32 Facts About Han Chinese

Name Han Chinese was derived from the name of the eponymous dynasty, which succeeded the short-lived Qin dynasty and is historically considered to be the first golden age of China's Imperial era due to the power and influence it projected over much of East Asia.

Similarly, the Chinese language came to be named the "Han language" ever since.

Han Chinese are almost the majority in every Chinese province, municipality, and autonomous region except for the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Tibet Autonomous Region, where Uighurs and Tibetans are the majority, respectively.

Han Chinese constitute the majority in both of the special administrative regions of the PRC – about 92.

Singapore is the only country in the world where Overseas Chinese constitute a majority of the population and remain a cultural, economic, and politically dominant majority vis-a-vis the non-Han minorities.

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Up until the past few decades, overseas Han Chinese communities originated predominantly from areas in southern China .

Prehistory of the Han Chinese is closely intertwined with both archaeology, biology, historical textual records and mythology.

Writers during the Western Zhou and Han dynasties derived ancestral lineages based on Shang dynasty-era legendary materials, while the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian places the reign of the Yellow Emperor, the legendary leader of Youxiong tribes, at the beginning of Chinese history.

Early ancient Han Chinese history is largely legendary, consisting of mythical tales intertwined with sporadic annals written centuries to millennia later.

The earliest archaeological examples of Han Chinese writing date back to this period – from characters inscribed on oracle bones used for divination – but the well-developed characters hint at a much earlier origin of writing in China.

Han Chinese ordered large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Great Wall, the Lingqu Canal and the Qin road system to militarily fortify the frontiers.

The Han dynasty is considered one of the golden ages of Chinese history, and to this day, the modern Han Chinese people have since taken their ethnic name from this dynasty and the Chinese script is referred to as "Han characters".

Taiwan, previously inhabited mostly by non-Han Chinese aborigines, was sinicized during this period via large-scale migration accompanied by assimilation, despite efforts by the Manchus to prevent this, as they found it difficult to maintain control over the island.

Overseas Han Chinese maintain cultural affinities to Chinese territories outside of their host locale through ancestor worship and clan associations, which often identify famous figures from Chinese history or myth as ancestors of current members.

Since the start of the program in 2001, aspects of Han Chinese culture have been listed by UNESCO as Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Han Chinese speak various forms of the Chinese language that are descended from a common early language; one of the names of the language groups is Hanyu, literally the "Han language".

Similarly, Chinese characters, used to write the language, are called Hanzi, or "Han characters".

Han Chinese clothing has been shaped through its dynastic traditions as well as foreign influences.

Han Chinese clothing is influential to traditional East Asian fashion as both the Japanese Kimono and the Korean Hanbok were influenced by Han Chinese clothing designs.

Han Chinese have a rich history of classical literature dating back to three thousand years.

Han Chinese literature continues to have an international reputation with Liu Cixin's San Ti series receiving international acclaim.

Han Chinese have influenced and contributed to the development of human progress throughout history in many fields and domains including culture, business, science, and technology, and politics both historically and in the modern era.

Medieval Han Chinese astronomers were among the first peoples to record observations of a cosmic supernova in 1054 AD.

In modern times, Han Chinese continue to contribute to the progress of science and technology.

Han Chinese culture has for long been influenced by Mahayana Buddhism, while in recent centuries Christianity has gained a foothold among the population.

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However, through centuries of mutual tolerance, assimilation, adaptation, and syncretism, Han Chinese Buddhism gained an respectable place in the culture.

Han Chinese Buddhism was influenced by Confucianism and Taoism, and exerted influence in turn – such as in the form of Neo-Confucianism and Buddhist influences in Han Chinese folk religion, such as the cult of Guanyin, who is treated as a Bodhisattva, immortal, goddess, or exemplar of Confucian virtue, depending on the tradition.

The four largest schools of Han Chinese Buddhism were all developed in China, and later spread throughout the Sinosphere.

The southern Han Chinese aristocracy was formed from the offspring of these migrants; Celestial Masters and the nobility of northern China subdued the aristocracy of southern China during the Eastern Jin and Western Jin, particularly in Jiangnan.

Han Chinese show a close genetic relationship with other modern East Asians such as the Koreans and Yamato.

Therefore, this proves that the male contribution of southern natives in southern Han Chinese is limited, assuming that the frequency distribution of Y lineages in southern natives represents that before the expansion of Han Chinese culture that started two thousand years ago.

Typical Y-DNA haplogroups of present-day Han Chinese include Haplogroup O-M122 and Haplogroup Q-M120, and these haplogroups have been found among a selection of ancient human remains recovered from the Hengbei archeological site in Jiang County, Shanxi Province, China, an area that was part of the suburbs of the capital during the Zhou dynasty.