
The Chinese Nùng (
Vietnamese: ''Người Hoa Nùng'' or ''Người Tàu Nùng'';
Hán-Nôm: 𠊛華農 or 𠊛艚農;
Chinese: 華裔儂族) are a group of
ethnic Han Chinese living in Vietnam. The Chinese Nùng composed 72% to 78% of the population of the
Nung Autonomous Territory of Hai Ninh (1947–1954) located in
the Vietnamese Northeast, covering parts of the present-day
Quảng Ninh and
Lạng Sơn
Lạng Sơn () is a city in far northern Vietnam, which is the capital of Lạng Sơn Province. It is accessible by road and rail from Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, and it is the northernmost point on National Route 1.
History
Due to its ge ...
provinces.
All Tai ethnic groups in
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
are originated from Yunnan (
China). The Chinese Nùng's name originated from the fact that almost all of them were farmers (''nong nhan'' (農人) in
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
). After the
Treaty of Tientsin
The Treaty of Tientsin, also known as the Treaty of Tianjin, is a collective name for several documents signed at Tianjin (then romanized as Tientsin) in June 1858. The Qing dynasty, Russian Empire, Second French Empire, United Kingdom, and t ...
, the French refused to recognize this group as Chinese due to political and territorial issues on Vietnam's northern frontier border, therefore the French classified them as Nùng based on their main occupation. The most widely used languages of the Chinese Nùng are
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
and
Hakka Chinese
Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities around th ...
since they descended from people speaking these languages.
After 1954, more than 50,000 Chinese Nùng led by Colonel
Vong A Sang (黃亞生, or Swong A Sang) fled as refugees,
joining the 1 million northern Vietnamese who fled south and resettled in
South Vietnam, mostly in the
Đồng Nai and
Bình Thuận provinces. During the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, Chinese Nùng soldiers were known for their loyalty to the
US Special Forces.
They often served as bodyguards to the Special Forces and were regarded as a good source of security for green berets who were recruiting and training locals.
Diaspora

After the
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Saigon, the capital of Sou ...
in 1975, many of the Chinese Nùng fled Vietnam as
boat people
Vietnamese boat people ( vi, Thuyền nhân Việt Nam), also known simply as boat people, refers to the refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its h ...
political refugees to Hong Kong and Malaysia's refugee camps. Most were resettled in the US, Canada, France, Australia, and Singapore, among other countries.
See also
*
Ngái people
The Ngái ( vi, Người Ngái; Chữ Nôm:
) are a Hakka-speaking community in Vietnam and other nearby countries of Indochina, whose ancestors were Southern Chinese. The Vietnamese government separated Ngai from Cantonese when considering ethn ...
Notes
References
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Ethnic groups in Vietnam
Chinese people by ethnic or national origin
Hoa people
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