Chinese in Foreign countries.

[LiYuanXi]

I have the impression that most of the chinese in America or Europe are cantonese. In this forum i can see lots of Cantonese.

I am a hokkien and my ancestors are from Fujian, Nan An. Anybody here from Fujian?

[Amdir_Flassion]

not only US, but in Australia too. seems like from history that Cantos prefer English speaking countries, whereas Fujianese prefer Nanyang/SE Asia... right?

[pazu]

I think most Canto-Chinese are from Hong Kong, fearing the handover in 1997.

[Quest]

I think most Canto-Chinese are from Hong Kong, fearing the handover in 1997.

no, they are from 台山 ever since 卖猪仔 times. 台山话 used to be the lingua franca of Chinese in the US, until Hong Kong ppl moved in, still though, 台山人 are an absolutely majority, at least here in Boston. They speak 台山-accented Cantonese, but that is the Cantonese you hear most often in Boston (different tones, high pitch, loud, with lots of waaaaaaa and mooooooo endings).

[Cyberian]

I think most Canto-Chinese are from Hong Kong, fearing the handover in 1997.

I disagree. Cantonese speakers were dominant in the Chinese communities of where I lived (Toronto) years before 1997.

My aunt and grandmother moved to Toronto in the 80s. Virtually the whole Chinese community were Cantonese speakers. Some Taisanese (sp?).

Only in the last 5 years or so, there had been a large number of Mandarin speakers comming in. I would say 3/10 Chinese walking around Chinatown speaks are Mandarin speakers.

I also lived in Lima, Peru for 10 years. Cantonese dominates. I never met a native Mandarin speaker there.

[vinhlong]

In the Netherlands there are a lot of people from Zejiang. Another majority are Cantonese speaking ppl from Guangdong. There are also a lot of Indonesian Chinese (Indonesia used to be a Dutch colony) and there are also a lot of Hakka speaking Chinese from Surinam (Surinam used to be a Dutch colony too).

[Pravit]

I am a hokkien and my ancestors are from Fujian, Nan An. Anybody here from Fujian?

My grandparents are from there; I don't speak any Fujianese, unfortunately. But my parents are from Thailand, there's a huge Chinese(from Fujian) community there.

[Chappie]

as vinhlong already said.

IN the netherlands are 2 MAJOR groups...

One from Guangdong/Canton

and another is from ZheJiang (mainly from wenzhou and the surronding area's) and also another large (i think only in netherlands) group the so-called dutch colony chinese Indonesia, Surinam.

North part of europe is mainly populated with cantonese people. (France Germany and higher)

South part of europe is populated wtih ZheJiang people (mainly wenzhounese) Spain, Italy, Greece, Austria

Switzerland... ehm infact there are some chinese but those hihgly educated people.

Chinese people are taking over the world

[pazu]

yes sometimes I really wonder why there're so many Chinese around, even in some extremely strange place like... Kabul. Why do they think it's a good idea to go to Afghanistan to open a restaurant?

[Cyberian]

Someone is got to be really desperate for business to be opening up a restaurant in the middle of a war. Despite it has been declared victory for the Americans, warlords remain.

Perhaps the restaurant is just there to serve other Chinese who are doing bigger businesses than restaurant, or non-Chinese who likes the food.

[Harpoon]

Do all these Chinese from the various provinces (not just Canton) drop Mandarin the moment they leave China because they aren't required to deal with it anymore and continue on with their own native dialects?

[djwebb2004]

Chinese in Britain always used to be Cantonese, esp from Hong Kong, but with a lot of Hakka mixed in. Now there has been such a large (illegal) influx of mainland Chinese, that I think almost half are from from other areas of China. Mandarin is now heard MUCH more often in England.

[benotnobody]

In Melbourne, Australia, or at least where I attend school, I'd say the majority of Chinese are from HK, often educated, and rather well-off. But not all of the second-generation kids can speak Cantonese. Having said that, a lot of the people in my Chinese class last year could speak both Mandarin and Cantonese... so that, obviously, is a broad generalisation.

The next majority group would have to be people from Malaysia and Singapore. I only know one kid from the mainland!