page_title: Yi people
section_title: Modern era
hierarchical_section_title: Yi people / History / Modern era
caption_attribution_description: English: Detail of plate from Stielers Hand-Atlas (Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1891), showing a "Miao-tse" enclave in southern China
context_page_description: The Yi or Nuosuo people are an ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Numbering nine million people, they are the seventh largest of the 55 ethnic minority groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They live primarily in rural areas of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, usually in mountainous regions. Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture is the prefecture containing the largest population of Yi people within mainland China, with two million Yi people in the region. For other countries, as of 1999, there were 3,300 Mantsi-speaking "Lô Lô" people living in the Hà Giang, Cao Bằng, and Lào Cai provinces in northern Vietnam.
  The Yi speak various Loloish languages, closely related to Burmese. The prestige variety is Nuosu, which is written in the Yi script.
context_section_description: Long Yun, a Yi, was the military governor of Yunnan, during the Republic of China rule on mainland China.
  The Fourth Front Army of the CCP encountered the Yi people during the Long March, and many Yi joined the communist forces.
  After the establishment of the PRC, several Yi autonomous administrative districts of prefecture or county level were set up in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou. With the development of automotive traffic and telecommunications, the communications among different Yi areas have been increasing sharply.
caption: 1891 map showing a "Lolo" enclave in modern Liangshan, Sichuan
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