Asked for his place of local origin a Huaqiao (see p 16) was apt to name one or another of the places the Chinese call qiaoxiang. Literally sojourner’s village,’ qiaoxiang are villages with extensive and, until the 1950s’ intensive Huaqiao connections and large number of Guiqiao (former Huaqiao or returned Chinese sojourners) and Qiaojuan (kin or dependants of Huaqiao). These communities are to be found preponderantly in Guangdong and Fujian. A typical qiaoxiang is Meixian (see p 26), where (according to figures published in 1957) Guiqiao and Qiaojuan were a third of the population.