The Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to East Asia. They constitute approximately 92% of the population of Mainland China, 93% of the population of Hong Kong, 92% of the population of Macau, 98% of the population of Taiwan, 76.2% of the citizen population of Singapore, 24.5% of the population of Malaysia, and about 19% of the entire global human population, making them the largest ethnic group in the world. The Han Chinese are regarded as a subset of the Chinese nation (Zhonghua minzu). They sometimes refer to themselves as Yan Huang Zisun, meaning the "descendants of (god-emperors) Yan and Huang".

Terms and etymology

The name Han comes from the Han dynasty, which succeeded the short-lived Qin dynasty. The Han dynasty's founding emperor, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao), was originally known as the king of the region of Hanzhong after which the dynasty was named. The name Hanzhong, in turn, is derived from the Han River, which flows through the Hanzhong Plain (zhong means middle).