Cheryl Wang is right that the background of the Chinese immigrants are very different.
Cheryl Wang - Speak Mandarin. Highly educated. Most likely hi-tech. Likely from the North such as Beijing and Jiangsu (most likely Shanghai). Older immigrants - Speak Cantonese. Lowly educated. Most likely descendants of gold miners (most of them being fool/ sold to come here). Ancestors are from the South such as Guangdong (mostly Taishan) and Fujian.
Ah, but in San Francisco and probably some other local cities, they are the ones with the properties. Even though they worked their arses off, they were smart enough to save and eventually buy a place. Well, those places are now paid off and worth quite a bit. They can sell out or just retire and live off the rental income. My dear old mom complains about how high her tax bill is due to rent income with no offsetting deductions. Cry me a river, mom…
There are two more waves in-between, Hong Kong handover and Taiwanese in 1990s.
Hong Kong - Speak Cantonese.
Taiwanese - Speak Mandarin and Hokkien.
The journalist didn’t realize Chinese in Guangdong speaks Cantonese 
and those in Fujian speaks Hokkien.
Recent Chinese are mostly from Beijing and Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Shenzhen, Guangdong. Others are from all over China plus SEA Overseas Chinese.
hanera,
You should be a professor at Stanford teaching Asia History…
I knew that through talking with them at open houses, grocery stores, restaurants, department stores, neighbors, etc. Do you want to know more about Jews and Judaism? Left and right neighbors are Jews 
.
Hold that thought…
Tell you what, don’t call us, we’ll call you 