Why does China have an area of nearly 10 million square kilometers but only has 56 ethnic groups while a small country like Vietnam has up to 54? Is there something wrong?

为什么中国面积近1000万平方公里，只有56个民族，而越南这种弹丸小国居然有54个民族？这正常吗？

以下是Quora网友的评价：

iao Wen

There is nothing wrong with people or things here, which is caused by objective laws. What caused the ethnic groups to be unable to communicate and integrate in such a short geographical distance and to evolve into a greater civilization? I'd say it's geographical reasons that cause communication difficulties.

没有什么不正常的地方，这只是客观规律造成的事实。是什么因素导致各民族在如此短的地理距离内无法交流、融合、演变成一个更大的文明？我认为是地理原因造成了这种沟通困难。

The Wumao Club

There is nothing wrong with it, just a matter of geographical displacement. Think about the number of ethnic groups in US and India, you won't find this strange.

Yunnan, a province of China bordering Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar, resides majority of ethnic groups in China.

Thus, if you comparing with Yunnan to Vietnam, it will be more alike.

If you want to dig down more in history, Han race dominates the central plain of China for thousand years. Minorities are scattered around the border province of China.

这一点也不奇怪，只是地理位置的问题。想想美国和印度的民族数量，你就不会觉得奇怪了。

云南—中国的一个省—和越南、老挝、缅甸等国接壤，中国许多个民族就生活在这片土地上。

所以，如果把云南和越南作对比，它们存在很多相似之处。

如果你深入了解历史会发现，汉族统治了中国中原几千年时间，而少 数民族大多分布于中国的边境省份。

The Wumao Club

Yep, there's definitely something wrong, WITH YOU, WHO GIVES A SHIT? What on earth has ethnicity to do with ANYTHING??? they are all Chinese or Vietnamese, end of story,

是啊，肯定有问题，不过谁在乎呢？种族和任何事情都能扯上关系吗？他们都是中国人，都是越南人，仅此而已。

Bill Chen

The Aborigines of Taiwan（高山族、原住民）who are recognized by China is a dizzying mix of tribes, speaking different tongues, and develo distinct way of life unique to their environment, just like the Papuans of New Guinea. China recognizes them as one ethnicity—Aboriginal—while in Vietnam, they will be counted as 16 different ones.

中国所指的台湾原住民（高山族，原住民）是许多部落的组合，说着不同的语言，拥有独特的生活方式，就像新几内亚的巴布亚人一样。中国把他们视为一个民族—原住民，但在越南，他们被分为16个不同的民族。

Vietnam counts many tribes (up to a quarter) that number in the hundreds or low thousands, which make their long-term survival suspect.

I’d say if China classified ethnicities the Vietnamese way, it will be several hundred, because that’s the number of non-Chinese languages being spoken on the mainland. If Vietnam did it the Chinese way, 15-20 will be a better ballpark.

据越南统计，许多部落（多达四分之一）的人数只有数百人或数千人，他们能否长期维持下去，很难说。

我想说，如果中国按照越南的方式划分民族，那会出现数百个民族，大陆地区非汉语语言的数量也有数百个之多。如果越南按照中国的方式来划分民族，可能只有15-20个。

Rand.

That means Vietnam land is so good compared to China. In term of tropical wild life, India has a lot of tigers compared to Vietnam but what I heard about venomous snakes, Vietnam has so many different types and they, Vietnamese themselves can not name them all. In rainy season of Mekong Delta region, SVN, in particularly with flood, sometimes you wake up and there is a huge cobra rolling up on your belly….and it sleeps, too. LOL. No joke here, buddy !

这意味着越南的土地比中国好。就热带野生动物而言，印度的老虎比越南多，不过我听说越南有很多毒蛇，多到连越南人自己也无法尽数。在湄公河三角洲地区的雨季，特别是发洪水的时候，有时你可能一觉醒来就看到一条巨大的眼镜蛇在你的肚子上蜷缩着....蛇也要睡觉的。哈哈，我不是在开玩笑啊，伙计!

Effweye Yen

Yes, the problem arises from your misunderstanding of how “ethnicity” works in China.

Over thousands of years, many tribes have intermingled (including many of my ancestors, who are part of the Baiyue in the south), resulting in a integrated culture known as “Han”.

It is not racially based, but cultural, hence a majority “Han” population of 90 percent, is in effect thousands of tribes that have merged into one dominant group. There are still many cultural differences within the Han, but they share a common value system, and most have self -identified as being “Chinese” for over 1,000 years.

是的，问题出在你对中国的“民族”有所误解。

几千年来，许多部落相互融合(包括我的许多祖先，他们都是南方百越的一部分)，形成了被后人称为“汉”的融合文化。

它并非基于种族，而是基于文化，因此“汉族”人口占到了总人口的90%，其实是数千个部落融合成了一个主流群体。汉族内部至今还存在许多文化差异，但他们拥有一个共同的价值体系，而且大多数人在1000多年前就已将自己认定为“中国人”了。

The other 55 “official” minority groups are usually those on the periphery, who retained much of their much more uniquei dentities which are distinct from the Han mainstream, due to their relatively late incorporation into empire.

By the way, the 56 figure is an “official” figure, there are many more sub-groups, even today.

其他55个“官方”少数族群基本都是边缘人，他们融入帝国的时间相对较晚，保留了许多和汉族主流群体不同的独特身份。

顺便说一下，56这个数字只是一个“官方”数字，时至今日也还有更多的亚群体。

Gia Bảo Trần

Xenophobic, here, is the short answer.

History. Vietnam's history with its ethnic groups is the story of alliance together fighting against foreign invaders. Ethnic groups in Vietnam therefore are treated as brothers who shed blood together to protect their homeland and to be respectful of. China's history with its ethnic groups is the opposite, a history of subjugation, oppression of other cultures, xenophobia, and trying to bend other ethics to their will. Every time they succeed, their diversity gets smaller, and they, along with China many ethnic groups become more xenophobic.

简单说，答案是排外。

回顾历史。越南与各民族的历史是结盟共同抗击外国侵略者的历史。因此，越南的少数族群是为了保护自己的家园而一起浴血奋战的兄弟，受到同等的尊重。而中国的民族历史恰恰相反，是征服的历史，是压迫其他文化的历史，而每次成功都降低了他们的多样性，许多民族群体都变得越来越排外。

Here is my personal story. I’m Vietnamese and study both art/design and a little bit of culture. I once wanted to do a coffee packet design project based on the Jarai people's design and shape language. My professor threatened to eliminate me on the spot if I didn’t research their culture carefully (Some colors and shapes may have different meanings in other cultures, etc.). Vietnamese highly respect their ethics brother even their small differences.

我来说说我自己的故事吧。我是越南人，学习艺术/设计，也学习一点文化。我曾经想做一个基于嘉莱人风格和图案的咖啡包设计项目。我的教授吓唬我说，如果我不仔细研究他们的文化，就要当场淘汰我(有些颜色和形状在其他文化中可能具有不同的含义，等等)。越南人非常尊重他们的兄弟民族，就算他们之间存在分歧。

Evan Mao

Many groups officially recognized in the PRC are amalgamations of related groups that by Vietnamese standards would have been listed separately. Nothing wrong or right with either approach, just different.

The reasons for amalgamation are many fold. For example, the Baima speak a Qiangic language, not a Tibic one, but are officially listed as a subgroup of Tibans.

中国官方承认的很多民族都是相近民族的融合体，按照越南的标准，这些民族都会被单独记录。这两种做法无关对错，只是选择不同而已。

合并归类的原因是多方面的。例如,白马藏族说的是羌语，而非藏语，但被正式列为藏族的亚群中。

Similarly, all Chinese speaking Muslims are classified as Hui, wether they are from the Northwest or descended from Arabic, Persian or Southeast Asian traders on China’s trade ports on the southeastern coast. Even Cham refugees who fled Vietnam to Hainan Island and assimilated to Chinese culture are officially classified as Hui, and not Utsul.

同样，所有说汉语的msl都被归类为回族，无论他们是来自西北，或是阿拉伯人、波斯人或东南沿海中国贸易港口的东南亚商人的后裔。就连从越南逃到海南岛并被中国文化同化的占族难民也被正式归类为回族，而非乌苏尔族。

Alex McCutcheon

How many colours are there between orange and red? China officially acknowledges 56 ethnicities or “nationalities" but those are some very large grous, and if you look closer you'll soon find that they're far from homogeneous.

在橙色和红色之间还有多少种颜色？中国官方公布中国有56个民族，但这些民族都是一些非常大的群体，如果你仔细观察，你会发现它们也存在差异。

For example the three ancient kingdoms of Amdo, U-Tsang and Kham gave rise to three separate but related cultural identities distinguished by dialect, customs, religious interpretation and other details like clothing and cuisine. If you travel to those areas you'll find they know very well about the similarities and differences among these groups. But at the same time they quite readily identify under the umbrella term “Tiban" because of their obvious shared heritage as masters of the Tiban Plateau, and it is this larger grou that ends up in the list of 56. Most of the 56 nationalities in China represent populations of several million, the largest at 18 million, so naturally there will be subgroups like the above in virtually all of the 56.

例如，古代的安多、乌思藏和康巴形成了三种独立但相关的文化身份，通过方言、习俗、宗教教义和其他如服装和饮食等细节来彼此区分。如果你到这些地区旅行，你会发现他们非常了解这些群体之间的相似性和差异性。但他们又被统称为“藏人”，因为他们都是青藏高原的主人，他们组成了一个更大的群体，最终被列入56个民族的名单中。中国56个民族中，大多数都拥有几百万的人口，最大的少数族群有1800万人，所以自然都会细分出许多亚组。

(an exception may be the Salar ethnicity which are only found over a very small geographic area and have a relatively short history, thus are unlikely to show all that much cultural and linguistic diversity among themselves)

Perhaps if China's 56 were living in Vietnam they'd be considered 560 different groups. It's neither right nor wrong either way, just a different standard that makes a numerical comparison fairly meaningless.

(撒拉族可能是个例外，他们只生活在一个非常小的地理区域内，历史相对较短，因此不太可能拥有族内的文化和语言多样性)

中国的56个民族如果生活在越南，会被划分为560个不同的民族。这两种划定方法都不存在对错之分，只是不同的标准，这种数字的比较毫无意义。

Brad Miller

Yes.

China (1) keeps eliminating small ethnic groups,

(2) keeps redefining small ethnic groups out of exstence.

是的。

不断弱化少数族群；

不断重新定义消失的少数族群。

Luong Nguyen

Related

Why does China have a fairly uniform national ethnicity given its massive land area?

No and yes.

No because from western eyes Chinese are all yellow skin small eye and straight black hair, just like Asians see all Western people as blond hair blue eye and white skin. Subtle differences do exst in China from provinces to provinces, which are as big as a big country.

中国幅员辽阔，为什么民族比较同化统一？

说不对也行，说对也行。

说不对，是因为在西方人看来，中国人都是黄皮肤、小眼睛和黑直发的形象，就像亚洲人认为所有的西方人都是金发碧眼、肤色白皙一样。对于中国这样的大国，各省之间确实存在着微妙的差异。

Yes because from very early in their history Chinese expanded aggressively into lands occupied by different peoples and assimilated them. They also started with a very large population. Male Chinese migrated to all areas belonging to China today and established their lineages there. Forced movements of people from densely populated areas to sparsely populated areas or depopulated areas were common (central China to North East and Soth East China to West and South West). Several events of wars and natural disasters also caused genetic bottlenecks so modern Chinese population are even more homogenous than in the past.

说对，是因为在中国历史的早期，中国人野心勃勃地将领土扩张到不同民族的领地上，并同化了他们。男性汉族人向各地迁徙，并建立了他们的血统。人口常常从人口稠密的地区迁徙到人烟稀少的地区(从中原迁徙到东北，从东南迁徙到西部和西南)。战争和自然灾害也造成了基因瓶颈，因此现代中国人口比过去更加同质。

Steven Lee (李揚靈)

Related

Why does China divide people into 56 ethnicities? Is it necessary to recognize the ethnicity?

It is complicated.

To answer your two questions in brief (I am sending this from a mobile) :

为什么中国把中国人分为56个民族？必须这样做吗？

这个问题很复杂。

简单回答一下你的两个问题吧(我是用手机回帖的)：

Because back in the 1950s, China was a replica of the Soviet Union, ethnic identification in China was mostly copied from Stalin's ethnic policy. The main purpose for ethnic division of the USSR was to disintegrate the rising of Pan-Turkistanism and contain Islam in Central Asia (remember 5 stans? ).

Can't tell whether it is necessary as ethnic division and recognization are basically an impossible mission. Given the current situation, I tend to think it has brought more problems than benefits.

因为在上世纪50年代，中国曾是苏联的翻版，中国的民族认同主要照搬了斯大林的民族政策。苏联划分民族的主要目的是瓦解崛起的泛突厥主义，遏制中亚的YSL教(你还记得5个斯坦国吗？)。

这样做有没有必要很难讲，因为种族划分和承认基本上是一个不可能完成的任务。鉴于目前的情况，我比较相信它带来的弊端比好处多。