Pictures of Chinese people - 56 ethnic groups

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Han people 汉族


Minnan people 閩南人 or Hoklo people. In narrower scope, the Hoklo people refers mainly to people who speak and use the Hokkien dialect of Min Nan Chinese spoken in southern Fujian, western Guangdong (Teochew people) and Taiwan, and by many overseas Chinese throughout Southeast Asia (in particularily Malaysia and Indonesia). Teochew dialect is considered a sub dialect of Minnan. The estimated speakers of Hoklo is about 60 million and of Taiwan's 22 million plus population 70% of them speak Minnan dialect. In a wider scope the Minnan people can include speakers of other Min Nan languages, such as Zhongshan Min, Zhenan Min, Teochew dialect, and Hainanese.


Distribution of Minnan people (green), mainly in Fujian, western coast of Guangdong and Taiwan

Fuzhou 福州. the capitol city of Fujian Province

A street in Fuzhou

A happy Minnan family on Chinese New Year

Kids playing on the street

A girl's hair style

李嘉诚 Li Ka-shing b1928 of Hong Kong, the richest Chinese, is of Minnan Teochew ancestry

Taksin The Great, 1734-1782, was the only King of the Thonburi Kingdom of Thailand whose father, Yong Saetae 鄭鏞, was an ethnic Teochew from Shantou Guangdong

 

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Han people 汉族


Minnan people 閩南人


Minnan people live in the coastal region of China that has 304 km of shallow coastline and, ingenuously, they developed an unique fishing method through generations - "Mudflat Fishing" 霞浦

Set the nets on stilt style bamboo poles on low tides

Just leave them there and do other chores until the high tides come and go

For the meantime take care the boats

Fix some tangled or torn fishnets

Or scope out some of the excess fish if you have time or are getting impatient

The tide is about receding the whole village is ready to go out and gather he fish

 

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Han people 汉族 - Minnan people 閩南人


Daily lives of Minnan mudflat fishermen


Some fishermen live onshore with their wooden flat bottomed motor rafts park in front of the village

Some even live on small towns with their territories carved out

Some live on their boats - no need to travel when you don't have to, they say

Some live on these stilt house village

On high tides they become floating houses

A live of its own in this part of the world

Drying seaweeds that were caught by the nets

The sun is about set

 

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Han people 汉族 - Minnan people 閩南人


Daily lives of Minnan mudflat fishermen


The sun comes up in the morning again.....another day begins for everyone

An early bird is out there to collect snails and oysters

A little later real early birds are coming in with oysters

While the kids are playing before the classes begin

Their parents are ready to set the nets again

The old and the young are also busy

 

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Han people 汉族 - Minnan people 閩南人


The "Three Lanes and Seven Alleys" of Fuzhou City, the capitol of Minnan people

 

[Mian H Amin.]

what difference ???? they all look same to me

 

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Han people 汉族 - Minnan people 閩南人


Being seafaring people the Minnan people rely on the Goddess of the sea, Matsu 媽祖, to protect them

A Tin Hau (Heaven Queen) Temple for Matsu

A Tin Hau temple on the other side of the world - Los Angeles

Tin Yau alter in Yilan City, Taiwan

Minnan people also have deep respects for their ancestors

They pay tributes and consult their ancestors on all kinds of events 红白事 - good or bad

At home territories

Or faraway in Malaysia

 

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Han people 汉族 - Minnan people 閩南人


Most Minna people trace their paternal ancestry to male settlers who migrated to Taiwan from Fujian in the 17th and 18th centuries. In Taiwan the Minnan people are referred as 河洛人 in Chinese.


The migrations of Minnan and Hakka (green arrow) to Taiwan

A Minnan young mother and a child in early 1900s

70% of Taiwan's 23 million people are of Minnan descent

Most Minnan people live in metropolis in Taiwan

Or in small railway towns like this one

Or in villages like this one

All in all they retain the same life styles, believes and customs as their counterparts in China

 

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Han people 汉族 - Minnan people 閩南人


There are also many Minnan speakers in Hong Kong

Most live among the mainstream

These are the Minnan Tanka (people live in boats)

This mingle with the regular Tanka people (another subdivision of Han people) and live in various typhoon shelters in Hong Kong

The Minnan speakers have a long history in Malacca or other places in Malaysia and Indonesia

They too retain most of their cultures and believes

 

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Han people 汉族 - Minnan people 閩南人


Minnan people have their own style of opera and they call it 保安宮‧歌仔戲. The operas are usually played on outdoor stages on temple environments

Kids always love puppet shows

A Minnan dance 闽南神韵 where the dancers express their messages through their dancing skills

 

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Han people 汉族 - Minnan people 閩南人


A Minnan traditional wedding


The groom is just about ready in his new apartment

The best man and the chauffeur wait for him down the street

They reach the bride's resident

But was harass at the door by the bridesmaids

Finally settles on 2 sets of 9 pushups from the original demand of 99 (nine means forever in Chinese, so 99 means forever and ever)

Plus sign a guarantee of good treatments of the bride in the future

He has to present that guarantee to her in private

The groom and the best man then are treated with bowls sweet soup with eggs (for fertility)

 

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Han people 汉族 - Minnan people 閩南人


After the sweets they kneel before the bride's great grandmother and receive blessings and gifts

The the same process with her grandparents

Ditto her parents

A picture with all her immediate family

It's afternoon when they reach his apartment where his family are waiting. First she has to cross the threshold with a fire urn

While the firecrackers are cracking outside nonstop, they kneel before his ancestors' alter

The same process with his grandparents and now his parents

They both eat some fertility eggs and rest a little before the big banquet tonight in a palace restaurant

 

[Snomannen]

Cultural diversity is a benefit.

 

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Han people 汉族


Wu people 江南人 or Wuyue people 吴越人, are a major subgroup of the Han Chinese. They are a Wu Chinese-speaking 吴语 people who hail from southern Jiangsu province 江苏, the city of Shanghai 上海, all of Zhejiang province 浙江, as well as smaller populations scattered around a few cities in nearby provinces. During the early Qing period, Wu speakers represented about 20% of the whole Chinese population. This percentage drastically declined after the Taiping Rebellion devastated the Wu-speaking region and was reduced to about 8% by 1984, when the total number of speakers was estimated to be 77 million.

Wu and Yue were two kingdoms during the Zhou dynasty and later, after years of fighting and conflict, the two cultures of Wu and Yue became one culture through mutual contact and cultural diffusion. It was not until the fall of Western Jin during the early 4th century AD that northern Chinese moved to Jiangnan in significant numbers. The Yellow River valley was becoming barren due to flooding (lack of trees after intensive logging to create farmland) and constant harassment and invasion by the Wu Hu nomads. In the 10th century Wuyue became one of a small coastal kingdom of the "Ten Kingdom" found by Qian Liu 钱镠 who made a lasting cultural impact on Jiangnan and its people to this day. The cultural distinctiveness that began developing over this period persists to this day as the Wuyue region speaks a dialect of Chinese language called Wu, has distinctive cuisine and other cultural traits.

Traditionally, in the past, Wuyue people dominated the Imperial examinations, and were often ranked first in the imperial examinations as Zhuangyuan (狀&#20803, or in other positions of the Jinshi (進&#22763 degree.


Distribution of Wu speaking people

A comparative map in English

There's a upscale subdistrict in Seoul Korea, with the same Chinese, name made famous by PSY (Park Jae-phase) - Gangnam Gu 江南區

Chiang Kai-shek 蔣介石 1887- 1975, famous former general and President of Republic of China

Lu Xun 鲁迅 1881-1936 a famous 20th writer

Mao Dun 茅盾 1896-1981 a Chinese novelist, cultural critic, and journalist. He was also the Minister of Culture of China from 1949 to 1965.

A memorial hall of Mao Dun in Wuzhen 乌镇, one of the most picturesque ancient water town in China

江南四位才子 “唐伯虎、祝枝山、文征明、周文宾” a drama depicts the 4 most historical talented scholars in Jiangnan

 

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Han people 汉族 - Wu people 江南人


An average speaker of a Wu dialect is mostly unaware of this name for the language they speak since the term Wu is a relatively recent classificatory imposition on what are less clearly defined and highly heterogeneous natural forms. Most speakers are only vaguely aware of their local language's affinities with other similarly classified dialects and will generally only refer to their local Wu variety rather than the dialect family.


Shanghai dialect 上海话/沪语 is a northern dialect of Wu

Shanghai was the Wu culture center from the early 20th century onward

The skyline of Shanghai today

The Bund in Shanghai

Suzhou dialect 蘇州閒話 is a prestige dialect of Wu

The city of Suzhou was found 514 BCE, is adjacent and west of Shanghai by Lake Taihu, a part of Yangtze River's Delta Region.

Ningbo downtown. Ningbo dialect 宁波话 spoken in the vicinity of Ningbo and Zhoushan 舟山市 nearby

Qiantong ancient town 前童古镇in Ningbo