Posted by Dr. Bill Brown (218.85.104.115) on May 16, 2004 at 02:22:21:
Hi,
I saw your querie about Zhangzhou--and I just happened to visit Zhangzhou yesterday to give a lecture to 400+ university students. Have you visited Zhangzhou? Amazing place--some historians thought that Zhangzhou, not Quanzhou, was the ancient great port called Zaytun by the Arabs.
I'll check around and see if I can find the village Thio Thoa Koan.
My family and I've been here since 1988, and have fallen in love with the place. I've written some books about Fujian (Amoy Magic--Guide to Xiamen and Fujian, Fujian Adventure, and Mystic Quanzhou), and yesterday was asked to write one about Zhangzhou, so I'll have plenty of opportunity to do some research on villages there.
Best wishes on your research.
Bill