Vietnamese people

Vietnamese people
người Việt

Total population
75 million
Regions with significant populations
Vietnam      72,000,000 [1]
Significant overseas populations
USA	1,521,353 (2005)[2]
Cambodia Laos	600,000[3]
France	250,000[4]
Australia	174,200 (2001)[5]
Canada	151,410 (2001)[6]
Germany	83,526 (2004)[7]
Taiwan	85,528[8]
Poland	45,000
United Kingdom	35,000[9]
China	30,000
Russia	26,225[10]
Norway	18,333 (2006)[11]
Czech Republic	35,000[12]
Japan	12,965 (2000)[13]
Languages
Vietnamese
Religion
Predominantly Confucian and Mahayana Buddhist (esp. Pure Land sects, and some Zen-inspired syncretists); with Roman Catholic, Protestant, Hoa Hao and Cao Đài minorities. Although membership to Sunni- and the localized- Bashi Islam are almost exclusively accredited to the ethnic Cham minority, there are also a few ethnic Vietnamese adherents to Islam in the southwest.
Related ethnic groups
Gin people of China (also known as Jing or Kinh) Muong people The Southern Chinese or other people in South China. For vague historical references, see also Yue (peoples).

The Vietnamese people (Vietnamese: người Việt or người Kinh) are an ethnic group originating from what is now northern Vietnam and 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. They are also referred to as Viet.

In the People's Republic of China, they are among the recognized minority groups based especially in or around Guangxi Province and are known in Mandarin Chinese through their derivative name Jing/Gin (京) or "Jingzu"/"Ginzu" (京族).

Although geographically and linguistically labeled as Southeast Asians, long periods of Chinese domination and influence has placed them culturally closer to East Asians, or more specifically their immediate northern neighbours, the Southern Chinese and other tribes within the proximity of South China.

Origins

According to legend, the first Vietnamese descended from the dragon lord Lạc Long Quân (雒龍君) and a heavenly spirit Âu Cơ (嫗姬). 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 (甌雒) in what is now northern Vietnam. In 208 BC, Chao Tuo (known as Triệu Đà 趙佗 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 (南越; Nam means "south"). Việt is cognate to yuet 越, 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.

Distribution

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 immigrated 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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Column templates

Type	Family	Handles wiki table code?†	Responsive/ mobile suited	Start template	Column divider	End template
Float	"col-float"	Yes	Yes	{{col-float}}	{{col-float-break}}	{{col-float-end}}
	"columns-start"	Yes	Yes	{{columns-start}}	{{column}}	{{columns-end}}
Columns	"div col"	Yes	Yes	{{div col}}	–	{{div col end}}
	"columns-list"	No	Yes	{{columns-list}} (wraps div col)	–	–
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}}

^† Can template handle the basic wiki markup {| | || |- |} used to create tables? If not, special templates that produce these elements (such as {{(!}}, {{!}}, {{!!}}, {{!-}}, {{!)}})—or HTML tags (<table>...</table>, <tr>...</tr>, etc.)—need to be used instead.

References

• Ōuyáng Jiàoyà 欧阳觉亚, Chéng Fāng 程方, Yù Cuìróng 喻翠容: Jīngyǔ jiǎnzhì 京语简志 (Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族出版社 1984). On the language of the Gin in China.