The Tankas originally included many refugees to the sea and were considered a non-Chinese aboriginal ethnic group, classified by the Qing government as "mean".

Historically, the name has been fast growing amongst Han Chinese, and has also been taken up by various non-Chinese ethnic groups.

The Hokkien and Teochew suffixes -a and -kia are diminutives that are generally used to refer to non-Chinese ethnic groups.

But the 23 black students are by far the largest non-Chinese group, outnumbering the 11 whites and 8 Hispanics.

Nevertheless, Hu later became a collective term for non-Chinese ethnic groups, often preceded by Chinese numerals and characters such as Wu (five) or Zhu (numerous).

Qiang (historical people) various non-Chinese groups referred to in Chinese historical literature.

However, its population includes many non-Chinese ethnic groups, the largest of which is the Uighurs.

During the Tang Dynasty, the Miao (Hmong) ceased as a major non-Chinese group except in the province of Yunnan where they were ruled by the six "Zhao" (詔).

This event marked the end of all power that the Xianbei and other non-Chinese groups had over China, and racial tension subsided.

Kingdoms rose and fell, and eventually one non-Chinese group prevailed.