The fact that most overseas Chinese are Fukienese or Cantonese by origin may have been due to early development of the ports in Fukien and Kwangtung provinces, where people enjoyed more frequent contact with the outside world.
海外華人多出自閩粵，除了廣東、福建開埠早，居民對外接觸頻繁以外；另外一個原因是清末到抗戰前，中國南部的窮人比北部多。