Vietnam: Chinese stevedores in the port at Saigon, Cochinchina, 1905

Hoa refers to a minority in Vietnam consisting of persons considered to be ethnic Chinese (Han Chinese). They are often referred to as either Chinese Vietnamese, Vietnamese Chinese, Sino-Vietnamese, or ethnic Chinese in Vietnam. Those who migrated from Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) China to Vietnam declared themselves to be Minh-huong (Míngxiāng) which means the people of the Ming Dynasty.

The Hoa are descended from early settlers from Guangdong province who arrived in Vietnam from the 18th to 20th centuries. The final group of mainland China migrants came during the 1940s. A large proportion of Hoa speak Cantonese as their mother tongue. The second largest group of Hoa tend to speak Teochew (Chaozhou), but may also speak Cantonese as a lingua franca. The younger generation of Hoa in Vietnam tends to speak both Vietnamese and Cantonese. According to the 1999 Vietnamese census, with 862,371 people (1.1% of the population), the Hoa are the 6th largest ethnic group in Vietnam.

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GRAHAM GREENE IN SAIGON