Chapter Four, “Cultural roots – Land of origin”, deals with aspects of cultural roots pertaining to dialects and customs. It traces the most commonly spoken Chinese dialects, their distribution and origins. It looks at provinces and regions in China where most ethnic Chinese migrated from.  To help readers locating their region of origin, complete lists of administrative municipalities, cities and counties of these provinces are given.

The chapter starts with looking at different dialects spoken, both in China and amongst the Overseas Chinese. It  then takes a glimpse of the regions where the majority of Overseas Chinese originates from, namely the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi. Various dialects such as Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka, Hainanese as well as Guangxi dialects are discussed.

Each province is then treated in detail, listing the administrative regions, in terms of municipalities, districts, cities and counties. The dialects spoken these province, maintained by migrants from the regions to South East Asia countries are discussed.

A map of each of the provinces, together with description of the municipalities, districts, cities or counties would enable readers to have an idea of their origins in China.