page_title: Miao people
hierarchical_section_title: Miao people
caption_attribution_description: The Long-horn tribe, a small branch of ethnic Miao in the western part of Guizhou Province, China.
context_page_description: The Miao are a minority ethnic group living in southern China, and are recognized by the government of China as one of the 56 official ethnic groups. Miao is a Chinese term, while the component groups of people, which include Hmong, Hmu, Xong, and A-Hmao, may have their own self-designations.
  The different peoples in the "Miao" group may not necessarily be either linguistically or culturally related, though the majority are members of Miao-Yao language family, which includes the Hmong, Hmub, Xong and A-Hmao dialetcs and the majority do share cultural similarities. Many Miao groups cannot communicate with each other in their native tongues and have different histories and cultures. Many groups designated as Miao do not even agree that they belong to the ethnic group, though some Miao groups, such as the Hmong do agree with the collective grouping as a single ethnic group – Miao.
  The Miao live primarily in southern China's mountains, in the provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi, Guangdong and Hainan. Some sub-groups of the Miao, most notably the Hmong people, have migrated out of China into Southeast Asia.
context_section_description: The Miao are a minority ethnic group living in southern China, and are recognized by the government of China as one of the 56 official ethnic groups. Miao is a Chinese term, while the component groups of people, which include (with some variant spellings) Hmong, Hmu, Xong (Qo-Xiong), and A-Hmao, may have their own self-designations.
  The different peoples in the "Miao" group may not necessarily be either linguistically or culturally related, though the majority are members of Miao-Yao language family, which includes the Hmong, Hmub, Xong and A-Hmao dialetcs and the majority do share cultural similarities. Many Miao groups cannot communicate with each other in their native tongues and have different histories and cultures. Many groups designated as Miao do not even agree that they belong to the ethnic group, though some Miao groups, such as the Hmong do agree with the collective grouping as a single ethnic group – Miao.
  The Miao live primarily in southern China's mountains, in the provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi, Guangdong and Hainan. Some sub-groups of the Miao, most notably the Hmong people, have migrated out of China into Southeast Asia (Burma (Myanmar), northern Vietnam, Laos and Thailand). Following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975, a large group of Hmong refugees resettled in several Western nations, mainly in the United States, France, and Australia.
caption: Headdress of the Long-horn Miao—one of the small branches of Miao living in the 12 villages near Zhijin County, Guizhou
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