Hainan people

The Hainanese people (Chinese: 海南人 Hái-nâm nâng), or Hainam people is a term referring to the people of Hainan, the southernmost and smallest Chinese province. The term can be used to refer to all inhabitants of Hainan island - both Han and non-Han. Hainam Min speakers often refer to their dialect as Qiongwen to distinguish themselves from other groups of Hainan such as the Cantonese, Tanka, Hlai, etc.

Hainan Han people, who today form the majority population of the island, trace their origins to Han colonists from Fujian and Guangdong province^[1][2]. By contrast, the Lingaoese, Hlai, Tanka migrated to the island much earlier and are regarded as part of the Nanyue or Baiyue peoples.^[3] Starting from the Song dynasty, Han settlers from Fujian and Guangdong began settling in the Leizhou Peninsula and Hainan island, displacing Nanyue aborigines such as Hlai, who moved to mountain areas. Important areas of settlement by Fujian-origin Han include the areas in and around Haikou, Wenchang, Qiongzhou, and Wanning.

In the main, Haikou samples show that the Hainanese Han cluster most closely with Singapore Chinese and Taiwan Han.^[4] However, other studies show that Hainanese genetically cluster closely with Guangxi and Guangdong Han Chinese.^[5]

Like Fujian and Guangdong provinces, Hainan has been a source for emigration. Towards the turn of the 20th century, many Hainanese migrated to various Southeast Asian nations, where they worked as cooks, restaurateurs, coffee shop owners, clothes makers, sailors and hoteliers, filling niches left unoccupied by previous groups of immigrants from China.

Main cities of Hainan island

• 
  Haikou old city
• 
  Wenchang old city
• 
  Qionghai city
• 
  Wanning city

Hainanese assembly halls outside of China

• 
  Hainanese assembly hall in Johor Bahru
• 
  Hainanese assembly hall in Malacca
• 
  Hainanese assembly hall in Hoi An, Vietnam