The Han Chinese people can be defined into subgroups based on linguistic, cultural, ethnic, genetic, and regional features. The terminology used in Mandarin to describe the groups is: "minxi" (, pronounced ), used in mainland China or "zuqun" (, pronounced ), used in Taiwan. No Han subgroup is recognized as one of People's Republic of China's 56 official ethnic groups.
Han subgroups
Mandarin-speaking groups
Total Native Han Speakers: 885,000,000
Mandarin, also known as the Northern dialects, is the largest of the Chinese languages. Even in regions where non-Mandarin speakers historically dominated, Mandarin is being brought in as a lingua franca. The Mandarin-speaking groups are the largest group in mainland China, but in the diaspora the Min, Hakka and Cantonese dialects are more numerous. The Dungan people of Central Asia are native Central Plains Mandarin-speaking Hui peoples. Other notable Mandarin-speaking peoples include the Sichuanese people and Jianghuai people.
Jianghuai people
The Jianghuai people distribute in the Jianghuai region between the Yangtze river (Jiang, 江) and the Huai river (淮) in central Anhui and central Jiangsu. The Lower Yangtze Mandarin or the Jianghuai Mandarin is distinctive from other Mandarin dialects. The main dialects of the language is the Nanjing dialect.
Jiao-Liao people
The Jiao-Liao people are distributed on both Jiaodong Peninsula and Liaodong Peninsula. Since pre-historical periods, the 2 peninsulas have been closely related, culturally, economically etc. Their strong relationship is partly attributed to Miaodao Archipalegos (see Changdao County) inbetween the Bohai Strait, because they made the inter-strait voyage easier . The 2 peninsulas are both surrounded by the Bohai Sea to the west and the Yellow Sea to all other directions.
The Jiaoliao Mandarin differs from neighboring dialects significantly (e.g., Jilu Mandarin, Northeastern Mandarin), possibly due to the lack of population interchange and the insularity of Jiao-Liao Culture. The canonical style of Jiaoliao Mandarin is from Rongcheng, due to its antiquity.
Sichuanese people
The Sichuanese people are centered around Chongqing and Sichuan. The Southwestern Mandarin are also the lingua Franca in Guangxi and Hubei.
Wu-speaking groups
Total Native Han Speakers: 77,175,000
Wu-speaking peoples, in particular, are concentrated in the Yangtze River basin (southern Jiangsu, the whole Shanghai, most of Zhejiang and parts of southern Anhui), northern Fujian, and northeastern Jiangxi. Scattered remnants of Wu-speaking Chinese are found in other parts of China, such as in Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing and Xinjiang, as a result after 1964. Most of them outside of Jiangnan region usually speak variants of Taihu Wu dialects. Wu Chinese is spoken chiefly in the Wu region. Jiangnanese people consist of both Shanghainese people and Ningbo people, as well as other ethnic Han in Jiangnan. They mostly speak variants of Taihu Wu Chinese. Other languages spoken are Jianghuai Mandarin and Xuanzhou Wu Chinese.
The Shanghainese people are centered around Shanghai and speak the Shanghainese dialect of Wu. Ningbo people are another Wu-speaking Chinese group and speak the Ningbo dialect. Wenzhou people are a Wu-speaking Chinese group who speak Wenzhounese. Though a significant minority are also speakers of a dialect of Min Nan known as Zhenan Min. If Huizhou Chinese was fully considered to be a subdivision of Wu Chinese, then people from Huizhou are considered to be Wu-speaking.
Wu Chinese is also spoken by a minuscule minority, particularly by mainlanders, both in Taiwan and in Hong Kong, as also other overseas Chinese communities.
Yue-speaking groups
Total Native Han Speakers: 66,000,000
Yue or Cantonese speakers are predominant in the Pearl River basin (western-central Guangdong and eastern-central Guangxi), as well as in Hong Kong and Macau. The Yue dialects spoken in Guangxi province are mutually intelligible with Cantonese. For instance, Wuzhou is about 120 miles upstream from Guangzhou, but its dialect is more like that of Guangzhou than is that of Taishan which is 60 miles southwest of Guangzhou and separated by several rivers from it. Cantonese is also spoken by some locals in Hainan. For example, the Mai dialect which is closely related to Cantonese, is spoken in Hainan Province.