Cathay Cathay Cathay () is an alternative historical name for China in English. During the early modern period Europeans thought of "Cathay" as a completely separate and distinct culture from China. As knowledge of East Asia increased, Cathay came to be seen as the same nation as China and the term '"Cathay" became a poetic name for the nation. The name "Cathay" originates from the word Khitan (), the name of a nomadic people who founded the Liao Empire which ruled much of today's Northern China from 907 to 1125, and who later migrated west after they were overthrown by the
Đại Cathay Đại Cathay Đại Cathay, whose real name was Lê Văn Đại was a notorious 1960s Saigon mobster, and was considered as the top or “number one” of the “Four Great Kings” of Saigon's criminal underworld before 1975. The Four Great Kings of the Saigon criminal underworld at the time referred to the four most powerful mobsters in the city, immortalized by the saying: 1st) Đại Cathay, 2nd) Huỳnh Tỳ, 3rd) Ngô Văn Cái, 4th) Ba Thế. Dai Cathay was born in 1940 as the son of Lê Văn Cự, who was a gangster in the market area of Cầu Muối.