Han Nationality

As the largest ethnic group in both China and world wide, Han nationality has a population of about 1.16 billion accounting for 19% of the world's total population. Over 99% of them live in China while others live abroad in other countries like Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, North America and many countries in Europe such as the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Han Chinese has become one of the main ethnic groups in those countries.

For years, they together with other ethnic minorities lived mainly on agriculture, and made outstanding achievements in the spheres of politics, philosophy, art, literature and natural science.
Ordinary Han People spend their leisure time in Jingshan Park, Beijing
Ordinary Han people in a park, Beijing
Chinese Characters
Chinese Characters
 Language and Character
Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages and is their language. The language is divided into seven dialects namely Mandarin, Wu Dialect, Xiang Dialect, Gan Dialect, Min Dialect, Cantonese and Hakka. In different regions, the standard of Chinese varies. The Mandarin is the standard designated language on the Chinese mainland and Taiwan; while Cantonese is the prime dialect of Hong Kong.

Chinese is written in two forms by the Han people – the traditional and simplified Chinese characters. The latter is derived from the former and is now widely and frequently used.

 Religion
Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, are the main religions. Many people also belong to various Christian denominations due to the influence of western culture.

 Food and Food Culture
The staple food is rice and wheat. Rice is versatile and can be served in a variety of ways including porridge, rice cake, glutinous rice dumpling and rice noodles. Wheat is used in the production of steamed bread, noodles, steamed stuffed buns and wonton. Han people living in different regions of China have formed unique styles of cooking. The eight cuisines are the representative.

Tea and alcohol are the traditional drinks. They like to entertain their honored guests with tea and alcoholic drinks.
Pan-fried dumplings, festival food of Han people
Pan-fried dumplingsople
Courtyard (Sihe Yuan) in North China
Courtyard (Sihe Yuan) in North China
 Housing:
House styles and materials of the Han people vary in different regions of China. Those built in North China are mostly made of bricks in the courtyard style. The courtyard (Sihe Yuan) in Beijing is a representative. For houses in Northeast China, the style is almost the same as that in North China except for the walls. As Northeastern China is extremely cold, walls are built thicker and more solid than those of other places to retain warmth. However, in southern China, the Han people build their houses mainly of timber. The unique style of their buildings can be admired in the earthen buildings (tulou) in Fujian and pavilions in Suzhou.

All the houses of Han are suggested to be positioned in the north facing south to catch the maximum sunlight.

 Festivals:
Festivals are rich and colorful. The most important of these are the Chinese New YearLantern FestivalDragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Day. Please refer to the Traditional Chinese Festivals to see detailed information.

 Further Reading: 55 Chinese ethnic minorities
- Last updated on Apr. 20, 2021 -
Questions & Answers on Han Nationality
Asked by alyssa from USA | Nov. 11, 2015 16:32Reply
What part of China do Han people live? West, East, North, South?
Answers (2)
Answered by Lucy from IRELAND | Nov. 14, 2015 02:48
114Reply


Alyssa, they almost live across the whole country except Tibet. Their population takes more than 90 percent of the whole country's population.
Answered by James B from CHINA | Nov. 15, 2015 15:42
33Reply


Originated from north east of China,near yellow river and Yangtze river. They speak mandarain Cantonese WooChinese and Woship Confucianism.
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