Although I was born in the United States, Toishan is my ancestral home. I speak a local dialect of Cantonese that is incomprehensible to the rest of China.

Toishan is a county-level city of 1 million people in Guangdong Province in southern China. I have been photographing there since 1989. It looks at first glance like many other areas: a few gleaming buildings and factories, multilane divided highways, McDonald’s, new cars and well-dressed pedestrians. It seems to exemplify wealth and economic growth.

Lin Yuanxiang is the president of the Association of Chinese Culture in Reunion Province, France. He engaged in disseminating Chinese culture and facilitating communication between Reunion and China. He persuaded the 2010 Shanghai World Expo to carry out a "Reunion Week" in the French Pavilion.

Overseas Chinese in Spain donated goods and money with a total value of 200,000 euros (272,000 U.S. dollars) to quake-torn Haiti in a disaster relief benefit evening held on Sunday to mark China's luna new year.

The evening, featuring China's traditional Lion Dance and drum performance, was held at the Madrid Town Hall and attracted some 400 guests including the Haitian ambassador.

Local officials thanked Chinese residents for initiating the event to raise fund and show support for quake victims in the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.

The area around Taishan has wonderful Chinese takes on styles of western architecture, writes Clifford Coonan

SCORES OF Tuscan castles with elegant Rococo styling or Spanish adobes are not what you expect when travelling through southern Chinese countryside, but then, the area around Taishan is no ordinary Chinese countryside.

Mak Yuet Shan, 93, marveled at an old table that once had been used for washing and preparing Chinese vegetables. It brought back fond memories, she said.

Shan traveled by bus from Oakland on Friday with about 40 other Chinese-born senior citizens to see Marysville's old Chinatown, once California's largest outside San Francisco.

The group, affiliated with The Salvation Army Oakland Chinatown Corps and Community Center, had arranged in advance for tours of the Chinese American Museum of Northern California and the Bok Kai Temple, both on First Street in Marysville.

Lovers, airport, goodbye kiss. Together these words did not make up a romantic story, but created an astonishing incident.

On January 3, at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Jiang Haisong, a 28-year-old Chinese overseas PhD student, trespassed into a restricted area in order to kiss his girlfriend goodbye.

This led to a six-hour closure of the airport and the delay of 100 flights and thousands of passengers' trips.

Malin Tom is an "emotional man," which explains why he kept his journey through Angel Island mostly to himself for 60 years.

"I did not want to cry in front of people," says Tom, now 81 and living in Santa Clara. "It is a sad story. I was so scared and poor. I was ashamed, and Chinese don't talk about their shame."

But he could not resist a granddaughter's plea a few years ago. Would he talk to her classmates about passing through the "Ellis Island of the West"?

"My granddaughter gave me courage."

Atlanta is one of more than 70 stops on Shen Yun Performing Arts' 2010 world tour. Shen Yun's mission is to restore the traditional Chinese culture through Chinese classical dance and music, that has been lost under decades of communist rule.

[Ms. Wang, Technology Company Marketing Director]:

Following on the heels of Christmas 2009, the 2010 New Year is approaching. At the end of the economic winter of 2009, overseas Chinese are taking stock of their business in the past year, and at the same time pulling themselves together and looking forward to a better year.

Moscow

With the rapid development of China's economy, the living conditions in some big cities are just as good as in developed countries such as Europe and the U.S. Since they are getting older, some overseas Chinese feel happier, living in the populous and bustling China. Therefore, the thought of returning home and purchasing a house to spend their remaining years has attracted an increasing number of Chinese people who are currently living abroad.