South East China has always been outward-looking. Many of China's mariners and traders have come from this region. Today, it is again a major center for trade.
It has also been the source of much migration. The vast majority of overseas Chinese can trace their ancestry to one or more of the three provinces. In any Western country, most people of Chinese descent can trace their roots to Guangdong, and the commonest style of Chinese food in the West is Cantonese Guangdong food. Nearly all Taiwanese trace their ancestry to Fujian. In Southeast Asia, most Chinese immigrants came from either Fujian or Guangdong. Hainanese are not as numerous, but also form a sizeable proportion of overseas Chinese populations, particularly in Singapore and Malaysia.
