The Six 六人 - The Story of Toisanese Americans

For generations, Chinese from the small coastal region of Taishan (Toisan) have migrated around the world in search of work and a better life for their families. Amongst them were the Chinese passengers on Titanic. Despite discriminatory immigration laws, many founds ways to acquire 'papers' and to settle in the United States, where their Toisanese American descendants still live today.
The Six is the untold story of RMS Titanic's Chinese passengers, an extraordinary tale of survival and dignity in the face of racism and anti-immigrant policy. Produced by LostPensivos Films.
Facebook/Instagram/Weibo: @thesixdocumentary
thesixdocumentary.com

[@zuozhen4758]

I’m proud of my Hoisan heritage! It was our people that paved the way for the Chinese from others regions of China to the USA.

[@douglei4413]

All of us Chinese people need to thank those trailblazers who pave the way to make our life a little easier to live here in north america.

[@yushikuang7877]

Toisan also. 5th generation in North America. Because of the exclusion act, our family immigration story is really complicate. Now we are all spread across north america. It so great to have some history of Chinese here. Visited China for the first time in 2009 with my French Canadian husband. I was expecting to feel like an outsider. Not at all. At Guangzhou, I just fell like home. i still speak fluently cantonese and toisanese even if I don’t read. Yes, during my teenage period I was looking for my real identity but who doesn’t at that time..today, i know my roots are here.

[@shockalockabocka]

This is my family. My grandpa had a paper brother that got him to San Francisco in his teens. He went back to Hong Kong to find a Chinese wife in the late 1940’s, and returned to the US from another paper brother in San Antonio, TX. My American born mom said he paid everything cash or check, only, and wanted them present as American as possible.

[@pandabear153]

Hoisan boy here too! Our family were raised in northeastern Minnesota. I was born in California but siblings were born in the great state of Minnesota. Our dad also served in the U.S. army in WW2.

[@deesnoots]

I’m proud to be toisan. I will never be as great as a man my grandfather was. He passed when I was 1 year old but so many people have stories of him

[@nkchew33]

I am also proud to be a Taishanese who was born in Malaysia. Thanks a lot for your video.

[@lindayee9683]

Yup, both my momma & Daddys side came to Montreal Canada in 1892, 1894. I speak Taishan or Hoisan, as I knew it, and English & French too.. yup

[@kc3678]

I know so little of my parents history. My father passed a couple years ago and my brother created a family tree and dug up some information that gives some chronology of events. We're in Canada though. My chinese father was born in Alberta and then went back to China to bring my mother-to-be over. It's all very strange because i saw old photos of them in a catholic church. Anyhow, i hope to dig more into my roots. I barely speak Toisan and certainly don't speak Cantonese or Mandarin and I live on the West Coast of Canada lol. I have no realations with the community as I grew up in a small town in BC where there may have been a couple other chinese who i didnt know. I didn't seek out other chinese people when i moved to the coast.

[@samuraix558]

My family did something very similar, with my great aunt and her uncle.

[@jasonreviews]

now I know why I have big eyes. We're genetic different from northern chinese and other chinese. Oh wells. Toisan still rocks. I've been. But I'm american born los angeles based. I speak mandarin and cantonese. HK style. There are still more northerners than southerners. I think the most famous toisanese are donnie yen, anthony wong, and tony leung. Correction 40% of HK is pop is toisanese. So i'm like? We toisanese americans need to do more. NCIX defunct owners were toisanese. LMFAO.

[@KJ-mp6uj]

Their eye sizes is definitely something I've noticed lmao...Also Toishanese here and my mom's are huge too, but my dad's are less open though still not small, but I got the shitty luck of the draw and probably inherited more of my grandma's smaller eyes, sigh.

[@harisadu8998]

HK pop is not 40% Hoishanese. The census in 1981 shows that around 16% come from the Sze Yup regions. About 50% from Cantonese proper regions. And then the rest from elsewhere.

[@chinofoodie795]

I did not realize that we have big eyes. Thanks for pointing that out.

[@charlestsiang8504]

Would like to see the names of the participants and where they live.

[@DMui-rp7hn]

I personally know one of them. We grew up in NYC Chinatown together. I can attest that what she shared is true, as I too have a huge family history, though my ancestors migrated all over, but initially in Chicago. My great great-great grandfather was the godfather of Chicago Chinatown, and great grandfather was his successor in the 60's. After his passing, it all went corrupt.

[@CreativeSNGMedia]

Hello Charles. I am Dwayne's friend that replied to you earlier. I am in the video. My name is Shirley with the orange sweater in the video. My parents are from Toisan. I was born in NYC, raised in NYC Chinatown. My dad was a chef, my mom a seamtress. My paternal grandfather owned and operated a hand laundry in the Bronx where my dad, uncle lived with their father. His younger siblings came to America later. My dad arrived in the US as a single man in 1959. He went to marry my mom in Toisan and arrived in the US/NYC in early 60s. My great grand father left Toisan, caught a ship from Japan to Vancouver and settle in Connecticut. He returned to Toisan and is buried their. I went to Toisan in 2016 for the first time and paid my respects to him at the Ng Village. Share your stories, know your roots. I know several people in the video and I was the one that helped the director/producers round up my fellow Toisan American friends for these interviews to be included in the documentary.

[@CreativeSNGMedia]

@@DMui-rp7hn The interviews are much longer in the actual film I believe.

[@CreativeSNGMedia]

Our interviews are longer in the actual documentary. It is being shown in Vancouver the first week of Oct. 2021.

[@bostonmah5667]

@@CreativeSNGMedia where in Vancouver is it being shown

[@echan275]

The Chinese subtitle would have been more appropriate if it was in traditional writing. We should not recognize the simplified writing by the CCP.

[@Branch977]

所以到底他们是怎么生还的？

[@harisadu8998]

Isn't it Hoisanese?

[@tofufu9571]

just depends on which language’s pronunciation you’re using! none are wrong or right, really just up to preference I guess. • Hoisan = native language pronunciation • Toisan = Cantonese pronunciation • Taishan = Mandarin pronunciation

[@jason200912]

Taishan sounds so funny. They got little kid old people ascents and sound like a Louisiana accent with lots of spit in their mouth

[@maggiechan33]

You are full of it.