5.3 Ethnic Groups and Languages

China is a united multi-ethnic nation of 56 ethnic groups Table (5.6).  Of the country’s inhabitants, 92 percent are ethnic Han Chinese Fig[5.5]. The Han are descendants of people who settled the plains and plateaus of northern and central China more than 5,000 years ago, and of people in southern China who were absorbed by the northerners more than 2,000 years ago and gradually adopted a shared culture with them. The remaining 8 percent of China’s population consist of 55 minority nationalities, which are Zhuang Fig[5.6], Mongolian Fig[5.7], Tibetan Fig[5.8], Uygur Fig[5.9], MiaoFig[5.10], YiFig[5.11], Korean Fig[5.12], Yao Fig[5.13], Bai Fig[5.14], Tujia Fig[5.15], Hani Fig[5.16], and other nationalities.  Most of the minority nationalities are concentrated in the sparsely settled areas of western and southwestern China. (Microsoft)

While the official and standard spoken language is Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect), a large number of different dialects are used in various part of China.  They are Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, and Hakka dialects and other minority languages.  However, the logographic writing system, which uses characters that represent words rather than pronunciation, makes it possible for all Chinese dialects to be written in the same way.