CHUANG

Pinyin Zhuang, highly Sinicized ethnic minority of South China, chiefly occupying the Chuang Autonomous Region of Kwangsi. They speak two closely related dialects, one classified as Northern Tai and the other as Central Tai. Characteristic cultural traits of the traditional Chuang included a preference for valley lands adjacent to streams, wet-rice cultivation with the use of buffalo or oxen, and platform houses on pilings. Social customs differing from Chinese customs included premarital sexual freedom and free marriage without middlemen, the bride staying at home with her parents until the birth of the first child (the marriage then being considered consummated). Magical rites, sorcery with human figurines, and the ancestral cult were other distinguishing elements. The culture ancestral to that of modern Tai speakers appears to have had its maximum geographic spread during the early period of its contact with Han Chinese culture about 2,500 years ago, evolving in the regions of Szechwan and the lower Yangtze River valley. The advance of the Han Chinese culture and empire pushed the Tai culture and its exponents southward. Today, the cultural heirs of these early people include the Thai of Thailand, the Lao of Laos, and the Shan of Myanmar (Burma), as well as the Tai of Yunnan, the Puyi (Buyi) of Kweichow, and the Chuang in Kwangsi. Of these, the Chuang and Puyi are highly Sinicized. In 1958 the Chinese communist regime created the new Chuang Autonomous Region of Kwangsi. The Chuang in the late 20th century were reported to number about 16,500,000.