You can help expand this article with text translated from
the corresponding article in Thai. Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
The Chin Haw or Chin Ho ( Chinese: 秦霍; pinyin: Qín huò; Thai: จีนฮ่อ, RTGS: Chin Ho), also known locally as Yunnanese ( Chinese: 雲南人, Thai: คนยูนนาน), are Chinese people who migrated to Thailand via Myanmar or Laos. Most of them were originally from Yunnan, a southern province of China. [1] [2] They speak Southwestern Mandarin.
Generally, the Chin Haw can be divided into three groups, according to the time of their migration. [3]
The majority are Han Chinese and follow Chinese folk religion or Buddhism. Approximately one-third are Muslim, also known as Hui people or Hui Muslim.
The Chin Haw have traditionally been itinerant in their lifestyle, conducting long-distance caravan trade throughout the Thai-Burma-Laos frontier, southeast China, and northern Vietnam. [4]
They have engaged in the heroin trade. Ma Hseuh-fu, from Yunnan province, was one of the most prominent Chin Haw heroin drug lords. His other professions included trading in tea and being a hotelier. [5]
The Muslim Chin Haw are the same ethnic group as the Panthay in Burma, who are also descendants of Hui Muslims from Yunnan province, China.[ citation needed]