69 articles
Ainu people
Ainu (アイヌ): indigenous people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kurils with a distinct language isolate and animist bear-centered religion; subject of 1899 assimilation law, 2019 recognition act, and 2024 fishing-rights ruling.
Akha people
Akha people: Tibeto-Burman-speaking (Southern Loloish) highland people of Yunnan, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, also called E Kaw; patrilineal, swidden-farming, animist, with AkhaZah customary law and growing Christian conversion.
Anti-Filipino sentiment
Anti-Filipino sentiment is prejudice and discrimination against Filipinos, historically in the United States through colonial-era labor recruitment, the 1929-1930 West Coast riots including Watsonville, immigration exclusion politics, and persistent discrimination reported by Filipino Americans today.
Balinese people
The Balinese are Bali's dominant ethnic group, about 1% of Indonesia's population, mostly Hindu (83.5% of Bali, 2010 census), shaped by Majapahit Javanese influence, caste-stratified village institutions, and the modern construction of agama Hindu.
Bamar people
Bamar (Burmans), the largest ethnic group of Myanmar at about 68% of the population, Buddhist, centered in the central plains and delta, and politically dominant since 1948 independence.
Batak
Batak: collective label for the Toba, Karo, Simalungun, Pakpak, Angkola, and Mandailing peoples of North Sumatra's Lake Toba highlands, 8-10 million people, patrilineal marga clans, Dalihan Na Tolu kinship, and a majority-Protestant population shaped by the RMG mission from 1861.
Bugis
The Bugis (To Ugi') are the largest ethnic group of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, speaking Buginese (27 dialects, lontara script), predominantly Muslim, with kingdoms like Bone and Wajo and a large diaspora in Malaysia, Singapore, and Kalimantan; over 7 million worldwide.
Cantonese people (广东人)
Cantonese people (广东人, Guangdong ren) are the people of Guangdong province, narrowly the Yue-speaking Pearl River delta subgroup alongside Hakka and Teochew; about 84.9 million speak Cantonese, with large diasporas in Southeast Asia, North America, and Hong Kong.
Chams
The Chams are an Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) people of the former kingdom of Champa in central and southern Vietnam, now living mainly in Vietnam and Cambodia, with Cham Islam, Cham Bani, and Cham Ahiér religious communities.
Chinese people
Chinese people (Zhongguoren, Huaren, Hanren) are the people of China and of Chinese descent worldwide, classified by the state into 56 ethnic groups: the Han majority (91.11% in 2020) plus 55 minorities, with a diaspora across Southeast Asia and beyond.
Chink
Chink is an English ethnic slur against Chinese and East Asian people, attested in that sense from 1901; distinct from the older noun meaning a crack. It saw resurgence during COVID-19 and has documented in-group reclamation uses.
Dai people
Dai people (傣族, Daizu): Tai-speaking ethnic minority of southern and southwestern Yunnan, China, named "Dai" by the state in 1951; about one-quarter live in Xishuangbanna, follow Theravada Buddhism blended with animism, and celebrate the water-splashing New Year.
Dayak people
Dayak: umbrella exonym for the indigenous, largely non-Muslim peoples of Borneo, covering 200+ ethnic groups (Iban, Ngaju, Maanyan, Modang, Basap and others) with often mutually unintelligible languages, Christian or Kaharingan religion, longhouse society, and contested customary land rights.
Ethnic nationalism in Japan
Ethnic nationalism in Japan defines the nation by shared blood, descent, culture, and language rather than citizenship. Key elements: the kokutai doctrine, the nihonjinron homogeneity myth, minority exclusion, and Sanseito's 2025 electoral rise.
Filipinos
Filipinos (Filipino: Mga Pilipino) are the people of the Philippines, a Southeast Asian archipelago nation, numbering about 112.7 million, with some 10 million more living overseas.
Gaijin (外人)
Gaijin (外人), Japanese for outsider or foreigner, is the casual contraction of gaikokujin (外国人). Unlike the neutral administrative full form, gaijin marks social placement, is often used for white residents, and is debated as potentially derogatory.
Gook
Gook is an English ethnic slur for East and Southeast Asian people, first recorded as U.S. military slang for Filipinos in 1899 and extended through successive wars to Koreans, Vietnamese, and Asians generally.
Hāfu (ハーフ)
Hāfu (ハーフ) is a Japanese wasei-eigo term, short for half-blood, for a person with one Japanese and one foreign parent; alternatives include daburu, mix, kokusaiji, and Amerasian, and usage is debated in Japan.
Hakka people
Hakka people (客家人, Kejia, 'guest families'): Han Chinese subgroup migrated from north-central China to Guangdong, Fujian, and Jiangxi in five waves; known for Hakka language, tulou dwellings, and global diaspora.
Han Chinese
Han Chinese (汉族, Hanzu) are the PRC's majority minzu, about 91.5% of the population, one of 56 recognized groups, tracing roots to the Huaxia and speaking seven major Sinitic fangyan groups.
Han Taiwanese
Han Taiwanese (臺灣漢人) are the Han Chinese majority of Taiwan, about 95–98% of the population, descended from Fujian and Guangdong migrants (Hoklo, Hakka) from the 17th century and post-1945 mainlanders.
Hayato people
The Hayato (隼人) were the ancient people of southern Kyushu, Japan, long resisted by the Yamato court before their final defeat in the war of 720 to 721.
Hlai people
The Hlai people, also known as the Li people, are the indigenous Tai-Kadai-speaking inhabitants of Hainan Island. They are known for their Li brocade and pottery.
Hmong people
The Hmong are an ethnic group originating in China about 3,000 years ago, now in Southeast Asia and the US diaspora; speakers of Hmong Dawb and Hmong Leng, refugees after 1975, with RPA and Pahawh Hmong scripts.
Hoklo people (闽南人)
Hoklo people (闽南人) are Hokkien-speaking Han Chinese from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, southern Fujian, who migrated to Taiwan and Southeast Asia; in Taiwan they are the largest Han subgroup, with about 15 million Southern Min speakers.
Hui people (回族)
The Hui people (回族, Huizu) are a Chinese Muslim ethnic group formed from Arab, Persian, and Central Asian traders, numbering over 10 million and centered in Ningxia.
Ilocano people
The Ilocano (Iloko, Ilokano) people are a major Philippine ethnolinguistic group of northwestern Luzon; 8,746,169 people (8.0%) reported Ilocano ethnicity in the 2020 census, with historic diasporas to Hawaii, California, and Cagayan.
Japanese people
Japanese people are the population native to the Japanese Archipelago, formed by admixture of Jomon foragers and Yayoi-era continental farmers (10-20% Jomon ancestry). Key groups: Ainu, Ryukyuans, Burakumin, zainichi Koreans, and a ~2.5 million-strong Nikkei diaspora.
Javanese people
Javanese (Orang Jawa), Indonesia's largest ethnic group, about 85 million people on Java; Austronesian language with ngoko, madya, krama speech levels; syncretic kejawen Islam; large diasporas in Suriname, the Netherlands, and Malaysia.
Khitan people
Khitan (契丹, Хятан), Mongolic-speaking nomads of Manchuria who founded the Liao empire (907-1125), fell to the Jurchen Jin, left the partially deciphered Khitan scripts, and gave China the name Cathay; modern Daur descent debated.