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The Hlai, also known as Li or Lizu, are a Kra–Dai-speaking ethnic group, one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the China. The vast majority live off the southern coast of China on Hainan,Original from Indiana University where they are the largest minority ethnic group. Divided into the five branches of the Qi (Gei), Ha, Run (Zwn), Sai (Tai, Jiamao) and Meifu (Moifau), the Hlai have their own distinctive culture and customs.
The 3rd century Nanzhou Yiwuzhi mentioned bandits called Lǐ (俚) who lived south of Guangzhou in the five commanderies: Cangwu, Yulin, Hepu, Ningpu and Gaoliang. They lived in villages with no walls and took refuge in the mountains and narrow passes. They did not have commanders or lords. Taiping Yulan "vol. 785 Four Barbarians – Nanman I: Li" quote: "《南州異物志》曰：廣州南有賊曰俚。此賊在廣州之南，蒼梧、郁林、合浦、寧浦、高涼五郡中央，地方數千里。往往別村各有長帥，無君主，恃在山險，不用城。" The Liu Song dynasty (420–479) set up a post called "Protector the Western Rivers" specifically to attack the Li and Lao people. After 471, the holder of that post encroached on the territory of the Li and Lao people. An army under the command of Li Sidao, the governor of Jinkang (close to modern Wuzhou), attacked the Li under the Protector's orders. During the 6th century, the Li people were united under the rule of Lady Xian, a hereditary leader who convinced tribal leaders to obey her. In the early 6th century, the Liang dynasty (502–557) waged war on the Li people, calling it the "pacification of the Li dong". In 503, governor Xun Fei of the Yulin Commandery (east central Guangxi) was killed in battle while fighting the Li. Between 523 and 545, there was open warfare with the Li and a Li commander named Chen Wenche was defeated. In the Tang dynasty, the Li people of northern Vietnam were assigned a separate administrative status among the populace of the Annan protectorate, only paying half the taxes of ordinary subjects. By the 11th century, records no longer mention the Li on the mainland.
State administration of Hainan's lowlands was indirect until the Song dynasty and state control of the inland mountains was indirect until the 1950s. By the 11th century, Chinese records state that Hlai people were living close to Chinese settlements and paid taxes to the central state. However by the end of the Ming dynasty in the mid-17th century, virtually all areas of Hainan capable of intense cultivation had been settled by Han Chinese, while the Hlai filled the niche of supplying mountain products. By 1700, the Qing dynasty had re-established administration over Hainan. Migrant merchants started entering Hainan and threatened the economic niche of the Hlai, who broke out in violent protest against these "guest merchants" in 1766.
In 1751, He Xiang wrote an essay titled "Arguments against Settling the Li and Establishing Counties." In it he explained that Hainan was dangerous not because the Hlai people were fierce, but because of malaria and poisonous animals. He mocked previous campaigns against the Hlai for conquering hamlets of no value or significance while several thousand troops died of malaria. The highlands inhabited by the Hlai were also not economically valuable, and therefore had not yet been transformed. While many Chinese generals had made a name for themselves by "settling Guangdong", they all left the Hlai alone.
During the Japanese occupation of Hainan (1939–1945), the Hlai suffered extremely heavily due to their communist resistance activities especially in western Hainan. Hlai villages were frequently targeted for extermination and rape by Kuomintang and Japanese soldiers. In four towns alone, the Japanese slaughtered more than 10,000 Hlai people. The Hlai were persecuted by the Nationalists partly due to their support of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Nationalist forces massacred over 7,000 Hlai in a village. Nationalist officers had 9,000 Hlai and 3,000 Miao executed after tricking them to the war fronts during a fake conscription campaign. As the Nationalists retreated with over 1.5 million civilians that they evacuated to the hills with, they massacred and stole food from the ethnic Hlai as well as other tribal peoples. The Nationalists executed 2,180 Miao women and children of Baisha and Baoting uprising origin.
Because the Hlai sided with the CCP during the Chinese Civil War against the Nationalists, the Hlai are looked upon favorably by the government of the People's Republic of China.
A Qing dynasty report on the Hlai dated 1756 claimed that they did not have a writing system.
Among the Hlai, the women have a custom of tattooing their arms and backs after a certain age is reached. The Hlai play a traditional wind instrument called kǒuxiāo (口箫).
A 2019 study states that the Hlai show genetic affinities with Tai-Kadai-speaking groups (i.e. Zhuang people and Dong people) and Hmong-Mien-speaking groups (i.e.Miao people groups). In contrast, Han Chinese in Guangxi show affinities with Tujia people, Bai people, She people and Sinitic-speaking populations. A 2022 study shows that Hlai are enriched with ~85% Baiyue ancestry due to their geographic isolation. Compared to other Kra-Dai groups, they did not heavily mix with groups like Guangxi populations and Han Chinese. However, there is evidence of admixture between Hlai and Han Chinese about 2000 years ago, with some Hlai having about 56.56% Han ancestry as a result. In addition, there is evidence that the Kinh Vietnamese diverged earlier from the Hlai than the Dai people diverged from Hlai. Other studies alternatively suggest that the Longli County Bouyei people and Qiandongnan Dong people, whom Kinh Vietnamese cluster with, are a good representative of the 'ancestral Tai-Kadai' population.
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