Tanka (ethnic group)

The Boat people or Tanka is an ethnic group in China that has traditionally lived on in coastal parts of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Hainan provinces, as well as Hong Kong and Macau. Though many now live onshore, some members of the older generations still live on their narrow boats and pursue their traditional livelihood of fishing. Originally the Tanka were a non-Chinese ethnic group and were classified by the Qing government as "mean". The Yongzheng Emperor freed them and several other "mean" groups from this status in a series of edicts from 1723 to 1731. They mostly worked as fishermen and tended to gather at some bays. Some built markets or villages on the shore, while others continued to live on their s or boats. The Tanka arrived in Hong Kong around the 7-9th century from the Malay Oceanic. As Hong Kong developed, some of the fishing grounds in Hong Kong became badly polluted or were reclaimed, and so became land. Those Tanka who only own small boats and cannot fish far out to sea are forced to stay inshore in bays, gathering together like floating villages.

A small number of Tanka also live in parts of Vietnam. There they are called Dan and classified as a subgroup of the Ngái ethnicity.