Miao is an ethnic group who live primarily in southern
China, in the provinces of
Guizhou,
Hunan,
Yunnan,
Sichuan,
Guangxi,
Hainan,
Guangdong, and
Hubei, but also, in smaller numbers, in northern
Vietnam,
Laos,
Myanmar and
Thailand, and even in several Western countries, mainly in the
United States,
France, and
Australia. Miao is actually the official Chinese term for four distinct groups of people who are only distantly related through language or culture (and doesn't reflect the self-designations of the component nations of people): the
Hmu people of southeast Guizhou, the
Kho (Qho) Xiong people of west Hunan, the
A-Hmao people of Yunnan, and the
Hmong people of Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Yunnan. There are some nine million Miao in China, of whom the Hmong constitute probably one-third. The Miao are related in language and some other cultural features to the
Yao; among these peoples the two groups with the closest degree of relatedness are the Hmong (Miao) and the
Iu Mien (Yao).
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