What is the difference between 中国人, 華人, 漢人, and 唐人?


I looked at the dictionary definitions of 中国人, 華人, 漢人, and 唐人, and it appears
that all of them mean "Chinese person".

Questions:

  1. What is the difference between them?
  2. Why are there so many ways of saying "Chinese person"?
  3. What is the most common way of referring to a Chinese person (including persons of Chinese ancestry, not just from China)?




It's like this:

  1. **中国人** : "a person with Chinese nationality"
  2. **漢人** : 
    1. "a person from the [Han](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty) dynasty"
    2. "a person of [Han (Chinese) ethnicity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese)"
  3. **華人** : "a person of ethnically Han ancestry living outside of China"
  4. **唐人** : 
    1. "a person from the [Tang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_dynasty) dynasty"
    2. "a Seric; a Cathayan"

The word 中国人 (#1) is by far the most common word corresponds to English
_Chinese_ , that is what most lay people naively imagine about the word (which
technically tends to be #2-2).

About #2-1 and #4-1, I don't explain here because they are obviously
historical terms.

For #2-2, it's good to know that both PRC and Taiwan are multiethnic
countries, just >90% of whose population is made up by people who identify
themselves as 漢族 "Han ethnicity", or _Chinese_ in a narrow sense. But as you
may suspect, this is merely an academic term in Japan that only experts would
know.

On top of this, #3 is, in short, overseas Chinese (#2-2) people, or Chinese-
hyphen-somewhere people (a.k.a. 華僑【かきょう】).

And for #4-2, did you know [those English
words](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_China)? They are older names for
Chinese, in other words, you aren't going to use it until you write a
historical novel in Japanese.

* * *

So, basically what you have to memorize is only 中国人, and for those who have
Chinese ancestry but not from China, you should use 華人/華僑 (individual) or 中国系
(group or property). For instance, _a Chinese-American_ is described as
中国系アメリカ人 or 中国系米国人 in Japanese.




It's like this:

  1. **中国人** : "a person with Chinese nationality"
  2. **漢人** : 
    1. "a person from the [Han](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty) dynasty"
    2. "a person of [Han (Chinese) ethnicity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese)"
  3. **華人** : "a person of ethnically Han ancestry living outside of China"
  4. **唐人** : 
    1. "a person from the [Tang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_dynasty) dynasty"
    2. "a Seric; a Cathayan"

The word 中国人 (#1) is by far the most common word corresponds to English
_Chinese_ , that is what most lay people naively imagine about the word (which
technically tends to be #2-2).

About #2-1 and #4-1, I don't explain here because they are obviously
historical terms.

For #2-2, it's good to know that both PRC and Taiwan are multiethnic
countries, just >90% of whose population is made up by people who identify
themselves as 漢族 "Han ethnicity", or _Chinese_ in a narrow sense. But as you
may suspect, this is merely an academic term in Japan that only experts would
know.

On top of this, #3 is, in short, overseas Chinese (#2-2) people, or Chinese-
hyphen-somewhere people (a.k.a. 華僑【かきょう】).

And for #4-2, did you know [those English
words](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_China)? They are older names for
Chinese, in other words, you aren't going to use it until you write a
historical novel in Japanese.

* * *

So, basically what you have to memorize is only 中国人, and for those who have
Chinese ancestry but not from China, you should use 華人/華僑 (individual) or 中国系
(group or property). For instance, _a Chinese-American_ is described as
中国系アメリカ人 or 中国系米国人 in Japanese.

