Nationality in China,Chinese Nationality

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From the dawn of time, China's history has been a story of an immense land populated by several diverse tribes. It is one of migrations and conflict, and separation and fusion of cultures. The product of the intermingling of many tribes, the Han people were among the first to settle down and develop an agrarian society. The People's Republic of China (PRC) officially recognizes 55 ethnic minority groups within China in addition to the Han majority. The Han comprise 93 percent of the populace.

The Han Chinese speak seven languages, with Mandarin or Putonghua being the most common. Cantonese, which is spoken in Hong Kong and in China's other southern provinces, is the second most popular language amongst the Han. China's minorities account for only a small proportion (7%) of the entire population, though they comprise only a small percentage of China's population members of the 55 ethnic minority groups still have more than 107 million members.

Hong Kong and Macau do not use this ethnic classification system, and figures by the PRC government do not include these two territories. Members of the ethnic minority groups mostly live along the country's borders and some of them live on both sides of the border. In general, the officially recognized ethnic minority groups reside within Mainland China, with the exception of the Taiwanese aborigines. The Taiwanese aborigines are classified as a single one of the 55 ethnic minority groups, the Gaoshan, even though they represent several linguistically and culturally diverse ethnicities.

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Nationality