Mythologies of the Hainanese Tribe

Hainan tribe (Chinese: 海南人; Hái-nâm nâng), also called Hainam people or Hainanese tribe, is a term referring to the residents of Hainan, the southernmost and smallest Chinese province. The term Hainanese can be used to refer to all residents of Hainan island, or it may refer to the Min-speaking subgroup of Han Chinese native to Hainan alone. Hainan Min speakers often refer to their native language as Qiongwen or Qiongzhou to distinguish themselves from other groups of Hainan such as the Cantonese, Tanka, Hlai, Miao, etc. Like Fujian and Guangdong provinces, Hainan has been a source for emigration. Towards the turn of the 20th century, many Hainanese migrated to various Southeast Asian nations, where they worked as cooks, restaurateurs, coffee shop owners, clothes makers, sailors and hoteliers, filling niches left unoccupied by previous groups of immigrants from China. The Hainanese were particularly successful in Thailand, there are 2 million Hainanese in Thailand.^[6] as well as large number of tycoons trace Hainanese origin, and in Cambodia, where they controlled the hotel and restaurant trade. They also formed a substantial proportion of Chinese communities in Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore and Malaysia. The outbreak of war with Japan prompted the departures of 33,000 persons in 1936 and 44,000 in 1937 from Hainan. Overseas Hainanese have been a significant and particularly active source of remittances to China. This was done through specialized banks called "letter offices" (55 such banks were counted in 1937). The donations of overseas Hainanese helped to build schools, libraries and hospitals not just in their ancestral towns and villages, but also in Haikou, the provincial capital. Overseas Hainanese introduced rubber, pepper, pineapple, cocoa, palm oil and lemon grass to Hainan Island and ensured its commercial production there. Like Fujian and Guangdong provinces, Hainan has been a source for emigration. Towards the turn of the 20th century, many Hainanese migrated to various Southeast Asian nations, where they worked as cooks, restaurateurs, coffee shop owners, clothes makers, sailors and hoteliers, filling niches left unoccupied by previous groups of immigrants from China. The Hainanese were particularly successful in Thailand, there are 2 million Hainanese in Thailand.^[6] as well as large number of tycoons trace Hainanese origin, and in Cambodia, where they controlled the hotel and restaurant trade. They also formed a substantial proportion of Chinese communities in Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore and Malaysia. The outbreak of war with Japan prompted the departures of 33,000 persons in 1936 and 44,000 in 1937 from Hainan. Overseas Hainanese have been a significant and particularly active source of remittances to China. This was done through specialized banks called "letter offices" (55 such banks were counted in 1937). The donations of overseas Hainanese helped to build schools, libraries and hospitals not just in their ancestral towns and villages, but also in Haikou, the provincial capital. Overseas Hainanese introduced rubber, pepper, pineapple, cocoa, palm oil and lemon grass to Hainan Island and ensured its commercial production there.

Hainanese (Hainan Romanised: Hái-nâm-oe, Hainanese Pinyin: Hhai3 nam2 ue1,), also known as Qiongwen, Qiongyu or Hainan Min is a group of Min Chinese varieties spoken in the far southern Chinese island province of Hainan and regional Overseas Chinese communities such as in Singapore and Thailand. In the classification of Yuan Jiahua, it was included in the Southern Min group, being mutually unintelligible with other Southern Min varieties such as Hokkien–Taiwanese and Teochew. In the classification of Li Rong, used by the Language Atlas of China, it was treated as a separate Min subgroup. Hou Jingyi combined it with Leizhou Min, spoken on the neighboring mainland Leizhou Peninsula, in a Qiong–Lei group "Hainanese" is also used for the language of the Li people living in Hainan, but generally refers to Min varieties spoken in Hainan. The phonologies of the different varieties of Hainanese are highly divergent,^[6] with the Wenchang dialect being the prestige dialect, and often used as a reference. Many of the most widely spoken varieties of Hainanese notably have a series of implosive consonants, pronounced as //ɓ// and pronounced as //ɗ//, which were acquired through contact with surrounding languages, probably Hlai. However, more conservative varieties of Hainanese such as Banqiao remain closer to Teochew and other varieties of Southern Min, lack them.

Hainan was part of mainland China until the last ice age started receding about 20,000 years ago and it was a true Island by about 6,000 years ago. As the sea level rose around 100 meters due to the melting glaciers Hainan became a true Island. According to the article titled: “Tracing the legacy of the early Hainan Islanders – a perspective from mitochondrial DNA,” people have been living on Hainan for somewhere between seven and 27 thousand years. The indigenous Hainan islanders are primarily of the Li populations and some of non-Li populations (Cun, Danga, and Lingao) with virtually all having roots in Southern China and Vietnam. The Lingaoese, Tanka and Li natives were descendants of the Yue tribe. The Baiyue (Chinese: 百越), Hundred Yue, or simply Yue, were various ethnic groups who inhabited the regions of South China and Northern Vietnam during the 1st millennium BC and 1st millennium AD. They were known for their short hair, body tattoos, fine swords, and naval prowess. The Yue tribes were gradually displaced or assimilated into Chinese culture as the Han empire expanded into what is now Southern China and Northern Vietnam. Many modern southern Chinese dialects or those within Lingnan region bear traces of substrate languages originally spoken by the ancient Yue. Variations of the name are still used for the name of modern Vietnam, in Zhejiang-related names including Yue opera, the Yue Chinese language, and in the abbreviation for Guangdong.