Maonan

The Maonan, who call themselves Anan, meaning local people, are a Kam-Sui people of the karst hills of northwest Guangxi, centred on Huanjiang, with smaller communities in Nandan and southern Guizhou. They speak Maonan, a Kam-Sui language without a native script, writing in Chinese or Zhuang.

Chinese records trace their ancestors to the Liao peoples known before the Tang dynasty of 618 to 907, and to the Ling tribes listed under the Song, Yuan and Ming between 960 and 1644. Their name appears in chronicles as Maotan, Maonan and other spellings.

More than four in five bear the surname Tan, whose genealogy says migrants from Hunan married local women. They live in clan villages, farm dry-land grains and rice where valleys allow, and weave bamboo hats as betrothal gifts; household shrines mix ancestor tablets with Taoist and Chinese folk deities.