Mission work among the Cantonese was temporarily halted in 1845 when Shuck returned to the United States although Chaozhou language work continued among transient emigrant coolies with the Deans who were later joined by John W. Johnson and William Ashmore in 1860.
In contrast to the coolies known historically, Chong's coolies are more those that still perform manual labour in warehouses and bumboats along the Singapore River in the 1970s and 1980s, and is today an extinct scene in urban Singapore.
One night while dancing for the sailors aboard the ship, the beautiful Tao-Hoa (Pinyin: Taohua) notices a Russian captain trying to rescue the poor Coolies from the port commander.
In 1884 the ship Syria, with coolies for Fiji, ran ashore about 15 miles from Suva.