Zhuang people

Zhuang people
壮族
Bouxcuengh

Zhuang people in ethnic clothes, Guangnan, 2008
Total population
18 million
Regions with significant populations
China (Particularly Guangxi)
Languages
Zhuang languages, Cantonese, Mandarin, Pinghua
Religion
Indigenous Zhuang Shigongism (Moism) Minority Christianity, Buddhism and Taoism
Related ethnic groups
Buyei Tày, Tai/Dai and Nung (Vietnam)

Indigenous Zhuang Shigongism (Moism)

The Zhuang people (Chinese: 壮; pinyin: Zhuàngzú; Zhuang: Bouxcuengh) are an ethnic group who mostly live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. Some also live in the Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou and Hunan provinces. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. With the Buyi, Tay–Nùng, and other northern Tai speakers, they are sometimes known as the Rau or Rao. Their population, estimated at 18 million people, makes them the largest minority in China.

The Chinese character used for the Zhuang people has changed several times. Their autonym, "Cuengh" in Standard Zhuang, was originally written with the graphic pejorative Zhuàng 獞 (or tóng, meaning "a variety of wild dog"). Chinese characters typically combine a semantic element or radical and a phonetic element. John DeFrancis calls Zhuàng 獞, with the "dog radical" 犭 and a tóng 童 phonetic, an ethnic slur and describes how the People's Republic of China removed it. In 1949, after the Chinese civil war, the logograph 獞 was officially replaced with Zhuàng 僮 (or tóng "child; boy servant"), with the "human radical" 亻and the same phonetic. Later, during the standardization of simplified Chinese characters, Zhuàng 僮 was changed to a completely different character Zhuàng 壮 (meaning "strong; robust").