Talk:Hlai people

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The article stated the Li people use latin alphabet for their language. Some minor groups in China use romanized pinyin to represent their language. Romanized pinyin is a more specific system than just Latin alphabet. It would be helpful if someone can verify one way or the other. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kowloonese (talk • contribs) (Sep. 13, 2003)

Name of this ethnic group
True, this ethnic group is known as the Li in Chinese (Mandarin), but this is not the name they use to refer to themselves.

In a gesture of respect, could they be referred to under their own name, which is Hlai?

See also the Ethnologue review of the Li or Hlai language.

Also missing from this article is a coverage of Hlai history. For instance, the fact that they were the original inhabitants of the island; they were pushed back by Han settlement; they resisted vigorously for many centuries until a major battle in the late 18th century put an end to their resistance. The Miao were apparently sent into Hainan specifically to fight the Hlai.

Why is all Chinese history so emasculated, even for Western audiences? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.182.87.197 (talk • contribs) (Jan. 6, 2004)


 * I agree that it's worth considering a move to Hlai. It's not as though "Li" is very well-known in English. Also, it must be easier to search for "Hlai" rather than "Li". - Nat Krause(Talk!) 07:09, 22 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Also, while the Li may have a latin alphabet for their language, this does not appear to be used (Li people I know tell me that they plough straight into Mandarin and Chinese characters, causing considerable educational difficulties, and possibly one of the factors behind the atrocious educational level of the Li). So is this alphabet a reality on the ground, or is it more window-dressing by the Chinese government?


 * Furthermore, I would question the statement that the Li have a lot of contact with the Han Chinese _therefore_ they speak Mandarin.


 * This doesn't make sense. The local Han Chinese speak Hainanese (unless they speak Lingaonese or Junhua). Logically speaking, the Li should all be speaking Hainanese, not Mandarin, if their language ability is a result of 'contact'. The fact is, however, that the Li often prefer speaking Mandarin to speaking Hainanese, which I suspect is a legacy of historical hostility between the two groups. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.186.5.76 (talk • contribs) (Mar. 23, 2004)


 * It's probably window dressing, yes. But, do the Li people that you know really not speak Mandarin? Do the Han people on Hainan really not speak Mandarin these days? - Nat Krause(Talk!) 07:09, 22 April 2006 (UTC)


 * The Li people uses the Latin script for writing, but since most people receive an education with Chinese characters, one would simply use Chinese characters for writing. While Li is mostly used conversationally with other Li people. This isn't very different to how speakers of the other subdivisions of the Chinese language write using Chinese characters, but speak one's local dialect with another speaker of that same dialect (and Mandarin with others). Even though there might be another way to have the dialect written on paper either with special characters or a Latinisation scheme, it is rarely used. Unless a Li person felt the Hainanese dialect to be interesting and decided to pursue it at a university, a Li usually wouldn't be fluent in the Hainan dialect, only the native Li language and the common dialect in China, Standard Mandarin. --72.75.55.29 04:43, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
 * No, they couldn't. We don't place pages out of 'respect' but usage which has been Li since at least as early as the Encyclopaedia Britannica article on "Hainan" in the 1870s. That said, it could be moved if there were evidence that English-speaking academics broadly use the name 'Hlai' to refer to the Li. The sources in the article (and the article itself) don't currently support that idea. —  Llywelyn II   11:51, 25 January 2019 (UTC)


 * ✅I support moving the page to Hlai. Hlai is the term used in academics for the Hlai language as well. The fact that the sources in this article mostly use Li can be explained by them being mostly Chinese sources. I quote from Encyclopedia Britannica: "The official name Li is applied to a number of different local groups, most of whom speak languages distantly related to the Tai language family." This clearly shows it is a not very strictly defined exonym. I will list some articles that use Hlai: *https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/146151/1/PL-530.pdf#page=150 *https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/crj.12497 *https://www.nature.com/articles/jhg201050 *https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Guanglin_He/publication/339632918_Inferring_the_population_history_of_Tai-Kadai-speaking_people_and_southernmost_Han_Chinese_on_Hainan_Island_by_genome-wide_array_genotyping/links/5e5ddfd1a6fdccbeba147b67/Inferring-the-population-history-of-Tai-Kadai-speaking-people-and-southernmost-Han-Chinese-on-Hainan-Island-by-genome-wide-array-genotyping.pdf
 * It is clear that the term Hlai is used in English language academics and perhaps used in a more accurate manner than the official PRC term "Li", applied to multiple groups. Glennznl (talk) 12:07, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Do you have any opinions on this matter? No opposition to my argument has been raised yet, and I think this page should be moved to Hlai people.Glennznl (talk) 00:07, 13 July 2020 (UTC)

Traditional religion
Need information on their traditional religion. Badagnani (talk) 17:47, 16 August 2008 (UTC)
 * According to this website, there is a Li national religion.

The article is lacking a section on religion. Kind regards, Sarcelles (talk) 21:03, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

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