Vietnamese people

Vietnamese people

Phan Bội Châu • Vietnamese girl wearing an áo dài • Nguyễn Trãi
Total population
87 million
Regions with significant populations
Vietnam      87,000,000 [1] Cambodia      600,000 [2] Laos                           100,000 China                            30,000
Significant overseas populations
USA	1,521,353 (2005)[3]
France	250,000[4]
Taiwan	120,000 - 200,000[5][6]
Australia	174,200 (2001)[7]
Canada	151,410 (2001)[8]
Germany	83,526 (2004)[9]
Finland	4,000[10]
Poland	45,000
United Kingdom	35,000[11]
Russia	36,225[12]
Norway	18,333 (2006)[13]
Netherlands	18.000 (2007)
Czech Republic	45,362 (2007)[14]
Japan	12,965 (2000)[15]
Languages
Vietnamese
Religion
Predominantly Mahayana Buddhism, with influences of Taoism and a background of Confucian thought (Triple Religion theory). Significant Roman Catholic, Hao Hao Budhist and Caodaist minorities. Small Protestant and Muslim presences.
Related ethnic groups
Gin people of China (also known as Jing or Kinh) Muong people Possibly Southern Chinese or other people in South China. For vague historical references, see also Yue (peoples).

Vietnamese people is composed of 54 ethnic groups with different languages (Austro-Asiatic family, Malayo-Polynesia family, Sino-Tibetan family)

The Vietnamese Kinh (Vietnamese: người Việt or [người Kinh] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) are an ethnic group originating from northern Vietnam and may be from southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam.

Vietnam locates in the mainland of Southeast Asia which have been proposed by Chinese scholars as the first settlement of modern humans in East Asia (; ). Indeed, people in East Asia originated from African () and migrations occurred in the past 60,000 (kya) years ago as indicated by the red and blue arrows on Fig. 1 (please how to insert a photo hear?)(Jin L & Su B, 2000). The first entry of modern humans into the south part of East Asia about 18-60 kya, followed by a northward migration. A southern route also started from mainland Southeast Asia, though Malaysia and Indonesia, eventually continuing eastwards to the Pacific Islands. The blue arrows indicate a contribution from Central Asia that arrived in East Asia at a later time. This is consistent with the evidence that a nontrivial gap beween H. sapiens and H. s. sapiens, in terms of time continuity was observed after a close examination of collection of hominid fossils in eastern Asia (Su B et al. 1999). All the H. sapiens fossils are more than 100,000 years old, wheares all the H. s. sapiens fossils are less than 50,000 years ols (with most being 10,000-30,000 years old).

Recently, archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of human on Vietnamese territory as early as the Paleolithic age. The presence of Homo erectus in 300.000 year ago was found in caves of Lang Son and Nghe An provinces in the North Vietnam. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene age. They include mostly isolated teeth from northern Vietnam at Tham Om (250-140 kyr), and Hang Hum (140-80 kyr) (Kha and Bao, 1967, Kha, 1975, Kha, 1976, Long et al., 1977, Cuong, 1985, Ciochon and Olsen, 1986 and Olsen and Ciochon, 1990). Teeth attributed to Homo sapiens are also known from the Late Pleistocene of Vietnam at Dong Can (16 kyr, Cuong, 1986) and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu/Mai Da Nuoc (8.2 kyr, Cuong, 1986), Lang Gao (Colani, 1927) and Lang Cuom (6.44 ± 0.5 kyr, Demeter, 2000). There are some caves with Paleolithic remains typified by the Nguom industry and the Son Vi culture, dating from 30,000BP to 10,000BP. The most important event in Vietnamese Prehistory is the appearance of Hoa Binh and Bac Son cultures - the most typical cave cultures in Southeast Asia. Archeological excavations in Thailand (Spirit Cave, Non Nok Tha) and northern Vietnam (Dongson, Hoabinh) have revealed a major surprise: the first Southeast Asians had agriculture and pottery at the same time as the city-states of ancient Mesopotamia. The finds of the fossils of Homo erectus, Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens sapiens in the cave sites in North Vietnam have confirmed that the evolution of human formation took place the most dramatically in the karst topology, from the late Pleistocene to Holocene (http://english.vista.gov.vn/).

This paragraph is not updated. Genetic studies in the past decade have shown that the Vietnamese population exhibits genetic markers that are closely related and/or identical to those of Southern Chinese populations, with the exception of seven unique markers. These results, along with remnants of Thai enzyme morphs, indicate a dual ethnic origin of the Vietnamese population from Chinese and Thai populations. The Vietnamese people are classified in the same genetic family as the Miao, Southern Han (Southern Chinese), Buyi and Thai, with a divergent family consisting of Singaporean and Thai Chinese, Minnan and Hakka.

Origins

According to legend, the first Vietnamese descended from the dragon lord Lạc Long Quân and a heavenly spirit Âu Cơ. They married and had one hundred eggs, from which hatched one hundred children. Their eldest son Hùng Vương ruled as the first Vietnamese king. The predecessors of the Vietnamese people emigrated from present southern China to the Red River Delta and mixed with the indigenous population.

In 258 BC, An Dương Vương founded the kingdom of Âu Lạc in what is now northern Vietnam. In 208 BC, Chao Tuo (known as Triệu Đà in Vietnamese), a former Qin Dynasty general from China, allied with the leaders of the Yue peoples in what is now modern-day Guangdong and declared himself King of Southern Yue. He defeated An Dương Vương and then combined Âu Lạc with territories in southern China and named his kingdom Nam Việt, or Southern Yue (Nam means "south"). Việt is cognate to yue, which is the pronunciation of Yue in ancient Chinese and some modern southern Chinese dialects. The term was used in bai yue ("hundred Yue") for the various peoples in what is now southern China, including the regions of northern Vietnam.

Diaspora

Originally from northern Vietnam and southern China, the Vietnamese have conquered much of the land belonging to the Champa Kingdom and Khmer Empire over the centuries. They are the dominant ethnic group in most provinces of Vietnam, and constitute a significant portion of the population of Cambodia. Under the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, they were the most persecuted group. Tens of thousands were murdered in regime-organized massacres. Most of the survivors fled to Vietnam.

During the sixteenth century, some Vietnamese migrated into Thailand and China. In Thailand, they are mostly distributed in Isan provinces such as Nakhon Phanom or Mukdahan. In China, although somewhat more sinicized, their descendants still speak Vietnamese and form the Gin people of China. They are among the recognized minority groups in the People's Republic of China based especially in or around Guangxi Province.

When the French left Vietnam in 1954, some Vietnamese emigrated to France. However, there already have been ethnic Vietnamese residing and/or studying in France at least since the end of World War I. As a result of the partition of North and South Vietnam, nearly one million Vietnamese fled the North for the South to escape persecution. Meanwhile, a much smaller number of southerners joined the north.

The end of the Vietnam War prompted many others to flee the country. The six countries that accepted the bulk of the refugees were the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, West Germany, and Australia. Tens of thousands had been sent to work or study in Central and Eastern Europe and later settled there, the vast majority among those from the north or those who stayed in reunified Vietnam after 1975.

See also

Column-generating template families

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Type	Family	Handles wiki table code?†	Responsive/ mobile suited	Start template	Column divider	End template
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Columns	"div col"	Yes	Yes	{{div col}}	–	{{div col end}}
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Flexbox	"flex columns"	No	Yes	{{flex columns}}	–	–
Table	"col"	Yes	No	{{col-begin}}, {{col-begin-fixed}} or {{col-begin-small}}	{{col-break}} or {{col-2}} .. {{col-5}}	{{col-end}}

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