The earliest records of the Giay show them living in southwestern China, where many still live.  About two centuries ago, many began migrating southward.  They fled to Vietnam to escape persecution.  This was about the time of the Black and Yellow Flag Wars in China, which may have caused them to make the decision to leave their homeland.

There seems to have been a second wave of departures two or three decades after the first.  They lived in the community of the Bo Y peoples in China, and are often included in that people group.  In Vietnam, however, they have become a distinct people, though often remaining in the general area of their Bo Y cousins.

 

 

     The Giay are similar in numerous ways to the Tay, Bo Y, Thai, and Nung people groups.  They are all of the same language family.  Customs, clothing, and their daily life all show a close relationship with the above people groups.  They consider themselves a people distinct from the others, however, and close observation confirms their self-identification.

     The Giay brought a class system with them from China, where upper classes had political control, and the lower classes were forced to pay heavy taxes and provided other services to their superiors.  This system has been replaced by one in which all Giay are under the control of Vietnamese government officials.   Oppressive self-government has been replaced by repressive central government, in other words.