The Kokang people ( or 果敢族 (''Guǒgǎn zú''); ) are

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

-speaking

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 ...

native to

Kokang Kokang (; ) is a region in Myanmar. It is located in the northern part of Shan State, with the Salween River to its west, and sharing a border with China's Yunnan Province to the east. Its total land area is around . The capital is Laukkai. K ...

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 ...

, administered as the Kokang Self-Administered Zone.

Etymology

The name Kokang derives from the Burmese ကိုးကန့်, which itself derives from the Shan ၵဝ်ႈ (kāo, "nine") + ၵူၼ်း (kúun, "family") or ၵၢင် (kǎang, "guard").

Distribution

In 1997, it was estimated that the Kokang Chinese, together with more recently immigrated Han Chinese 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 ...

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 ...

, constituted 30 to 40 percent of Myanmar's ethnic Chinese population. They constitute around 0.1% of Myanmar's population.

History

Most Kokang are descendants of Chinese speakers who migrated to what is now

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 ...

, Myanmar in the 18th century. In the mid-17th century, the Yang clan, a Chinese military house that fled alongside Ming loyalists from

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

to Yunnan, and later migrated to the

Shan States The Shan States were a collection of minor Shan people, Shan kingdoms called ''mueang, möng'' whose rulers bore the title ''saopha'' (''sawbwa''). In British rule in Burma, British Burma, they were analogous to the princely states of Britis ...

in eastern Myanmar, formed a feudal state called

. From the 1960s to 1989, the area was ruled by the

Communist Party of Burma The Communist Party of Burma (CPB), also known as the Burma Communist Party (BCP), is an underground communist party in Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is the oldest existing political party in the country. Founded in 1939, the CPB initially fo ...

, and after the dissolution of that party in 1989 it became a special region of Myanmar. The

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) is an armed Insurgency, resistance group in the Kokang region of Myanmar (Burma). The army has existed since 1989, having been the first one to sign a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese gov ...

(MNDAA) is a Kokang insurgent group. In August 2009 they clashed with

Tatmadaw The Tatmadaw, also known as the Sit-Tat, is the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include ...

soldiers in a conflict fanned by controversial interests known as the

2009 Kokang incident The Kokang incident was a violent series of skirmishes that broke out in August 2009 in Kokang in Myanmar's northern Shan State. Several clashes between ethnic minorities and the Burmese military junta forces (including the Myanmar Armed Forces ...

,Chinese Dam Builders Fan Conflict in Burma
/ref> followed by further skirmishes during the 2015 Kokang offensive.

Notable Kokang

* Lo Hsing Han * Olive Yang * Pheung Kya-shin * Sao Edward Yang Kyein Tsai

References

Kokang Burmese people of Chinese descent Ethnic groups in Myanmar Subgroups of the Han Chinese {{Asia-ethno-group-stub

Etymology

Distribution

History

Notable Kokang

See also

References