Chinese Nùng

The flag of the Nùng Autonomous Territory.

The Chinese Nùng (Vietnamese: người Hoa Nùng, Hán-Nôm: 𠊛華農; Chinese: 華裔儂族), also known as Hải Ninh Chinese, are a group of ethnic Han Chinese living in Vietnam. The Chinese Nùng composed 72%[1] to 78%[2] of the population of the Nùng Autonomous Territory of Hải Ninh (1947–1954) located in the Vietnamese Northeast, covering part of the present-day Quảng Ninh province.

The Chinese Nùng's name originated from the fact that almost all of them were farmers (nồng nhằn 農人 in Cantonese).[3] They are largely unrelated to the Tai-speaking Nùng people. After the Treaty of Tientsin, 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 Hakka Chinese and Yue Chinese since they descended from people speaking these languages.[4]

Following the 1954 partition of Vietnam, nearly 50,000 Chinese Nùng led by Colonel Vòng A Sáng (黃亞生, or Swong A Sang) fled as refugees, joining the one million northern Vietnamese who fled south and resettled in South Vietnam, mostly in the Đồng Nai and Bình Thuận provinces. In South Vietnam, they were considered part of the Hải Phòng Chinese, named after the port city in North Vietnam from which they had departed. During the Vietnam War, Chinese Nùng soldiers were known for their loyalty to the US Special Forces.[5] 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.[6]

Diaspora

A flag used by the Chinese Nùng diaspora to represent their people. Notice the usage of the coat of arms of the Nùng Autonomous Territory in its centre.

After the Fall of Saigon in 1975, many of the Chinese Nùng fled Vietnam as boat people political refugees to Hong Kong and Malaysia's refugee camps. Most were resettled in the US, Canada, France, Australia, Taiwan, and Singapore, among other countries.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Trần Đức Lai 2013, p. 42.
  2. ^ Xiaorong Han 2009, p. 1–36.
  3. ^ Trần Đức Lai 2013, p. 3.
  4. ^ Trần Đức Lai 2013, p. 7.
  5. ^ William H. Mott IV; Jae Chang Kim (2 April 2006). The Philosophy of Chinese Military Culture: Shih Vs. Li. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 275–. ISBN 978-1-4039-8313-8.
  6. ^ Onion, Rebecca (2013-11-27). "A Forgotten Chapter of Vietnam: How an Indigenous Tribe Won the Admiration of the Green Berets—and Lost Everything Else". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-09-21.

References

  • Trần Đức Lai, ed. (2013) [2008]. The Nung Ethic and Autonomous Territory of Hai Ninh-Vietnam. Translated by Ngô Thanh Tùng. Hai Ninh veterans and Public Administration Alumni Association-Vietnam. ISBN 978-0-578-12004-1.