Mài

The Mài are a small Chinese-speaking community of the southernmost Hainan coast, in the former Yazhou prefecture around Sanya, with villages such as Shuinan and Yanglan beside the Ningyuan River. Their speech, Maihua, is assigned to the Yue branch in the Language Atlas of China, although linguists note heavy Hakka, Gan and Hainan Min layers and some treat it as a mixed southern variety. The Mai of Yanglan trace their ancestors to a move from Shuinan more than ten generations ago.

This coast was brought under Chinese rule with the Zhuya commandery of 110 BC, abandoned by the Han court in 46 BC, and organised under the Yazhou prefecture of the Tang and Song, whose seat was at Ningyuan.