Brief Introduction of Gin Ethnic Group

The fish-catching people on the northern bay

The Jing nationality, one of the Chinese ethnic minorities, now has a population of 18749 people, who are mainly distributed in the three islands, Wutou, Wanwei, Shanxin, of Jiangping County in Fangcheng of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Ever since the 16th century, the ancestors of the Jing nationality successively moved here from Tushan of Vietnam. The first batch of immigrants has already had a history of nearly 500 years. The Jing nationality is called “Vietnam Nationality” in the past. In 1958,the nationality is formally named as the Jing nationality, according to its will and the approval of the State Council.

The Jing nationality has its own national language, but it is still not decided which linguistic family its language belongs to. The Chinese characters serve as the written form for Jing people. The elder generation of Jing people once imitates the Chinese characters and creates a kind of “Nan Characters.” They use the two kinds of characters together to write the Confucian classics, the ballad and the document. However for various reasons, the Nan characters have never become the commonly used characters.

Jing people inhabited area is located in the subtropical zone. It is warm, abundant in marine products, and especially famous for its pearl, sea horse, and sea otter. Jing people rely mainly on fish production, with the agro-farming as a supplement. Jing people believe in Catholicism and Taoism.