Wu-speaking peoples
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (approximately 92 million people ) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 China
|
Zhejiang Jiangsu Shanghai Anhui Jiangxi Fujian |
 Hong Kong
|
As part of Mainlander population |
 Republic of China (on Taiwan) |
As part of Mainlander population |
 United States
|
As part of Chinese American population |
 Australia
|
As part of Chinese Australian population |
 Italy
|
Majority of Chinese people in Italy |
 France
|
350,000 (Wenzhou), largest community of the Chinese diaspora in France |
 Singapore
|
>22,000 |
| Languages | |
| Wu Chinese dialects and Standard Mandarin | |
| Religion | |
| Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Chinese folk religion. Small Christian minorities. | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Han Chinese | |
The Wu-speaking Chinese (Chinese: 江南人; pinyin: Jiāngnán rén), also known as Jiangnan people or Wuyue people (simplified Chinese: 吴越人; traditional Chinese: 吳越人; pinyin: Wúyuè rén; Shanghainese: [ɦuɦyɪʔ ɲɪɲ]), are a major subgroup of the Han Chinese. They are a Wu Chinese-speaking people who hail from southern Jiangsu province, the city of Shanghai, all of Zhejiang province, as well as smaller populations in Xuancheng prefecture-level city in southern Anhui province, Shangrao, Guangfeng, and Yushan counties of northeastern Jiangxi province, and some parts of Pucheng county in northern Fujian province.
For much of history and prehistory, the Wuyue region is home to several neolithic cultures such as the Hemudu culture, Majiabang culture, and the Liangzhu culture. Wu and Yue were two kingdoms during the Zhou dynasty, and many such allusions to those kingdoms were attributed in the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Zuo Zhuan, and the Guoyu. Later, after years of fighting and conflict, the two cultures of Wu and Yue became one culture through mutual contact and cultural diffusion. The Chu state from the west (in Hubei) expanded into this area and defeated the Yue state. After Chu was conquered by Qin, China was unified. It was not until the fall of Western Jin during the early 4th century AD that northern Chinese moved to Jiangnan in significant numbers. The Yellow River valley was becoming barren due to flooding (lack of trees after intensive logging to create farmland) and constant harassment and invasion by the Wu Hu nomads. In the 10th century, Wuyue (Ten Kingdoms) was a small coastal kingdom founded by Qian Liu who made a lasting cultural impact on Jiangnan and its people to this day. The cultural distinctiveness that began developing over this period persists to this day as the Wuyue region speaks a branch of the Chinese language called Wu (the most famous dialect of which is Shanghainese), has distinctive cuisine and other cultural traits.
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Wikipedia