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Loki
01-30-2015, 12:50 AM
Shouldn't we view them as two distinct ethnic groups? Why are both Han?

zhaoyun
01-30-2015, 03:40 AM
Shouldn't we view them as two distinct ethnic groups? Why are both Han?

The term Han Chinese just basically refers to people who traditionally adhered to the culture of Chinese civilization, it is a relatively new term. In actuality, there are vast regional differences. The term Han Chinese is really equivalent to calling someone White American, when that person could be Sicilian, Norwegian or even half-Mexican. Obviously if you spend time in say, Qingdao vs Hong Kong, it's obvious you are dealing with two different ethnic groups.

Goujian
01-30-2015, 07:58 PM
There's a lot more groups. Han is more or less a civilizational identity that can't fit easily within the strict definitions of ethnic nation-states. There's even regional tensions but they are mainly based on cultural and possibly linguistic lines. While it is true there is a northern-southern differences, even the definitions of what is north and what is south differ depending on regional group.

Kawaiine
05-24-2015, 04:26 PM
Chinese is a writing system, not a language - The invention of Chinese began with character, which using characters are able to remember things easily, such as the character "木" (eng: wood) and the character "森林'' (eng: forest) with several woods appears forest is somewhere with many woods and trees. Chinese has a lot of varieties – including Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Min Nan and Hakka. Mandarin is found in north part of China, so if you try to read aloud ancient Chinese poetries in Mandarin, you will find it weird and doesn’t sound rhyme, it’s because Mandarin and many northern dialects are heavily influenced by Altaic languages (Mongolic and Tungusic), that’s why certain people said Mandarin is a 胡語 (means “barbarian language”), In contrast with Mandarin, Cantonese still retains a lot of ancient Chinese words, using Cantonese to read aloud ancient Chinese poetries sounds much rhyme and suitable. Cantonese has 9 tones while Mandarin has 4 tones, so that makes Cantonese rich in vocabulary.

Not just Cantonese, Shanghainese, Min Nan and Hakka are considered as the real Chinese language by certain people.