Verb-fronting phenomena were a recurrent topic of research on the Indian Ocean creoles by Chris Corne, whose work led him to reject the view of creoles as a distinct structural type. A comparison with Cantonese, as a representative of Sinitic vernaculars, with Mauritian creole as described by Corne, shows that most of the properties are shared. In particular, the structure with the verb copied in initial position is associated in both languages with the functions of concession and of emphasis, which may take the form of either topicalization or focusing. The comparison adds to the typological properties shared by creoles and the Sinitic languages and demonstrates that verb-fronting is not specific to creole grammars, adding to Corne’s case that creoles do not constitute a unique structural type.