most early immigrants came from provinces of guangdong and fujian in southeastern china. the common languages there are toishanese, cantonese, hakka, teochew, and hokkien. so, these are common languages in many chinatowns. also, since most chinatowns were created before the chinese communist party took over mainland china, most chinatowns use traditional chinese characters. however, both simplified and traditional characters are often seen in chinatowns in malaysia.