The Chin Haw or Chin Ho (; , ), also known locally as Yunnanese ( zh, 雲南人, ), are Chinese people who migrated to Thailand via

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

. Most of them were originally from

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

, a southern province of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. They speak

Southwestern Mandarin Southwestern Mandarin (), also known as Upper Yangtze Mandarin (), is a Mandarin Chinese dialect spoken in much of Southwestern China, including in Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Guizhou, most parts of Hubei, the northwestern part of Hunan, the nor ...

Migration

Generally, the Chin Haw can be divided into three groups, according to the time of their migration. #In the nineteenth century, the Qing army sent troops to suppress the rebellion in

, known as the

Panthay Rebellion The Panthay Rebellion (1856–1873), also known as the Du Wenxiu Rebellion (Tu Wen-hsiu Rebellion), was a rebellion of the Muslim Hui people and other (Muslim as well as non-Muslim) ethnic groups against the Manchu-led Qing dynasty in southwe ...

, which caused up to 1,000,000 lives lost - both civilians and soldiers. During this time, many people fled to the

Shan state Shan State (, ; , ) is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos (Louang Namtha Province, Louang Namtha and Bokeo Provinces) to the east, and Thailand (Chiang Rai Province, Chia ...

in Burma, then to northern

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. #The Panthay Chinese merchants who traded between

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

, and

Lan Na The Lan Na kingdom or the Kingdom of Lanna (, , "Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields"; , , ), also known as Lannathai, was an Indianized state centered in present-day Northern Thailand from the 13th to the 18th centuries. The cultural developmen ...

from their base in the

Wa States The Wa States was the name formerly given to the Wa Land, the natural region, natural and historical region inhabited mainly by the Wa people, an ethnic group speaking an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic language. The region is loca ...

. Some of them settled down along this trade route. #After the

Chinese Communist Revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution was a social revolution, social and political revolution in China that began in 1927 and culminated with the proclamation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The revolution was led by the Chinese C ...

in 1949, remnants of the nationalist

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

army fled to Burma and later established Kuomintang Chinese communities in Thailand

Religion

The majority are

Han Chinese The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...

and follow Chinese folk religion or Buddhism. Approximately one-third are

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, also known as

Hui people The Hui people are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Islam in China, Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the Northwest China, northwestern provinces and in the Zhongy ...

or Hui Muslim.

Activities

The Chin Haw have traditionally been itinerant in their lifestyle, conducting long-distance caravan trade throughout the Thai-Burma-Laos frontier, southeast China, and northern Vietnam. They have engaged in the heroin trade. Ma Hseuh-fu, from Yunnan province, was one of the most prominent Chin Haw heroin drug lords. His other professions included trading in tea and being a hotelier. The Muslim Chin Haw are the same ethnic group as the Panthay in Burma, who are also descendants of Hui Muslims from Yunnan province, China.

References

Ethnic groups in Thailand Chinese diaspora in Thailand Subgroups of the Han Chinese {{Asia-ethno-group-stub

Migration

Religion

Activities

See also

References