The Ngái (; ) are an ethnic group found in Vietnam, largely descended from the Hakka people of southern China. The Vietnamese government classifies the Ngai distinctly from the Hoa people when considering ethnic minority groups. The term "Ngai" comes from the Hakka Chinese first person pronoun "ngai" (, "I / me"), and some Ngai use the endonym "San Ngai" (山𠊎, "mountain [-dwelling] Ngai").
Overview The Ngái people speak Hakka, a Sinitic language, but are classified separately from the Hoa or urban "ethnic Chinese" by the Vietnamese government as they have been living in the modern-day lands of Vietnam for centuries.
The Ngái population was 4,841 in 1999 but down only 1,035 in 2009 and up to 1,649 in 2019.Tổng điều tra dân số và nhà ở Việt Nam năm 2009: Kết quả toàn bộ. Hà Nội, 6-2010. page 134-225. Due to issues related to ethnic registration, the officially recorded number of Ngái people is very small. The total number of Hakka speakers in Vietnam is estimated to be around 150,000 to nearly 200,000, and most of them are classified as Hoa instead.
See also Chinese Nùng San Diu people, a Cantonese speaking community in northern Vietnam
References
Works cited
Asian and African Area Studies. Kyoto University, 2018. 17 (2) Special issue The Ngái in Vietnam: The History, Religion, and Ethnicity of the Minority People of Hakka Origin. J-STAGE.