the earnings.

Because farmland was commonly bought, sold, or mortgaged, families were run like enterprises, with set
rules for family division (, fnji) of pooled earnings and assets.
Siheyuan
Han Chinese houses are different from place to place.
In Beijing they traditionally commonly lived with the whole family in large houses that were rectangular in
shape. This house is called a siheyuan. These houses had four rooms in the front: the guest room, kitchen,
lavatory, and servants' quarters. Across the large double doors was a wing for the elderly in the family. This
wing consisted of three rooms, a central room where the four tablets, heaven, earth, ancestor, and teacher,
were worshipped. There the two rooms attached to the left and right were bedrooms for the grandparents.
The east wing of the house was inhabited by the eldest son and his family, while the west wing sheltered
the second son and his family. Each wing had a veranda, some had a "sunroom" made from a surrounding
fabric supported by a wooden or bamboo frame. Every wing is also built around a central courtyard used
for study, exercise, or nature viewing.

DNA
Y-chromosome haplogroup O3 is a common DNA marker in Han Chinese,
(It appeared in China in prehistoric times)
It is found in more than 50% of Chinese males, and ranging up to over 80% in certain regional subgroups of
the Han ethnicity.
However, the mitochondrial DNA of Han Chinese increases in diversity as one looks from northern to
southern China,
(Male migrants from northern China married with women from local peoples after arriving in Guangdong,
Fujian, and other regions of southern China)
There are consistent strong genetic similarities in the Y chromosome haplogroup distribution between the
southern and northern Chinese population. All Han populations form a tight cluster in their Y chromosome.
The northern Hans are the primary contributors to the gene pool of the southern Hans. However, it is
noteworthy that the expansion process was dominated by males, as is shown by a greater contribution to
the Y-chromosome than the mtDNA from northern Hans to southern Hans.
(These genetic observations are in line with historical records of continuous and large migratory waves of
northern China inhabitants escaping warfare and famine, to southern China).
Aside from these large migratory waves, other smaller southward migrations also occurred during almost
all periods in the past two millennia. Moreover, a study into the gene frequency data of Han
subpopulations and ethnic minorities in China, showed that Han subpopulations in different regions are
also genetically close to the local ethnic minorities, and it means that in many cases blood of ethnic
minorities has mixed into Han, while at the same time, blood of Han also has mixed into the local
ethnicities.