The She are the largest ethnic minority in Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi Provinces. They are also present in the provinces of Anhui and Guangdong. Some descendants of the She also exist amongst the Hakka minority in Taiwan.
She Chinese (畲话) should not be confused with Shēyǔ (畲语), also known as Ho Ne, which is a Hmong-Mien language spoken in east-central Guangdong. She and Sheyu speakers have separate histories and identities, although both are officially classified by the Chinese government as She people. The Dongjia of Majiang County, Guizhou are also officially classified as She people, but speak a Western Hmongic language closely related to Chong'anjiang Miao (重安江苗语).
History
The She people are some of the earliest known settlers of Guangdong; they are thought to have originally settled along the shallow shore for easier fishing access during the Neolithic era. Eventually, after an influx of Yuet people moved south during the Warring States period, serious competition between the two peoples for resources developed.
From the time of the Qin dynasty on, waves of migrants from northern China have had a serious impact on the She people. Because they possessed superior tools and technology, these migrants were able to displace the She and occupy the better land for farming. As a result of this, some of the She were forced to relocate into the hilly areas of the Jiangxi and Fujian provinces.
Following this relocation, the She people became hillside farmers. Their methods of farming included burning grasses on the slope, casting rice seeds on those embers and then harvesting the produce following the growth season. Some of the She people also participated in the production and trade of salt, obtained from the evaporation of local pools of salt water.
Many conflicts took place between the Han Chinese and She peoples. For example, in one incident, She salt producers on Lantau Island in Hong Kong attacked the city of Canton in a revolt during the Song dynasty.
During the Ming-Qing dynasties they moved into and settled Zhejiang's southern region and mountain districts in the Lower Yangtze region, after they left their homeland in Northern Fujian. It is theorized that the She were pushed out of their land by the Hakka, which caused them to move into Zhejiang.[4]
PRC Autonomous Counties and Ethnic Townships
Zhejiang
She ethnic county, townships and towns in Zhejiang
Gelao people (仡佬) (right) and She people 畲族 (left) depicted on a mural in Niu Jie (Cow Street) of Beijing.
The roughly 45,000 She living in Guizhou Province form a separate subgroup, the Dongjia (东家人; Dōngjiā Rén), who differ notably in culture from the She in other areas.[6]
Provincial level
In a 2000 census, 709,592 She have been counted in China.
^Susan Naquin, Evelyn Sakakida Rawski (1989). Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century (reprint, illustrated ed.). Yale University Press. p. 169. ISBN0-300-04602-2. Retrieved 2011-10-30. Both the She and the Tanka were quite assimilated into Han Chinese culture. The She had migrated north in the late Ming and Qing from the hills of northern Fujian into southern Zhejiang; some even moved into the Lower Yangtze mountain districts farther north.
^Est. 2008, Jinping is home to eight minority nations, living in 19 designated villages (村, cun). The township as a whole cannot be said to be expressly for the She. In all, Jiangxi Province has 56 She villages in non-She townships.
