The usage of Chinese by the Chinese diaspora and their descendants has been determined by a large number of factors, including their ancestry, their migrant ancestors' "regime of origin", assimilation through generational changes, and official policies of their country of residence. The general trend is that more established Chinese populations in the Western world and in many regions of Asia have Cantonese as either the dominant variety or as a common community vernacular, while Mandarin is much more prevalent among new arrivals, making it increasingly common in many Chinatowns, though still not dominant.[1][2]
Within East Asia, Min Chinese (Hokkien, Fuzhounese, etc.), Yue Chinese (Cantonese, Taishanese, Wu-Hua, etc.), Hakka Chinese, Wu Chinese, Mandarin dialects to some extent nowadays and Standard Mandarin have served as the lingua francas amongst ethnic Chinese across most of the region and within many of its nations. However, the language situation of these communities can vary greatly amongst neighboring nations or even within.[1]
Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia had been subjected for decades to official, and at times discriminatory, assimilation policies. As a result, a large number are no longer proficient in Chinese. Originally, the majority of the population emigrated from Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces in Southern China, with the first wave of arrivals preceding the Dutch colonial period in the 1700s. The four recognized varieties of Chinese spoken by the Chinese Indonesian community are, ordered by number of speakers: Hokkien, Hakka, Mandarin and Cantonese. Additionally, Teochew and Puxian Min are also found.[4] Taiwanese Overseas Community Affairs Council in 2014 reported more than 8 million self-identified ethnic Chinese: 1.25 percent of the country's population.[1] However other source stated that there are about 10 to 12 million Chinese living in the nation, making up 5-6% of Indonesia population. Most of the Chinese resided in big cities and towns around east coast of Sumatra, north coast of Java and west coast of Kalimantan.
The distribution of Chinese varieties are scattered throughout the archipelago. On North Sumatra, Riau, Riau Islands and Jambi, two varieties of Hokkien exist, Medan Hokkien and Riau Hokkien, which incorporate local and Indonesian vocabulary. Hakka is concentrated in Bangka-Belitung, South Sumatra, Jakarta and West Kalimantan where they form a significant part of the local population. Meanwhile, Pontianak to Ketapang, Kendawangan on the southern tip of West Kalimantan is populated by Teochew speakers. Cantonese and, more recently, Mandarin have been used in Chinese-language schools and both variants are found in major cities such as Jakarta, Medan, Batam and Surabaya, with Mandarin usage increasing with recent arrivals from China (especially in the North China and Taiwan）, as well as Cantonese speakers originating from Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macau.[5] Younger generations of Indonesian Chinese are generally fluent in Standard Indonesian, with some being fluent in English, local Chinese languages and even local native Austronesian languages (Javanese, Sundanese, etc.). Meanwhile, the older generations are only fluent in their native Chinese languages and Indonesian.
Singapore has an ethnic Chinese majority population, with Mandarin recognized as one of its official languages. The Singaporean Chinese community do not consider themselves as 'overseas Chinese' but rather as 'Singaporean Chinese', with an emphasis on their national identification and distinct culture. Furthermore, simplified Chinese characters are used in contrast to other overseas Chinese communities, which almost exclusively use traditional Chinese characters. Although the majority of ethnic Chinese in Singapore are predominantly of Hokkien descent and Hokkien has historically been the most spoken Chinese variety, the government of Singapore discourages the usage of non-Mandarin Chinese varieties through the Speak Mandarin Campaign (SMC).[6] The Singaporean government also actively promotes English as the common language of the multiracial society of Singapore, with younger Chinese Singaporeans being mostly bilingual in Mandarin and English, while the older generations speak other Chinese varieties.
Under the SMC policy, all nationally produced non-Mandarin Chinese TV and radio programs were stopped after 1979.[7] Additionally, Hong Kong (Cantonese) and Taiwanese (Hokkien) dramas are unavailable in their original languages on non-cable TV. Nevertheless, since the government restriction on non-Mandarin media was relaxed in the mid-1990s, these media have become available once on again on cable TV and sold in stores. However, only Cantonese seems to have benefited from this uplift, thanks to a large following of Hong Kong popular culture, such as television dramas, cinema and Cantopop.
The Chinese community makes up approximately 12% of the country's total population, the fourth largest concentration of overseas Chinese in the world. Chinese immigrants who have settled here mostly come from the Southern parts of China, notably regions associated with the Min language group. A distinct culture has developed with many Chinese people speaking in a mix three languages - Malay as required in primary to secondary education, English as required in all educational and professional contexts and Chinese as an important part of identity. This spoken mix of Chinese, English and Malay is comparably similar to the Singlish spoken by Singaporeans and other forms of creolic English spoken by Malaysia.
In terms of dialects, a number of Chinese variants are spoken in Brunei such as Hokkien, Hakka, Mandarin, Foochow and Cantonese. Notably, the Chinese community in the capital city of Bandar Seri Begawan mostly speaks Hokkien and Mandarin. Chinese migrants who speak a dialect can also be found to have been clustered in early settlements.
The Chinese community has also set up Chinese schools where proper Mandarin is instructed. While many of the older generation may read and write Traditional Chinese, the modern generation reads and writes Simplified Chinese. Mandarin is the lingua franca in the Chinese community in Brunei. Arguably, English is also a common medium of communication but to a lesser extent.
Associations of Chinese people who speak the same dialect can be found such as the Hainan Association and Foochow Association among many others. However, these associations seem to be losing membership and many dialects are perceived to be dying as Mandarin becomes more common and English gains even more importance.
Malaysia is the only country besides Mainland China and Taiwan that has a complete Chinese education system, from primary schools to universities.[8] Malaysian Chinese speak a wide variety of variants, which are concentrated around particular population centers. Hokkien, the largest Chinese group, is concentrated in Penang, Klang, Kelantan and Malacca, with Penang having its own Hokkien variety. Cantonese is centered on Kuala Lumpur, Seremban, Kuantan and Ipoh, with Hakka minorities also scattered in some states. Meanwhile, in East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo), Southern Min (Hokkien and Teochew), Hakka, Cantonese, and Mandarin are found except in Sibu, where Fuzhounese (a language of Eastern Min) is predominant, and in Sabah's Sandakan town, where Cantonese and Hakka are both widely spoken.[9]
Regardless of location, however, younger generations are educated in the Malaysian standard of Mandarin at Chinese-language schools. Also, most Chinese Malaysians can speak both Malay (the national language) and English, which is widely used in business and at tertiary level. Furthermore, Cantonese is understood by most Malaysian Chinese as it is the prevalent language used in local Chinese-language media, although many are unable to speak it fluently.[10]
Although the Burmese Chinese (or Chinese Burmese) officially make up three percent of the population, the actual figure is believed to be much higher. Among the under-counted Chinese populations are: those of mixed background;[11] those that have registered themselves as ethnic Bamar to escape discrimination; illegal Chinese immigrants that have flooded Upper Burma since the 1990s (up to 2 million by some estimates[12]) but are not counted due to the lack of reliable census taking.[13]
The Burmese Chinese dominate the Burmese economy today.[14] They also have a very large presence in Burmese higher education, and make up a high percentage of the educated class in Burma. Most Burmese Chinese speak Burmese as their parent tongue. Those with higher education also speak Mandarin and/or English. The use of non-Mandarin Chinese varieties still prevails. Hokkien (a Southern Min dialect) is mostly used in Yangon as well as in Lower Burma, while Taishanese (a Yue language akin to Cantonese) and Yunnanese Mandarin are well preserved in Upper Burma.
Ethnic Chinese in Vietnam are categorized into three groups that are based on migrant history, location and level of integration. The largest group is the Hoa, numbering almost a million individuals and have historically been influential in Vietnamese society and economy. They are largely concentrated in major cities of the former South Vietnam (especially in Ho Chi Minh City) and largely speak Cantonese, with Teochew being found among a significant minority.[15]
The two smaller Chinese-speaking groups consist of the San Diu and Ngái. The San Diu number over 100,000 and are concentrated in the mountains of northern Vietnam. They actually trace their origins to Yao people rather than Han Chinese, but nevertheless have been heavily influenced by Chinese culture and speak a variant of Cantonese. Meanwhile, the Ngái are concentrated in rural areas of northern and central Vietnam and number around 1,000. They speak Hakka natively and use Cantonese to communicate with Hoa communities.[16]
A 2013 census estimated there to be 15,000 ethnic Chinese in Cambodia.[17] However, Chinese community organizations have estimated that up to around 7% of the population may have Chinese ancestry.[18] Chinese Cambodians have historically played important economic and political roles in the country and are still often overrepresented in Cambodian commerce.
As a vast majority of the group emigrated from Cambodia following the Khmer Rouge, the community has assimilated greatly into Cambodian society and many now speak Khmer as their main language. Over three-fourths of Chinese Cambodians belong to the Teochew group, which is also the most commonly spoken Chinese variety. The other two largest groups include Hokkien and Hainanese. Cantonese formed the largest group from the 17th to the mid-20th century, but form only a minority today and are concentrated in major urban centers, especially in the capital city of Phnom Penh. Nevertheless, Cantonese continues to serve as the common community language among most Chinese Cambodians.[19] In Chinese-language schools, either Cantonese and Mandarin are taught, depending on which school.[20]
Among the small ethnic Chinese community of Laos, Teochew and Cantonese are the two most spoken Chinese varieties. Ethnic Chinese living on the border with China speak Southwestern Mandarin.[21]
Although Thailand is home to the largest Overseas Chinese community in the world,[22] the level of assimilation is also the highest and most Thai Chinese today speak Thai as their native or main language. Most ethnic Chinese live in major cities such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Chumphon, Ratchaburi, Chon Buri, Hat Yai and Nakhon Sawan, with Chinatowns in these cities still featuring signage in both Chinese and Thai. As of the 2000s, only a little over 2% (200,000) of Thai Chinese still speak a variant of Chinese at home. A little over half speak Teochew, the largest variant group, followed by Hakka, Hokkien, Hainanese, Cantonese and Shanghainese.[23] In commerce, Teochew, Cantonese and Thai are used as common languages and Chinese-language schools often use Cantonese as the medium of instruction due to its lingua franca status among most ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia.[24]
Chinese Filipinos officially comprise 1.5% of the country's population, although demographic surveys from third parties find that 18-27% of the Philippine population have at least some Chinese ancestry, totalling up to 27 million people.[25]
Most Chinese Filipinos are at least trilingual, speaking at least one Chinese variant, English, and Filipino (Tagalog), plus potentially one or more other Philippine languages. Older Chinese Filipinos generally prefer to use a Chinese variant, whereas younger generations prefer to use English or any native Philippine language, a result of the strong prohibition of Chinese-language education enacted during the martial law dictatorship of President Marcos (1972–1986). The most widely-spoken Chinese variety is Hokkien, specifically a branched-off local variant of it called Philippine Hokkien. Other Chinese varieties such as Cantonese, Taishanese, Teochew, Hakka, and Shanghainese are also spoken, albeit by a much smaller percentage of the population. In contrast to many of the other Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, the Chinese community of the Philippines does not use Cantonese as its preferred community language or as a principal lingua franca but rather Philippine Hokkien, which is spoken informally at schools and in business among Chinese Filipinos.[26] The most common Philippine languages in the community are Filipino (Tagalog) and the Visayan languages (e.g. Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray, etc.) but Ilocano, Pangasinan, Bikol, Chavacano, and Kapampangan are also spoken. As part of a recent trend, partly due to increased contact with other overseas Chinese in Hong Kong and Singapore, more Chinese Filipino families are now opting to use English as their first language at home. There is also a trend among some young Chinese Filipinos to relearn Hokkien, a result of increasing pride in being "ethnic Chinese" and the popularity of Taiwanese films and shows, which is associated with the rise of China in the 21st century.
In Chinese-language schools, a Philippine standard of Mandarin is taught, although most Chinese Filipinos do not speak it at home and do not attain in it the same level of fluency as Chinese people in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and other overseas communities. Due to extensive, albeit informal, contacts with the Ministry of Education of Taiwan (ROC) from 1950 to 1990, the traditional Chinese script as well as Zhuyin are still used, although these have gradually been eased out in favor of simplified Chinese characters and pinyin starting in 2005, with Chinese-language textbooks increasingly imported from mainland China and Singapore.
Despite the perceived widespread assimilation of Chinese Filipinos into the general Philippine population, most still form part of a "Tsinoy" community where Chinese culture is celebrated and practiced. Although not all Chinese Filipinos can fluently speak Hokkien or any other Chinese variant, most can still understand Hokkien to some degree. On the other hand, most Chinese Mestizos (called chhut-si-ia in Hokkien), or those who are of mixed Chinese and Filipino, Spanish, and/or American ancestry, tend to downplay their Chinese roots and invariably consider themselves solely Filipino. Most of these Chinese Mestizos exclusively speak one or more local Philippine languages and/or English.
North America
Typical grocery store on 8th Avenue in one of the Brooklyn Chinatowns (布鲁克林華埠) on Long Island, New York, US. Multiple Chinatowns in Manhattan (紐約華埠), Queens (法拉盛華埠), and Brooklyn are thriving as traditionally urban enclaves, as large-scale Chinese immigration continues into New York, with the largest metropolitan Chinese population outside Asia.
Many overseas Chinese populations in North America speak some variety of Chinese. In the United States and Canada, Chinese is the third most spoken language.[32][33][34]Yue dialects have historically been the most prevalent forms of Chinese due to immigrants being mostly from southern China from the 19th century up through the 1980s.[33][35] However, Mandarin is becoming increasingly more prevalent due to the opening up of the PRC.[35]
In New York City in 2002, Mandarin was spoken as a native language by only 10% of Chinese speakers, but was used as an auxiliary language among the greatest number of them and was predicted to replace Cantonese as their lingua franca.[36] Although Min Chinese or Fuzhounese, the majority of Min Chinese, is spoken natively by a third of the Chinese population there, it is not used as a lingua franca because speakers of other dialect groups do not learn Min.[36]
In Richmond (part of the Greater Vancouver metropolitan area in Canada), 55% of the population is Chinese.[37] Chinese words can be seen everywhere from local banks to grocery stores. In the broader Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area, 18% of the population is Chinese. Similarly in Toronto, which is the largest city in Canada, Chinese people make up 11.4% of the local population with the higher percentages of between 20 and 50% in the suburbs of Markham, Richmond Hill and within the city's east end, Scarborough.[38] Cantonese and Mandarin are the most popular forms of Chinese spoken in the area.
Economic growth in the People's Republic of China has given mainland Chinese more opportunities to emigrate. A 2011 survey showed that 60% of Chinese millionaires plan to emigrate,[39] mostly to the United States or Canada. The EB-5 Investment Visa allows many powerful Chinese to seek U.S. citizenship, and recent reports show that 75% of applicants for this visa in 2011 were Chinese.[40] Chinese multimillionaires benefited most from the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program in the U.S. Now, as long as one has at least US$500,000 to invest in projects listed by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), where it is possible to get an EB-5 green card that comes with permanent U.S. residency rights, but only in states specified by the pilot project.[41]
Standard Chinese is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era (1912–1949). It is designated as the official language of mainland China and a major language in the United Nations, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is largely based on the Beijing dialect. Standard Chinese is a pluricentric language with local standards in mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore that mainly differ in their lexicon. Hong Kong written Chinese, used for formal written communication in Hong Kong and Macau, is a form of Standard Chinese that is read aloud with the Cantonese reading of characters.
Min is a broad group of Sinitic languages with about 70 million native speakers. These languages are spoken in Fujian province as well as by the descendants of Min-speaking colonists on the Leizhou Peninsula and Hainan and by the assimilated natives of Chaoshan, parts of Zhongshan, three counties in southern Wenzhou, the Zhoushan archipelago, Taiwan and scattered in pockets or sporadically across Hong Kong, Macau, and several countries in Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei. The name is derived from the Min River in Fujian, which is also the abbreviated name of Fujian Province. Min varieties are not mutually intelligible with one another nor with any other variety of Chinese.
Southern Min, Minnan or Banlam, is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Chinese languages that form a branch of Min Chinese spoken in Fujian, most of Taiwan, Eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and Southern Zhejiang. Southern Min dialects are also spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Southern Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Southern and Central Vietnam, as well as major cities in the United States, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City. Minnan is the most widely-spoken branch of Min, with approximately 48 million speakers as of 2017–2018.
There are several hundred languages in China. The predominant language is Standard Chinese, which is based on Beijingese, but there are hundreds of related Chinese languages, collectively known as Hanyu, that are spoken by 92% of the population. The Chinese languages are typically divided into seven major language groups, and their study is a distinct academic discipline. They differ as much from each other morphologically and phonetically as do English, German and Danish, but meanwhile share the same writing system (Hanzi) and are mutually intelligible in written form. There are in addition approximately 300 minority languages spoken by the remaining 8% of the population of China. The ones with greatest state support are Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur and Zhuang.
There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast part of mainland China. The varieties are typically classified into several groups: Mandarin, Wu, Min, Xiang, Gan, Jin, Hakka and Yue, though some varieties remain unclassified. These groups are neither clades nor individual languages defined by mutual intelligibility, but reflect common phonological developments from Middle Chinese.
Penang Hokkien is a local variant of Hokkien spoken in Penang, Malaysia. It is spoken natively by 63.9% of Penang's Chinese community, and also by some Penangite Indians and Penangite Malays.
Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou and its surrounding Pearl River Delta.
Teochew, also known as Teo-Swa, is a Southern Min language spoken by the Teochew people in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong and by their diaspora around the world. It is sometimes referred to as Chiuchow, its Cantonese rendering, due to English romanization by colonial officials and explorers. It is closely related to Hokkien, as it shares some cognates and phonology with Hokkien.
Chinese Singaporeans are Singaporeans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Singaporeans constitute 75.9% of the Singaporean resident population according to the official census, making them the largest ethnic group in Singapore.
The Hoklo people are a Han Chinese subgroup who speak Hokkien, a Southern Min language, or trace their ancestry to southeastern Fujian in China, and known by various related terms such as Banlam people, Minnan people, Fujianese people or more commonly in Southeast Asia as the Hokkien people. The Hokkien people are found in significant numbers in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Myanmar, and the United States. The Hokkien people have a distinct culture and architecture, including Hokkien shrines and temples with tilted sharp eaves, high and slanted top roofs, and finely detailed decorative inlays of wood and porcelain. The Hokkien language, which includes Taiwanese Hokkien, is the mainstream Southern Min, which is partially mutually intelligible to the Teochew language, Hainanese, Leizhou Min, and Haklau Min.
The Han Chinese people can be defined into subgroups based on linguistic, cultural, ethnic, genetic, and regional features. The terminology used in Mandarin to describe the groups is: "minxi", used in mainland China or "zuqun", used in Taiwan. No Han subgroup is recognized as one of People's Republic of China's 56 official ethnic groups, in Taiwan only three subgroups, Hoklo, Hakka and Waishengren are recognized.
During the British colonial era, English was the sole official language until 1978. Today, the Basic Law of Hong Kong states that English and Chinese are the two official languages of Hong Kong. All roads and government signs are bilingual, and both languages are used in academia, business and the courts, as well as in most government materials today.
The languages of Singapore are English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil, with the lingua franca between Singaporeans being English, the de facto main language. Singaporeans often speak Singlish among themselves, an English creole arising from centuries of contact between Singapore's internationalised society and its legacy of being a British colony. Linguists formally define it as Singapore Colloquial English. A multitude of other languages are also used in Singapore. They consist of several varieties of languages under the families of the Austronesian, Dravidian, Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan languages. The Constitution of Singapore states that the national language of Singapore is Malay. This plays a symbolic role, as Malays are constitutionally recognised as the indigenous peoples of Singapore, and it is the government's duty to protect their language and heritage.
The languages of Taiwan consist of several varieties of languages under the families of Austronesian languages and Sino-Tibetan languages. The Formosan languages, a geographically designated branch of Austronesian languages, have been spoken by the Taiwanese indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Owing to the wide internal variety of the Formosan languages, research on historical linguistics recognizes Taiwan as the Urheimat (homeland) of the whole Austronesian languages family. In the last 400 years, several waves of Han emigrations brought several different Sinitic languages into Taiwan. These languages include Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, and Mandarin, which have become the major languages spoken in present-day Taiwan.
Malaysian Mandarin is a variety of the Chinese language spoken in Malaysia by ethnic Chinese residents. It is currently the primary language used by the Malaysian Chinese community
The indigenous languages of Malaysia belong to the Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian families. The national, or official, language is Malay which is the mother tongue of the majority Malay ethnic group. The main ethnic groups within Malaysia are the Malays, Chinese and Tamils, with many other ethnic groups represented in smaller numbers, each with its own languages. The largest native languages spoken in East Malaysia are the Iban, Dusunic, and Kadazan languages. English is widely understood and spoken within the urban areas of the country; the English language is a compulsory subject in primary and secondary education. It is also the main medium of instruction within most private colleges and private universities. English may take precedence over Malay in certain official contexts as provided for by the National Language Act, especially in the states of Sabah and Sarawak, where it may be the official working language. Furthermore, the law of Malaysia is commonly taught and read in English, as the unwritten laws of Malaysia continue to be partially derived from pre-1957 English common law, which is a legacy of past British colonisation of the constituents forming Malaysia. In addition, authoritative versions of constitutional law and statutory law are continuously available in both Malay and English.
Hokkien is a variety of the Southern Min languages, native to and originating from the Minnan region, in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is also referred to as Quanzhang, from the first characters of the urban centers of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou.
Huan-a is a Hokkien-language term used by Hokkien speakers in multiple countries, namely mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, etc. The word itself when dissected means 番; hoan; 'foreign', + 仔; á; 'diminutive noun suffix', but to the ethnic Chinese that settled overseas in Taiwan and Maritime Southeast Asia, it soon came to refer to native Southeast Asians and Taiwanese aborigines.
↑ Chua, Amy (May 2004). "Review: The Ethnic Question in Law and Development". World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability. 102 (6). The Michigan Law Review Association: 1044–1103. JSTOR4141938.
↑ "Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey 2013"(PDF). National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Government of Cambodia. July 2014. p.12. Retrieved 2015-01-16.
1 2 2006 Census Profile of Federal Electoral Districts (2003 Representation Order): Language, Mobility and Migration and Immigration and Citizenship. Ottawa: Statistics Canada. 2007.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
