Can Okinawa people speak Chinese?

Although Okinawans were vassals of China in the heyday of China Dynasty, just like Vietnamese were vassals of China, they paid tribute every year, but every country has its own cultural system and language, and Okinawans are no exception. Because Okinawa is close to Japan and has been occupied by Japan for a long time, the language used by Okinawa people now is Japanese.

Now Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, used to be a Ryukyu country. Ryukyu people are used to using Ryukyu language. South Ryukyu language belongs to Austronesian language family, while North Ryukyu language is closer to Japanese and belongs to Altaic language family. It has nothing to do with Chinese, but belongs to Sino-Tibetan language family. After being conquered by Samoans in the late Ming Dynasty, Ryukyu began to speak Japanese at the same time, and the main notices were written in both Ryukyu and Japanese. It was only when the envoys of the Ming and Qing Dynasties came that the Japanese notice was temporarily removed.

The origin of Okinawa people

Okinawa's original name is Ryukyu. At first, Ryukyu Islands had no writing and no calendar. The islanders have been told by word of mouth that their ancestors were the "sons of heaven", and the sons of heaven spread the country for the twenty-fifth time. In a certain year, it is divided into three countries: Zhongshan, Shannan and Shanbei. By chance, I came into contact with the culture of the Central Plains, and under admiration, I asked the then Central Plains Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang to seal it. Zhu Yuanzhang was very interested in these three small countries, and sent a special envoy, Yang Zai, with an imperial edict to let the three countries Ryukyu.

It has to be mentioned that in the 25th year of Hongwu (1392), Ming Taizu "gave Fujian people thirty-six surnames" to Ryukyu, nominally to teach Ryukyu people production technology and culture, but actually to spread the seeds of China people-that is, Ryukyu people have Fujian people's genes for a long time-or that the first generation of Ryukyu people probably immigrated from the southeast coast of China.