Furthermore, Vietnamese appeared to be the lingua franca on the farms I visited in which returnees from Vietnam were the majority. Also, these locations are perhaps the most rustic and least-developed nongchang in the state farm system. On one such farm, and I approached an elderly couple who were weaving baskets in front of their one-room homes. introduced myself and explained that I was there to learn about the history of the huaqiao nongchang. The man welcomed me, and then with a cheeky grin exclaimed in a barely comprehensible form of Mandarin, "Researching huaqlao nongchang, eh? Well, you have found the shittiest one” it is apparent that there are significant disparities in the experiences of residents of the different farms,