Toishan

Father O’Neill’s station was one of the most perilous in the mission field. Toishan (whence come 90 per cent of Chinese who migrate to America) is on a branch of the West River which forms the southern boundary of the Canton Delta. On the north bank were the Japanese, entrenched with pillboxes, machine guns, field guns and mortars. On the south bank, as firm as a pillbox in his determination to carry on the church and relief work, was Father O’Neill.

Source: wiktionary

Like an intravenous injection, the remittances also sustained the economy of Toishan. So, in spite of her poor soil, made poorer by the natural calamities of floods and typhoons and depleted after centuries of intensive cultivation, Toishan became one of the most prosperous districts in China. It was often referred to as “Little Canton” after the bustling commercial port of southern China. In the town proper, the streets of Toishan were wide and paved, illuminated with electric lights at night.

Source: wiktionary

“I'm from the Bronx and my mother's making grease balls,” said Miss Ho's flompanion, K. G. Louie. But he said he didn't know the Chinese name for the pastries his mother was preparing in keeping with the traditions of the family, which originated in the Toishan district of Kwangtung Province.

Source: wiktionary

Chinatown's founders were mainly from two classes. City merchants, mostly from Guangzhou (Canton City), were few in number, but they rose to prominence in the community by virtue of their wealth, polish, and ability to speak English. The vast majority of early Chinese immigrants, however, were rural males, laborers largely from Toishan County, whose local dialect is unintelligible to people from Guangzhou. Most of these were sojourners, that is, men who intended to return to China after making their fortune—as indeed many did, bringing back new ideas that hastened the downfall of the Qing Dynasty.

Source: wiktionary