CHINESE
Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
Han Chinese (漢族) are an ethnic group native to China and, by most modern definitions, the largest single ethnic group in the world.
Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China (mainland China), 98% of the population of the Republic of China (Taiwan), 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the entire global human population. There is substantial genetic, linguistic, cultural, and social diversity among the subgroups of the Han, mainly due to thousands of years of immigration and assimilation of various regional ethnicities and tribes within China. The Han Chinese are a subset of the Chinese nation (Zhonghua minzu; 中華民族). Many Han and other Chinese also call themselves "Descendants of the Yan Di (Yan Emperor) and Huang Di (Yellow Emperor)" (炎黃子孫).
Terms and Etymology: The name Han comes from the Han Dynasty (漢朝), which succeeded the short-lived Qin Dynasty (秦朝) that united China. The Han Dynasty's first emperor was originally known as the king of the region of 'Han Zhong' 漢中, which is where the word is derived.
Prior to the Han Dynasty, the Chinese were referred to as "Huaxia people" (華夏族), citing ancient text description of China proper as an area of magnificent prosperity and culture. The Han Dynasty was considered as a high point in Chinese civilization. As a result of the Han Dynasty's prominence, many Chinese began addressing themselves as "people of Han" (漢人), a name that was since carried down.
Among some southern Han Chinese, a different term exists within various Chinese dialects like Cantonese, Hakka and Minnan – Tángrén (唐人, literally "the people of Tang"). This term derives from a later Chinese dynasty, the Tang Dynasty (唐朝), which is regarded as another zenith of Chinese civilization. The term survives in one of the Chinese names for Chinatown: 唐人街 (Tángrénjiē); literally meaning "Street of the people of Tang".
Another term commonly used by Overseas Chinese is Huaren (華人), derived from Zhonghua (中華), a literary name for China. The usual translation is "ethnic Chinese". The term refers to "Chinese" as a cultural and ethnic affiliation and is inclusive of both Chinese in China and persons of Chinese descent residing abroad.
Han Chauvinism
Han chauvinism (大漢族主義, 漢沙文主義) is a term which is used in mainland China and Taiwan. Referring to people carrying ethnocentric viewpoints that favor the Han Chinese majority ethnic group in China at the expense of the other minority ethnic groups, often under the assumption of cultural superiority. Han chauvinists in the People's Republic of China often invent enemies of Manchus, Mongols and members of the Han nationality that oppose a monolithic view of the nationality. Han chauvinism is also sometimes manifest as nostalgia in the expansionist exploits by past Chinese dynasties, especially those identified with the Han nationality, but in some contexts also including the Qing Dynasty, a Manchu dynasty.
Those espousing chauvinistic attitudes often revive ancient pejorative and anachronistic terms to refer to other ethnic groups as "barbarians". In ancient times, the following terms were used by various peoples of the Zhongyuan (North China Plain) to refer to those peoples not under the political control or cultural influence of the main Chinese dynasty.
"Barbarians" according to Chinese cosmology:
東夷 (eastern barbarians), 西戎 (western barbarians), 南蠻 (southern barbarians), and 北狄 (northern barbarians)
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"Nanman" (南蠻) – literally barbarians of the South - typically referring to southern ethnic groups in present-day South China, Southwestern China and Indo-China. Most of what were considered Nanman then are now Han Chinese (for example, the inhabitants of the province of Nanyue were originally labeled as Nanman, and today represent the Cantonese and various other subgroups of Han Chinese).
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"Xirong" (西戎) – originally an ancient ethnic group (Rong), this term was later used to refer to all non-Han ethnic groups in today's Northwestern China, who were mostly nomadic horsemen,
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"Beidi" (北狄) – originally an ancient ethnic group (Di), this term was later used to refer to all non-Han ethnic groups in today's Northern China, Mongolia, and Siberia, especially those who lived beyond the Great Wall.
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"Dongyi" (東夷) – literally barbarians (or archers) of the East, referring to ancient ethnic groups who lived in today's eastern China along the coast, including groups which have now been assimilated into the Han nationality.
Han Diversity
In addition to a diversity of spoken language, there are also regional differences in culture among Han Chinese. For example, China's cuisine varies from Sichuan's famously spicy food to Guangdong's Dim Sum and fresh seafood. However, ethnic unity still exists between these two groups because of common cultural, behavioural, linguistic, and religious practices.
According to recent scientific studies, there are slight genetic differences throughout China. Due to several waves of immigration from Northern China to Southern China in China's history, there are strong genetic similarities in the Y chromosome between Southern and Northern Chinese males. However, the mitochondrial DNA of Han Chinese increases in diversity as one looks from Northern to Southern China, which suggests that many male migrants from northern China married with women from local peoples after arriving in Guangdong, Fujian, and other regions of Southern China. As this mixing process continued and more Han people migrated south, the people in Southern China became Sinicized and identified themselves as Han.
Historical documentation indicates that the Han were descended from the ancient Huaxia tribes of northern China. During the past two millennia, the Han culture (that is, the language and its associated culture) extended into southern China, a region originally inhabited by the southern natives, including those speaking Dai, Austro-Asiatic and Hmong-Mien languages. As Huaxia culture spread from its heartland in the Yellow River basin, it absorbed many distinct ethnic groups which then came to be identified as Han Chinese, as these groups adopted Han language (or variations of it) and customs.
For example, during the Shang Dynasty, people of the Wu area, in the Yangtze River Delta, were considered a "barbarian" tribe. They spoke a distinct language that was almost certainly non-Chinese, and were described as being scantily dressed and tattooed. By the Tang Dynasty, however, this area had become part of the Han Chinese heartland, and is today the most densely populated and strongest performing economic region in China, the site of China's largest city Shanghai. The people in the Wu area today speak the Wu dialects, which are part of the Chinese language family but are mutually unintelligible with other Chinese languages/dialects, and do not see themselves as a separate ethnic group. The Wu area is one example of many involving the absorption of different cultural groups in contributing toward the diversity of culture and language throughout the Han Chinese ethnic group.
Northern and Southern China
Northern China (中國北方) and Southern China (中國南方) are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions has never been precisely defined. Nevertheless, the self-perception of Chinese people, especially regional stereotypes, has often been dominated by these two concepts.
The boundary between northern and southern China is generally defined to be the Qinling Mountains and Huai River (Huai He). In the eastern provinces like Jiangsu and Anhui, however, the Yangtze River may instead be perceived as the north-south boundary instead of the Huai River, but this is a recent development. There is an ambiguous area, the region around Nanyang, Henan, that lies in the gap where the Qinling has ended and the Huai River has not yet begun; in addition, central Anhui and Jiangsu lie south of the Huai River but north of the Yangtze, making their classification somewhat ambiguous as well. As such, the boundary between northern and southern China does not follow provincial boundaries; it cuts through Shaanxi, Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu, and creates areas such as Hanzhong (Shaanxi), Xinyang (Henan), and Xuzhou (Jiangsu) that lie on an opposite half of China from the rest of their respective provinces. This may have been deliberate; the Mongol Yuan Dynasty and Han Chinese Ming Dynasty established many of these boundaries intentionally to discourage regionalist separatism.
Areas often thought of as being outside "China proper," such as Manchuria, Taiwan, and Inner Mongolia, are also conceived as belonging to either northern or southern China according to the framework above. Xinjiang and Tibet are, however, not usually conceived of as being part of either north or south.
The concepts of northern and southern China originate from differences in climate, geography, culture, and physical traits; as well as several periods of actual political division in history. Northern China is too cold and dry for rice cultivation (though rice is grown there today with the aid of modern technology) and consists largely of flat plains, grasslands, and desert; while Southern China is warm and rainy enough for rice and consists of lush mountains cut by river valleys. Historically, these differences have led to differences in warfare during the pre-modern era, as cavalry could easily dominate the northern plains but encountered difficulties against river navies fielded in the south. There are also major differences in language, cuisine, culture, and popular entertainment forms.
Episodes of division into North and South include:
- Three Kingdoms (220-280)
- Sixteen Kingdoms (317-420) and Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589)
- Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907-960)
- Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and Jin Dynasty (1115-1234)
- Warlord era (1916-1928)
The Southern and Northern Dynasties showed such a high level of polarization between North and South that northerners and southerners referred to each other as barbarians; the Mongol Yuan Dynasty also made use of the concept: Yuan subjects were divided into four castes, with northern Han Chinese occupying the second-lowest caste and southern Han Chinese occupying the lowest one.
The stereotypical Northerner:
- Is taller
- Has small, slit-like, and/or slanty eyes with single eyelids (i.e. an epicanthal fold)
- Has a longer rugged face (possibly with considerably more facial hair than southerners)
- Speaks a northern Mandarin dialect
- Eats wheat-based food rather than rice-based food
- Is loud, loyal, boisterous, warm-hearted, open, and prone to "thunderbolt" displays of emotion, such as anger
The stereotypical Southerner:
- Is shorter
- Has large, almond-shaped eyes with double eyelids
- Has a smooth, round face
- Speaks a southern dialect such as Wu, Yue (Cantonese), or Min
- Eats rice-based food rather than wheat-based food (see celiac disease)
- Is clever, calculating, wealthy, hardworking, and prone to "mincemeat" displays of emotion, such as brooding melancholy
Note that these are very rough stereotypes, and are greatly complicated both by further stereotypes by province (or even county) and by real life.
160K single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Our results showed that the Han Chinese population is intricately substructured, with the 
