Chinese Ethnic

China is a large country noted for its dense population and vast territory. There are 55 minority ethnic groups in addition to the Han who represent 92% of the population. The defining elements of an ethnic group are language, homeland, and social values. 53 minority ethnic groups use spoken languages of their own; 23 minority ethnic groups have their own written languages.

Most of the 7 percent of the minority ethnic groups live in the vast areas of the West, Southwest and Northwest. The largest is the 12 million-strong Zhuang in southwestern China. Although minority ethnic groups account for about 7% of the population, they are distributed over some 50% of Chinese territory, mostly in the border regions. Equality, unity and common prosperity are the fundamental objectives of the government in handling the relations between minority ethnic groups. China exercises a policy of regional autonomy for various minority ethnic groups, allowing ethnic group peoples living in compact communities to establish self-government and direct their own affairs.

Han Chinese
Han Chinese makes up 92 percent of the total population. According to the 1995 sample survey of 1 percent of China's population, there were 1.09932 billion Han people (an increase of 56.84 million since the Fourth National Population Census of 1990), accounting for 91.02 percent of China's total population. Han people are found in all parts of the country, but mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (Huanghe), Yangtze River (Changjiang), Pearl River (Zhujiang) and the Northeast Plain.

The Han people are found in all parts of the country, but mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (Huanghe), the Yangtze River (Changjiang), and the Pearl River (Zhujiang) as well as the Songliao Plains.

The Han nationality has its own spoken and written language, known as the Chinese language, which belongs to the Chinese-Tibetan language family. It is commonly used nowadays throughout China and is the working language of the United Nations. The Chinese language has a history of four thousand years, originating from pictograph. Traditionally, agriculture was the Hans' main occupation. Agriculture provided the nation's basic wealth and was highly advanced, especially in irrigation and intensive farming. There was also a high level of handicraft production, such as bronze, silk, porcelain, architecture, and painting. The Han culture belongs to the world's oldest civilizations, boasting a lot of outstanding achievements in many fields including politics, military affairs, philosophy, literature, history, art and natural science, etc. The rich Han culture has given birth to many notable scientists, philosophers, artists and poets who, as the nation's elite, have had great influence on the course of Chinese history. China 's four great inventions -- compass, papermaking, printing and gunpowder -- have exerted great influence on the history of human development.

In Han culture, Confucianism, the oldest form of Chinese religion whose concepts and teachings have dominated the Chinese ruling class as well as intellectuals for the last two thousand years, is a philosophy rather than a religion. Ancestor worship is widely practiced across the entire country; although it has been simplified in modern time, it never fades away from the Chinese community. Buddhism is the most popular form of Chinese religion. Since its introduction in 400AD, Buddhism has slipped into and occupies every aspect of the Chinese lifestyle. Daoism, named national religion, originated in the Han Dynasty, but is not widely accepted. Besides, there is an increasing number of Chinese who practices Roman Catholicism, Christianism and Islamism.

The appellation of "Han" originated from the Han Dynasty during the 2 nd and 3 rd centuries, the first prosperous dynasty of Chinese history after Qin unifying China . And it continues to be the majority population in China , merged with many different tribal clans like the Yi, Qian, Di and Man. Before that, the people were called "Huaxia".

The earliest Han people can be traced to the Hua Xia tribe, who originally settled in the middle area of the Yellow River (Huanghe). The legendary leader of the Hua Xia tribe was Huang Di (Emperor Yellow). The Chinese refer to themselves as the descendants of Huang Di, and describe the Yellow River as the cradle of their civilization development.

Minority Ethnic Groups
Most of these 7 percent live in the vast areas of the West, Southwest and Northwest. The largest is the 12 million-strong Zhuang in southwestern China. Although minority ethnic groups account for about 7% of the population, they are distributed over some 50% of Chinese-controlled territory, mostly in border regions.

Self-government of Minority Ethnic Groups
Self-government in ethnic group autonomous areas is affected through the local people's congress and people's government at the particular level. There are currently five autonomous regions in China. They are Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region founded on May 1, 1947, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region founded on October 25, 1958, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region founded on October 1, 1955, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region founded on March 5, 1958 and Tibet Autonomous Region founded on September 9, 1965. In addition, China also has 30 autonomous prefectures and 121 autonomous counties (or in some cases, banners). The committee of the People's Congress and the head of the government of an autonomous region, autonomous prefecture or autonomous county belong to the area's designated ethnic group.

Organs of self-government in regional autonomous areas enjoy extensive self-government rights beyond those held by other state organs at the same level. These include enacting regulations for self-government and specialized regulations corresponding to local political, economic and cultural conditions; making independent use of local revenue, and independently arranging and managing construction, education, science, culture, public health and other local undertakings. The Central Government has greatly assisted in the training of ethnic group cadres and technicians through the establishment of institutes and cadre schools for minority ethnic groups to supplement regular colleges and universities. It has, in addition, supplied the ethnic group autonomous areas with large quantities of financial aid and material resources in order to promote their economic and cultural development.

Chinese People 

China has a population of 1.2 billion. There are ninety-five cities that have more than 1 million people, including such urban centers are Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Shenyang, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Harbin, Chongqing, Nanjiang, Xi'an and Chengdu. Five cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, and Wuhan) have well over 5 million. Shanghai is the largest city in China with a population of 14 million.

China has one official language, Chinese. Written Chinese is the same all over the country but when spoken, it is a different story. Putonghua, or Mandarin, is the universal language understood by all educated Chinese. But there are thousands of different dialects in China. The differences in these dialects sometimes are more than two different languages. For "How Are You?", a Beijinger will say, "Ni Hao", while a Guangzhouer will say "Lei Ho". If you are especially linguistically endowed, you can always pick up a few words in dialects but do remember, never try your Shanghai dialect in front of a Beijinger in Beijing.

Most Chinese are not religious. They are, however, quite superstitious though they will deny this. But you don't give a clock as a gift to a Chinese because the word clock in Chinese is pronounced Zhong, the sound that applies to the meaning of "death". Four is not a lucky number, as it also sounds like "death". Eight is a good number in south China because, in local dialect, it sounds like "prosper".

A Chinese friend is the best friend you can ever have in your life. The culture has it that a true friend will "put knives in both sides of his chest" when it is needed. Confucius' philosophy is that Yi, or friendship/camaraderie is higher than any other relationship.

Chinese don't show emotion easily. They rarely "burst into laughter". A joke that will bring down the house in the West may only get a cordial chuckle out of Chinese. But when your host one day, gives out a hearty laugh with you, you know you are getting a friend.

When you go to rural areas where people see few foreigners, you will attract attention. Don't assume they think as you think. They are wondering why your eyes are blue, your nose is big and then, why you are wearing such outlandish clothing or such serious suits. They will wonder how Polaroid can give you immediate pictures. They are not wondering what it would be like if they were in your shoes.

Chinese society gives ultimate respect to their elders. A young foreign executive will probably have to learn how to respect his older Chinese counterpart and demonstrate it in a sincere manner. Such respect will flatter the Chinese as he knows you are probably smarter than he is, yet you give him so much face. This paves the way to the contract table.

Chinese women usually do not take key business positions but if your negotiation counterpart is a woman, do demonstrate special respect. She deserves it and she will let you know. She has to be exceptionally outstanding to make it to that position among all the men contenders.

Children are treasured in China. They are the modern day emperors and empresses especially as most families have only one child. Proverb has it that all parents expect their sons and daughters to be "Dragons and Phoenixes" so they will glorify the family. The subject of children is the best starting point for you to get familiar with your host but don't ask in your first meeting.

Don't ask when 12 other people are present. When you do ask about children, always start with your own kids, or your friends' kids. With kids' talk, you get to the inside of the circle.

Chinese recognize that many of the ways foreigners do things are better than their own but they will not openly say it. Once they are exposed to such ways, they will pick them up smoothly. That is why there is the report that the overall quality level of the workers in Motorola's Tianjin Plant is even higher than in the states. Chinese say, "when you are a piece of white page, you can color it whatever way you want."

Chinese are usually single purpose minded. If need be, they will sit all day long to split a hair into a hundred strands. When you visit a silk embroidery factory, you will see that with your own eyes.

Chinese will not open a gift in front of the giver, but only in private. Therefore, don't insist on Chinese opening the gift in front of you or others. This way, if he doesn't like your gift, both he and you will not be embarrassed.

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