Traditional Chinese - traditionalchinese.net

A person who resides in and holds citizenship of the People's Republic of China (including Hong Kong and Macau) or the Republic of China (Taiwan). This definition stems from a legal perspective.
The Chinese nation (Zhonghua minzu), a supra-ethnic concept which includes the Han Chinese and other established ethnic groups who have lived within the borders of China since at least the Qing Dynasty. This definition stems from a nationality perspective, and includes most overseas Chinese.
A person of Han Chinese ancestry is often simply referred to as Chinese or ethnic Chinese in Western countries. This includes most overseas Chinese. This definition stems from a genealogical perspective. Note that some overseas Chinese may not necessarily identify with either the PRC or the ROC.

Han (Simplified Chinese: 汉族 or 汉人; Traditional Chinese: 漢族 or 漢人; pinyin: hànzú or hànrén) is an ethnic group originated from China. It is often known in English and other languages as "Chinese", although "Chinese" would includes many Chinese peoples other than Han. As the ethnic group forming the majority of the Chinese population, it is the largest single human ethnic group in the world, numbering over 1.3 billion people. The Han people constitute about 92 percent of the population of mainland China (outnumbering all other officially recognised ethnic groups there) and about 19 percent of the entire global human population. In contrast to the common Western media portrayal of the Han Chinese as being homogeneous, there are substantial genetic, linguistic, cultural and social differences between its various subgroups. Thousands of years of regionalized assimilation of various ethnic groups and tribes in China is the primary reason for this diversity within the Han.

Han Chinese is a subset of the Chinese nation (Zhonghua minzu). An alternate name that some Chinese people use to refer to themselves is the "Descendants of the Dragon".

"Han" or "Han Chinese" is the ethnic group forming the majority of the Chinese peoples. The name comes from the Han Dynasty which succeeded the short-lived Qin Dynasty that united China. The Zhou Dynasty, which preceded the Qin, was a period of consolidation when the various tribes coalesced into Warring States, which then annexed each other. It was during the Qin Dynasty and the Han Dynasty that the various tribes of China began to feel that they belonged to the same ethnic group, compared with other ethnic groups around them. In addition, the Han Dynasty is considered a high point in Chinese civilization, able to expand its power and influences to Central and Northeast Asia.

Today many Chinese people still call themselves "Han people" (Hànrén). In the English language, the term Han Chinese is sometimes used synonymously with "Chinese" without regard to the 55 other minority Chinese ethnic groups; usage of this kind tends to be frowned upon by Chinese citizens, who regard the term Zhōngguó rén (中國人) and the nationality term Zhonghua minzu (中華民族) for "Chinese" to be more precise terminologies. Chinese people often use the symbolic term "Descendants of the Dragon" as a sign of ethnic identity.

Amongst some Southern Han Chinese, a different term exists within various languages like Cantonese, Hakka and Minnan-- Tángrén (唐人, literally "the people of Tang"). This term derives from another Chinese dynasty, the Tang dynasty, which is regarded as another zenith of Chinese civilization. It was during the Tang dynasty that the Yue of southern coastal China was fully sinicized. In fact, the term survives in most Chinese references to Chinatown(中國城), known as 唐人街 ("Street of Tang People").

Another term used commonly to refer to overseas Chinese is Huaren (Simplified Chinese: 华人; Traditional Chinese: 華人; pinyin: huárén), derived from Zhonghua (中華), a literary name for China. The usual translation is "ethnic Chinese". The term refers to "Chinese" as a cultural and ethnic affiliation and is inclusive of both Chinese in China and persons of Chinese descent residing abroad.