Culture Shock! China - A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette, 2nd Edition

30 CultureShock! China

The Chinese People

First off, it’s important to recognise the complexity of

definitions. ‘Who is Chinese?’ is easily (though perhaps less

obviously to outsiders) as complex and fraught a question as

‘What makes an American?’ or ‘Who is a Jew?’

Does ‘Chineseness’ refer to citizenship in the People’s

Republic of China (PRC)? If so, that includes 56 official (and

probably many unofficial) minority ethnicities living primarily

in border regions annexed by China over the centuries, some

of whom (such as the separatists among the Tibetans and the

Muslim Uighurs of North-west China) refuse to acknowledge

Chinese sovereignty over them as valid.

Collectively, all of China’s minority ethnicities make up

approximately 8.5 per cent of the total population, making

China far less of a melting pot than many nations of Europe or

the Americas.

China’s Ten Largest Minority Ethnic Groups

by Population

Name of

Group

Approximate

Population

Native Region

(note: most groups now have

nationwide distribution)

Zhuang 16,178,811 Guangxi, parts of Yunnan,

Guizhou, Hunan

Manchu 10,682,263

Throughout North-east and

North-central China

Hui 9,816,802

North-west China, especially

Ningxia and Gansu

Miao 8,940,116

South-west China, especially

Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou

Uighur 8,399,393

North-west China,

especially Xinjiang

Tujia 8,028,133 Hubei and Hunan