thumb|right|300px|South China and Taiwan. Only the speakers of
Quanzhou Zhangzhou (also known as Hokkien) are seen as Hoklos./" class="wiki">Minnan-speaking areas in
South China and Taiwan. Only the speakers of
Quanzhou Zhangzhou (also known as Hokkien) are seen as Hoklos.
Hoklo (
endonym Hok-ló,
Hō-ló, or
Hoh-ló) commonly refers to those
Chaozhou people,
Hainanese people and
Taiwanese people who claim
Han Chinese ancestry from the southern part of
Fujian province of
China. Large populations of similar background can also be found in
Malaysia,
Guangdong,
Hong Kong,
Philippines,
Singapore,
Burma,
Thailand, and
Indonesia where they are usually referred to as
Hokkien, meaning
Fujian in
Min Nan language. In Hong Kong's
New Territories, "Fukienese" often refers to all
Min Nan speakers relocating from
Fujian.
In
Taiwan, the Hoklos are the largest ethnic group (see
Demographics of Taiwan). Most Hoklos trace their paternal ancestry to male settlers who migrated to Taiwan from
Fujian in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Because about 70% of the population in Taiwan are Hoklo,
Taiwanese is often used interchangeably with
Hoklo. People who are aware of the multi-ethnic nature of Taiwan recognize the two are not identical, although most people will know by context when this word refers to people from Taiwan and when this word refers specifically to Hoklos.
In Taiwan, there are three common ways to write
Hoklo in
Chinese characters (Min Nan pronunciations are given in
POJ):
- 福佬 (Hok-ló; lit. "Fujian person") – emphasizes their connection to Fujian province.
- 河洛 (Hô-lok; lit. "Yellow River and Luo River") – emphasizes their purported long history originating from the area south of the Yellow River. This Han-character reading does not reflect the actual pronunciation in the southern-Chinese languages but only in Mandarin. It is likely a result of folk etymology.
- 鶴佬 (Hoh-ló; lit. "crane person") – emphasizes the modern pronunciation of the characters (without regard to the meaning of the Chinese characters). This variant is used by the Chinese Wikipedia version of this article.
In
Hakka, Hoklo may be written as 學老 (lit. "knowledge aged") and 學佬 (lit. "knowledge person").
Despite many ways to write
Hoklo in Chinese, many Taiwanese will use the term Hō-ló to refer to the
language and Hoklo culture.
See also
