Bicycles to Bentleys eBook

BicyFROcM les BentTOleys A journey of success Beijing to Sydney JOSEPH CHOU

A message from Philip Ruddock Australia has settled people from all over the world. More than one in four Australians are overseas born. This is a greater proportion than in all other countries but Israel and Luxembourg. It’s a settlement process that has worked well for refugees, skilled migrants and close family members. Community relations here may not be perfect but it works better in Australia than in most other parts of the world. The reason for this is that carefully managed lawful entry of people in the national interest is viewed well by the Australian public. Support for immigration is stronger today than at any time in our recent past. Policies have been conducted on a basis that is free of discrimination. Countries of origin, ethnicity, culture as well as race are all factors which are irrelevant. In these circumstances, Australia has demonstrated that migration well run produces a whole host of success stories. One of these is Joseph Chou, an extraordinary Australian. He is a family man, first and foremost. He is also driven, a risk taker and a man with vision. He is the quintessential migration story. He has endured hardship to realise his dream.

In reading Joseph Chou’s book, we have the opportunity to reflect on the incredible path Joseph’s life has taken. Joseph and his wife had risked a great deal in order to obtain their aspiration of freedom, security and success. Joseph’s book exemplifies the story of many people coming to Australia to seek a better life. As the former Immigration Minister, I witnessed and heard of many such stories time and time again but few as moving and intricate as Joseph’s. Sound immigration policy is all about building Australia’s future for people like Joseph and his family to obtain their dream of freedom, security and success. Australia is a great country and all the better for having people like Joseph and his family here. The Hon Philip Ruddock MP Former Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs



Dedication I dedicate this book to my mother, Mu Shun E, and my father, Zhou Hong Chang, for giving me two of the most precious gifts − the gift of life and the gift of giving. When I was growing up, my father was away a lot. Most of my values have come from my mother who, apart from showering me with unconditional love, has always encouraged me to pursue my dreams. She has shown me by example how to be humble, how to respect everyone and how to put others’ interests before my own. Most importantly, she has shown me how to be a giving person. I will always remember the countless times when I walked with her around the military compound, listening to her talk about how to always respect others regardless of their social status or background. All her four children have the utmost respect for her − at 1.44 metres tall, she is the tallest person I know. She epitomises strength and generosity! She is eighty-six now and has been ill and bedridden since August 2007. She has been hospitalised nine times already and I have been visiting her in Beijing once a month. On this, my latest visit to her, she is so fragile that she can barely talk. But after asking about my family, she asked me about Lia Porteous, the wife of my friend and former next-door neighbour, Peter Porteous. Lia has been suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Typical of my mother, she always thinks of other people’s interests first.

I love my mother dearly. I am saddened about her illness. I thank God she is still here. I sometimes look at the photos taken when she and my father visited Sydney in 1998 and 2001 and I wish I could turn back time so that my mother was younger and well again. I wish I could invite her and my father to Sydney again and pick them up at the airport in my Bentley. I have the utmost respect for all mothers in the world. Written at my mother’s side in Beijing Railway General Hospital, where she used to work, 25 September 2008.

Acknowledgements I never thought I would write this book so soon. When we started Ironfish, we set out an extremely ambitious five-year plan − to go public at the end of that period. I thought it would be more appropriate to write a book about the five-year journey, but when I looked back at what I had learned up to this point, I felt that there was already something of value that I could share with more people through this book. There are many people I would like to thank for everything I have experienced and learned in the past 46 years. There are so many that I cannot name them all. But I would still like to name some of them. First of all, I would like to thank my parents for their shining example of being giving and generous, and for providing me with a loving and warm environment to grow up in. Also my brothers, Zhou Gang and Zhou Yong, and my sister, Zhou Jian, for their unconditional love and support all through my life. They are great role models for me to follow. I would like to thank Peking University for giving me the opportunity to study there and surround myself with so many elite youths from all over China. It broadened my horizons and showed me possibilities. Also my motherland China for my enjoyable life until I migrated to Australia at 29. I was very honoured to represent China as a diplomat. I would like to thank Charlie Xueyi Chen for his most precious and generous friendship. He is one of the most giving people I have met.

He has shown me what friendship is all about. I’d like to thank my superior in the consulate, Madame Lou, for mentoring me into a competent diplomat. I am thankful to Australia for welcoming me with open arms and giving me a fair go. My friends Graeme and Dorothy Bell, Little Pattie and her husband Laurie Thompson, Marriane, John Boggie, Veronica O’Young and Phil O’Sullivan all gave us generous help and encouragement when we first came here, for which we are eternally grateful. I’d like to thank Max Doerfler for introducing me into the Australian conference scene. William O’Dwyer for teaching me how to invest in Australian property and giving me the opportunity to realise my goal of earning $1 million a year. Andy Nguyen and Albert Huynh for embracing me into the Aldy Group as a partner and for the success we shared together. At Ironfish, Grant Ryan and Susanne Anderson for their unwavering support over the past 10 years and for their great leadership in taking Ironfish forward. I’d also like to thank Damon Nagel, Ellen Bian and Andy Liang for being partners of Ironfish and for their contribution to the success of Ironfish. And all our investors for giving Ironfish the opportunity to serve them. I would like to thank all my colleagues in the various businesses I have

been in for their support. I particularly want to thank everyone at Ironfish for their belief in our vision and their hard work. Without them, our vision could not become a reality. I would like to thank John Schaap for believing in me and my vision, and for being a mentor. For this book, I would like to thank Lipakshi Das, Teresa Liu, Lisa Messenger, Kate Hunting and Natasha McGuire for their encouragement, valuable ideas and candid feedback. Thanks also go to Nicollette Bourke for helping me put the stories in the right order. Last but not least, I would like to thank my wife Suzanne for her unshakeable faith in me and for her long-term support. Without that, I would not have been able to achieve the results I have so far. I also want to thank my beautiful children, Tiger and Florence, for their great support. With my constant business travelling, they do not get to see me as much as they would like to, but whenever I tell them that I need to go to help other people, they are happy for me to do so. I cannot thank my family enough for the sacrifices they make to support Ironfish.

Republishing Note Ever since the original book was published in 2008, I have been overwhelmed by the warm reception from all walks of life. Business people, investors, aspiring entrepreneurs and students have all taken things from the stories and messages expressed in the book in one way or another. I am republishing this book because a lot has changed since 2008, both personally and in the world around me. In 2009, the property market started a new cycle in Melbourne and Sydney. Since that time, many things have changed. Sydney’s median price exceeded $1 million in June 2015 (though it has since pulled back to below the million-dollar mark). Ironfish has continued its growth in Australia and is also now in five cities in China. I have grown as an entrepreneur and property investor. Ironfish is 10 years old and has become a trusted brand among many thousands of investors. Some outstanding Ironfish colleagues have been promoted to become business partners. We have reached our dream of billion dollar sales and are now focused on becoming the best and most admired property investment company in the world.

Rather than making changes to the original book, I have decided to add Chapter 9 and 10 to bring everything up to the present. For that reason, the first 8 chapters still represent the world, Ironfish and myself prior to 2009. It is not just through inspiration, but also the pursuit of our dreams that we need to find the best possible vehicles to take us from where we are right now to where we want to be tomorrow. Many people work hard, but they are using the wrong vehicles which are either too slow or travelling in the wrong direction. It’s even more relevant today because by working on the right platform and associating with more successful people, we can become so much more successful than we ever thought possible. Hope you will enjoy the reading. Final note: In 2010, I also published my story in China and since then, that book - “Success Can Be Duplicated” has been printed three times. It became a Top 3 Best Seller in Beijing the month it was first published.

Joseph Chou speaking at Sydney 10th Anniversary Party, November 2016 From L – R: Founding Directors Susanne Anderson, Joseph Chou and Grant Ryan; Managing Director (Sydney Burwood) Linda Lu at Sydney 10th Anniversary Party, November 2016

Ironfish Senior Management meeting, February 2016 Perth Office team photo, November 2016 Sydney 10th Anniversary Party, November 2016

Headquarters and Sydney teams at Christmas Party, December 2016

Melbourne Office 10th Anniversary Party, December 2016

Brisbane Office 10th Anniversary Party, November 2016 Glen Waverley Office Grand Opening, October 2016

Adelaide Office team activity, October 2016 Burwood Office team photo, September 2016

Contents Foreword 22 Introduction 25 1. Growing up in China: the bicycle years 29 2. Disney World to the Opera House: the chauffeur-driven years 46 3. Delivering pizzas: the 1977 Sigma years 70 4. Interpreting for success: the Mercedes years 89 5. Going out on my own: the Bentley years 112 6. The Ironfish story: with an eye on a Maserati 124 7. The future: a Gulfstream 550 jet 148 8. Final thoughts: full speed on the highway 159 9. Fast-forward to 2016 169 10. The story continues: aiming for the next dream 175

Foreword I first met Joseph Chou during April of 2007 as a proposed professional mentor to him and his organisation, Ironfish. The reason for that initial meeting was to establish in Joseph’s mind if I would be able to mentor him, and if he believed that our two personalities would gel. My first positive impressions of Joseph have stayed with me since that meeting, and he has proved to be both a willing and an inquisitive listener, and a committed implementer when he believes in the way forward. What struck me in that first meeting was his almost religious fervour for the business, his clear vision of where he believed the business should be in five years’ time, and how important his employees were to achieving the vision. He is a true entrepreneur, and seemed very relaxed about committing his hard-won wealth into this new venture. His self-belief rubs off on nearly all those that come in contact with him. I find this a wonderful quality in him, and I truly believe it is the reason so many have been, and are continuing to be, impressed with his progress and that of his company. You will understand from the content of this book how this self-belief has driven him to do things, and achieve outcomes, that many people can only dream about. In the process of getting to know him better, you are struck by the fact that, while this is a driven man with an absolute focus on outcomes, this does not convert to a driven, aggressive personality. In fact, quite the opposite. Joseph is by his nature a kind man, and he conducts his business, and treats those people he deals with on a 22 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

daily basis, with utmost respect and the classical human touch. He is also a great reader and has read all the classics written by people who, he believes, have achieved enormous outcomes and wealth through a focus on strategy, sensible implementation and excellent people management. He is a goldmine of quotes from some of his readings, and uses them often in discussions to make a point, or emphasise a required outcome. For a man with such a diverse background as Joseph, his ability to adapt to changes in environments, people and languages, lifestyles and cultures is impressive. It would be very easy for someone living with the trappings of diplomatic life to feel that they had achieved the pinnacle in lifestyle, interesting environments and confidence in themself. That Joseph chose to basically start all over again, living off his wits, accepting adverse responses daily, and bouncing back to face new challenges, is proof of the self-belief I mentioned earlier. The business environment in which Joseph has decided to aggressively grow his business could not be more challenging, but this does not faze him in any way. He has a wonderful way of turning what many would regard as a negative into an opportunity seeking a person to grab it. And he is usually right! Some driven people allow work and its pressures to rule their lives, at the expense of their own family and friends. Joseph has his eyes firmly fixed on a balance between work and the need to ensure that it does not consume him, and leaves time for life’s other rewards. He has a love of good cars. Not as a consuming passion, but rather a way to benchmark his and others’ successes. He treats the purchase Foreword 23

of a fine car as the reward of a focused program delivering the ultimate reward. Others might focus on cash, boats, houses, holidays to exotic destinations − but for Joseph it is cars. When you meet Joseph you find yourself, as I did, being swept into the enthusiastic approach he takes to life and business and, ultimately, success. I believe that by reading Joseph’s book, you will also be swept into this exciting ‘can do’ world of Joseph Chou. John Schaap Former CEO, Burswood Limited & Australian Airlines 24 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

Introduction It was 1990, and I was on top of the world. Working as a senior diplomat for the Chinese Consulate in Sydney, I had a chauffeur-driven Mercedes, a beautiful apartment overlooking the water, and was regularly seen hobnobbing with the rich and famous. My wife had a great job for Radio Beijing and, to many people, we were successful and happy. We were enjoying the best that Sydney had to offer. We seemed to have it all. Fast-forward 6 months to January 1991, and my wife and I were sitting nervously on an Air China flight back to Sydney. Only this time, I was no longer ‘Your Excellency Mr Chou’. In fact, I was nobody − on a four-year temporary visa with only $4000 in my pocket. We had left the security of our government jobs behind, we’d farewelled our families, and all we had was this tiny bank balance, the ability to speak English, and the desire to start a brand new life in Australia. How would we survive in this foreign land, and would I be able to achieve the dream of freedom, security and success for my family? As we waited to take off, a thousand thoughts were running through my head. Will my wife and I be allowed to stay permanently once we prove our worth? What are we going to do? With Australia being in recession, will we be able to find jobs? Will those people who used to call me ‘Your Excellency’ still talk to me now that I am no longer a Chinese diplomat? How long will the $4000 last us? I could organise Introduction 25

a tour of a Chinese opera company, and I could schmooze with the best of them at a cocktail party, but were these really skills I could list on my CV? And what sort of job would it get me? I knew my visa entitled me to some unemployment benefits, but I was not going to apply for that. That would be so embarrassing. Joseph Chou, an honour student from Peking University and an ex-diplomat, on the dole? No way! I remembered the tears on my parents’ faces as we farewelled them at the airport. They were close to 70 years old. Would I see them again? Would I be able to make them proud of me again? ‘Why do you want to leave such a prestigious and honourable job?’ my mother asked when I told her that I would leave the diplomatic corps and migrate to Australia. ‘Do you know how many young people envy you and want your job? You are almost 30! Why do you want to go that far and start from scratch?’ My father agreed: ‘Why do you want us to worry about you at our age? Plus, God knows when, or if, we will ever see you again!’ Then he continued on a more practical note. ‘What do you want me to do about your bike?’ I said: ‘I like the bike. You gave it to me as a gift when I was admitted to university. It’s been with me for more than ten years. But now that I am migrating to Australia, I don’t think I will need it anymore. Perhaps you can give it to someone else?’ My father refused. He said he would keep it for me in case I decided to come back soon. My mother added: ‘That’s right, son. If it’s too hard over 26 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

there, just come back. You and Suzanne will always have a place in our house.’ This is my story of a journey through life, moving across the world, and upgrading − slowly − from an old bicycle in suburban China to a brand new Bentley in metropolitan Sydney. The decision to risk everything I’d ever known in pursuit of a freer life was one that I’m proud of, and Australia has blessed my family. But I believe that it is my approach to life and business that has truly allowed me to take full advantage of the opportunities this great country has to offer. I was not the most brilliant student that ever existed, and I was not the best salesman to ever run on the company treadmill. From my earliest days, however, I had a strong sense of self-belief that I would not fail. It was this, combined with a willingness to do what others would not, that has allowed me to achieve some results in work and in life. My mind was eternally ticking over with entrepreneurial ideas and opportunities. I would attend seminars to further my education and learn how to create truly great wealth and security for my family. I would take risks, starting my own businesses, and investing in success. In short, I was prepared to do what was required to achieve the goals I had set for myself and for my family. From the earliest days in Australia, working as a pizza delivery boy, to running one of the largest and fastest growing property groups in Australia − Ironfish − I have followed a successful formula. Thinking big. Believing in myself. Backing up my aspiration with action. Taking Introduction 27

risks. Having the humility to surround myself with clever people. Remaining true to my own values, while appreciating the benefits that Australia has afforded me. I have also successfully duplicated this formula among my friends, colleagues and investors, who at one stage or another got stuck in their careers and have since made incredible breakthroughs in their incomes, wealth and sense of achievement. Their success has proven something I have always believed in: if someone has a truly strong desire for success (and the finer things in life) and is prepared to change and work hard, given time, they will make it. Success can be duplicated. This is a migrant story. It is an Australian story. And it is a story that I hope will inspire families across the nation and in other parts of the world who might benefit from what I have learned in business and in life. With my first bike in Nankou (1975) 28 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

1. Growing up in China: the bicycle years Many a rags-to-riches-tale starts with humble beginnings. It’s almost a rule − the ‘boy made good’ needs to have come from a one-roomed shack with dirt floors. His parents must have been illiterate, and it helps if he worked down a coal mine from age eight. He needs to have been driven by his miserable circumstances to seek more out of life. My story is a little different. My formative years were not about breaking out of extreme poverty, but about breaking out of a closed mindset. I grew up at a time when China was on the cusp, opening up to the world with cautious hopefulness, and I could enjoy all the benefits that came along with these changes. And above all, these years set me on a path that would see success beyond the wildest dreams of my family and compatriots. By Chinese standards, my family was relatively comfortable. My mother was a doctor, and my father was a middle-ranking army officer. We lived in a military compound in the mountain town of Nankou, about 50 kilometres outside Beijing city. My brothers, sister and I lived a sheltered and safe life, despite growing up during the turmoil of the final years of the Cultural Revolution. While we didn’t have the material possessions − particularly the electronic gadgets − of Australian kids, we had an active and carefree childhood. We were Growing up in China 29

encouraged by our parents to pursue any dream that made us happy. I remember the early years of my childhood as characterised by great freedom − running up the hills surrounding my town to collect the fruit from the date palms, playing soccer and table tennis with my friends. ‘T his became the We would often spend hours throwing stones in the forest, and I’m certain we way I lived my life could have been star pitchers for the − I didn’t have to New York Yankees. rely on my family It was a carefree existence, but an early status, or social setback for my family ended up being a connections to driving force in the development of my achieve my life personality, and my own life. My father goals.’ had a very promising career in the military. He was very bright, capable and above all, a really nice person. Even though he ended up at a reasonable rank in the army, he would have risen much further had it not been for a major setback. Growing up in a military compound, it was clear from my earliest memories that rank was very important. Every child knew their father’s rank, and where they existed in the hierarchy in relation to their friends’ fathers. As a result of my father’s career setback, my two brothers, my ‘T he desire to make sister and I were faced with a strong my parents proud desire to prove that we were just as drove me to want good as anyone else in the military to win in everything compound, and in greater society. So in a way, it was a blessing in disguise for I did, and I was us, though at the time we did not look always willing to at it that way. put in great effort.’ This became the way I lived my life − I didn’t have to rely on my family status, or social connections to achieve my life goals. I didn’t need to play up to people, to flatter the boss, or worry about what others thought of my attempts at success. I could rely on myself to make it happen through determination and hard work. It also made me very competitive. The desire to make my parents proud drove me to want to win in everything I did, and I was always willing to put in great effort. At school in those early days, I showed some signs of becoming a 30 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

leader. I was popular because I was interested in a broad range of pursuits − academic, sporting and extra-curricular activities – and I was the class captain all through my school years. When we played soccer, I was always the one to pick players for my side. The students in my class would walk home for lunch break in formation. During the 20-minute walk, I would always come up with some fancy ideas to get them to do things. I would ask two of the boys to step out of the line and run as fast as they could to see who could touch the electric pole in the distance first. Or when we were getting close to our homes and about to disperse, I would ask them to sing a song we had learned from seeing anti-Japanese war movies called ‘Beheading the Japanese Invaders’. Of the 15 boys in my class, 13 of us lived in the same neighbourhood. Every day, after having lunch at home, the other 12 would all come to my home and wait for me so we could go back to school together. One day, during the lunch break, I was having my head shaved ‘In China, if three outside my home while the 12 were tragic things waiting for me. After I finished, I suggested that they should have their happen to you and heads shaved too. And they all did! By you survive them, the time we got back to school, the 13 you are said cleanly shaved heads got everyone’s to have good attention. Needless to say, the teachers fortune for the weren’t impressed. rest of your life.’ By my teenage years, something else happened that could explain my success later in life. In China, if three tragic things happen to you and you survive them, you are said to have good fortune for the rest of your life. By the age of 16, I’d had three near-death experiences, which could probably explain my good luck, beginning in young adulthood and lasting until now. The first instance occurred when I was about 10 years old. I used to go to the local train station every Saturday to meet my brother, who was staying at the university in Beijing. Because we lived on the other side of the train tracks, to avoid walking the whole way around, we would go across the tracks. We would crawl under some stationary carriages to get across to the platform. My brother’s train was already Growing up in China 31

pulling into the station, and I was running because I was late. What I didn’t realise was there was a single steam engine coming from the other side. People at the station could see what was happening, but I was oblivious. I would have been run over if not for the flag man who, standing on a side step attached to the front of the steam engine, reacted quickly and kicked me very hard in the head to get me off the tracks. I fell down, but my legs were still on the rail. My friend yelled out to me: ‘Joseph, your legs! Roll!’ I rolled, and was bruised and covered in engine grease, but alive. I didn’t realise the significance of what had happened. Without waiting to meet my brother, I hurried home, somewhat subdued, thinking I would not tell anyone. On the way home, a man asked me: ‘Were you the boy that almost got run over by that steam engine?’ I nodded. My next-door neighbour, a lady who worked in the same hospital as my mother, happened to walk by and heard the conversation. She asked the man what had happened. The man told her and said: ‘Everyone on the train thought the boy would be killed!’ Later on, the lady told my mother and our nanny about the incident and they both grounded me. A few years later, I had another close brush when trying to learn to swim at the pool in our military compound. Between 5pm and 6pm every evening, the military staff went for dinner. Usually there were no grown-ups in the pool during that time. On one such early evening, I was trying to practise swimming and found myself in deep water. I started to go under; I was screaming for help and grasping for anything to hold me up. I was screaming ‘Help!’ when I got my head above the water and then my voice was buried when I submerged. I was drinking plenty of water. There were other kids in the pool, but none of us knew how to swim. Fortunately, there happened to be a couple of officers who were swimming at the other side of the pool. They lifted me out of the water, and I was really lucky − if they had been at dinner, I wouldn’t be here today. My third brush with tragedy was an encounter with a very hot stove. In Beijing in wintertime, the temperature would often fall to 10 degrees below zero, and we had a stove to keep us warm, but often it would go out in the middle of the night. This was the year I was living on campus preparing for the university entrance exam. I got up one morning, in the dark, and was fumbling around in half-sleep. I leaned 32 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

over to feel the stove, but didn’t realise there was a long metal stake protruding from the stove, and it went straight into my eye. There was blood everywhere, and it felt like a bullet had lodged in my brain. I was put on a bicycle and rushed to hospital, and luckily it turned out there was no permanent damage to my eye. At the time, these incidents were terrifying. But looking back, surviving three near-death experiences set me up to tackle life ‘… surviving three head-on, in a courageous and selfless way. I got through unscathed, and near-death thought: ‘There must be a purpose for my experiences set life if I have survived this far.’ me up to tackle In my early teens the circumstances of a life head-on, in a rapidly changing society in Communist courageous and China forced me to think strategically selfless way.’ about the path my life would take. Life was uncertain in the years at the end of the Cultural Revolution in China. The Chairman of the Communist Party, Mao Zedong, had initiated the Cultural Revolution in 1966, in an attempt to refocus the nation’s priorities on the working classes and stamp out the ideals of the liberal intelligentsia. Mao was a very good scholar of Chinese history and there was a tradition that every time a new dynasty started, the guy who became the new emperor rewarded those people who fought with him to overthrow the previous dynasty. But traditionally, the new emperor also felt threatened by the future aspirations of those supporters. There were many instances in Chinese history where those supporters were killed or persecuted. Mao understood all of that, and this is one theory about why the Cultural Revolution was started − because Mao felt insecure in later years and his power base was dwindling. This period was characterised by widespread relocation of intellectuals to perform manual labour on farms. The universities had all but closed, and intellectual pursuits were frowned upon. School students banded together to form branches of the Red Guard, and were urged to destroy any remnants of traditional Chinese culture and foreign influences. From 1969, the children of the urban elite were sent to live on farms to study Communist teachings, work the land, Growing up in China 33

and learn social values from the hard-working farmers. We used to stand by the road and watch trucks go past with people tied up on the back, not comprehending the implications, but understanding that it was part of a factional dispute. The landlords from before China were liberated were particularly singled out − anyone who owned land before new China was founded was considered evil. In the neighbourhood where I lived, one of the guys who used to be a landlord would stand out the front of his house in front of Chairman Mao’s portrait as a government-imposed punishment. Every day he would stand there with a big sign hanging over his head that said: ‘I’m a bad element.’ I was maybe seven years old, and we used to go each day to watch him. So while my childhood was very content and secure, it was taking place against a backdrop of social conflict. At the time, we believed what we were taught, and trusted that the radio and the newspapers said the absolute truth. It was very confusing, because one day a political figure was glorified and the next, they were portrayed as a class criminal. Deng Xiaoping, the late paramount leader who engineered China’s reform, for example, was up and down three times. For today’s Chinese scholars, that period was a waste of human resources to fulfil one person’s political pursuits. But at the time, the whole nation was united behind Mao. At primary school, the first thing we did when entering the campus was stand in front of Mao’s huge statue shouting ‘Long live Chairman Mao!’ The first hour of each school day was dedicated to reading and reciting Mao’s Little Red Book. Though not understanding the real meaning of the content, it was my early training in memorising things. I became very good at it. This helped me later when I started learning English. I was able to memorise words and sentences very quickly. The end of the Cultural Revolution was a time of great turmoil, and while I was relatively protected by my father’s status in the army, I decided to make some strategic choices to try to stay with my parents. My older brother and sister had both joined the army, and therefore weren’t required to go to the countryside for re-education. I considered joining the army, but could not abide the thought of standing guard at some disused artillery storehouse in the middle of the night in the dead of winter. 34 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

My brother suggested I should learn to play the violin. He hoped that instead of being forced into manual labour on a farm, I might be able to join a performing troupe that travelled around the countryside. If I had a special skill, I might be able to avoid working in the fields. Initially I was not that interested in learning the violin. After a while, once I was able to play some music, I became more interested and serious about improving my newfound skill. Wintertime in Nankou was very cold, but I would get up at 5am each day, travel to the auditorium in the centre of the military compound, and practise the violin for hours before school. Although I began learning the violin for a strategic purpose, I fell in love with music. I would spend hours perfecting the sound from the violin. Creating beautiful notes and melodies held such joy for me, although my repertoire was somewhat limited. I was only able to play traditional songs and revolutionary music, with a strong emphasis on the cultural ideals that were enforced at the time. By the time I reached the age to be sent away for re-education, the Cultural Revolution had come to an end. Chairman Mao was dead, his wife and her loyalists had been convicted and jailed for their part in the destruction that their policies had wrought. It was the late 1970s, and China was opening up to Western influences; the universities re-opened and education once again became important. In 1977, university entrance exams resumed and going to university became a big thing for young people. Many of my classmates were aiming to go to selective high schools in order to prepare themselves for university. I hadn’t thought of further study as an option; I was more interested in sports and music, and I began working very hard on these. I was still passionate about playing the violin, and saw it as my life’s path. I was also learning table tennis, and I spent hours on end, bat in hand, perfecting my skills. By 1978, I was in the equivalent of Year 10 in high school, and it was time to determine how the rest of my schooling would pan out. Although I had always been a straight-A student, I had grown up at a time when academic prowess was not highly valued, and so I applied to finish my schooling at a technical college to learn electronics. I knew nothing about electronics or computers, but it appeared to be Growing up in China 35

an exciting new field for a young man to be involved in. I also thought by going to a technical college, I would not have to work hard on my studies. That way I could concentrate on my violin. ‘Although education Soon, however, I recognised that the had not been highly shifting winds in society meant I would prized in China benefit more by going to university. for most of my Although education had not been highly prized in China for most of my upbringing, it was upbringing, it was really going to be the way forward for a young person really going to be wanting to achieve success. I was also the way forward driven by a desire to make my parents for a young person proud of me. wanting to achieve Having made the decision to aim for university, I had to give myself the best success. I was also driven by a desire to possible chance. At the time, millions make my parents of students graduated from high proud of me.’ school every year in China. Only 4 per cent of them were admitted to university. To go to university, you had to sit for a national entrance exam, and statistics showed that graduates from key high schools had a far better chance of passing that exam. So one day, when I was 17, a friend and I jumped on our bicycles and rode 10 kilometres to the nearest key high school. We had found out the name of the principal, and arrived seeking an appointment. To go to a key high school, normally you had to sit for an entrance exam at the end of junior high (Year 10). We had missed that chance and with only one year to go before the national university entrance exam, we had to get a special permission. After a few bike trips, and based on our marks and our enthusiasm to go to this school, my friend and I were finally accepted. While I had been a top student in my local high school, at this key high school, with so many elite students, I came out average after the first exam. I could not accept that! My competitive nature started working again. For the following three months, I began a routine of getting up at 5am to go the classroom and coming back to my dorm at 11pm with a clear goal of becoming number one again. When I 36 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

took the next exam at the end of the three months, I overtook some of the star students and came out number one. That experience taught me a lesson: We are the product of our environment. We become who we associate with. It made me realise ‘That experience that a clearly defined goal backed with taught me a persistent action would lead to the desired result. It also gave me the lesson: We are confidence to know that I was just as the product of our good as everybody else. That realisation environment. We and goal-setting formula would help me become who we achieve many goals later on. associate with.’ For that final year of high school I lived on campus, riding my bike home on weekends to visit my parents. The government had paid for our education, and we were living in bunk beds in massive dormitories, complete with an outdoor toilet, which was torture in winter. My goal became apparent very early in that year, and it was simply because no graduate from my high school had managed to achieve it before. I wanted to study English at Peking University, also known as Beijing University. With the grit and determination that turned out to be the foundation of my life’s success, I studied hard and achieved good marks to get into university. I started applying the same formula − getting up at 5am each day, and studying until 11pm, breaking only for meals in the cafeteria. I gave up all extra-curricular activities. I stowed my violin away, hung up my table tennis bat, and had no fun whatsoever for six months. It was laser-sharp focus. Life became very boring. One day, I was walking on my high school campus and I heard a song from the loudspeakers. It was the most beautiful music. I realised how dull my life had become when I was almost brought to tears by a tune being played over a tinny public address system. I visualised myself walking around Peking University, near the beautiful lake on campus, and realised that when I had achieved my goal, I could stop to smell the roses – and listen to whatever music I wanted with a much higher level of satisfaction. Statistically, the chances of me being accepted into Peking University Growing up in China 37

Wearing a Peking University badge, dreaming of having my own car one day (1980) University shot (1980) 38 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

were very slim. For the English language major, the university would accept 20 students out of tens of thousands applying from the Greater Beijing area. I passed the required exam, and was selected to compete against 143 other students for the 20 positions through the last hurdle, an oral exam. Looking back on it, it was never a period of stress or doubt for me. I was never plagued by what if and why not. Perhaps thanks to my competitive nature, I had almost a blind faith in myself, and I never doubted I would be one of the 20 selected. My eldest brother went to the oral exam with me. His university colleagues had expressed doubt ‘This has been a to him that I would be among the top 20 lifelong character students admitted to Peking University. When my brother told me about this, I did quirk of mine – I not even think twice about it. Those guys always expect to had no idea! get what I want. I This has been a lifelong character quirk of expect to win.’ mine – I always expect to get what I want. I expect to win. My father received the phone call saying I had been accepted into the university and I don’t even remember being excited about the news. For me, it was a forgone conclusion. I did not know this at the time, but now that I have read many books, it proves that we get what we expect from life. By contrast, the life that opened up before me at university was like nothing I’d imagined even in my wildest dreams. I started university in 1980, four years after the end of the Cultural Revolution. China had begun opening up to Western culture and it was a heady and exciting time. Most of the songs I’d heard until then were revolutionary, but more and more I started to hear music played with guitars that talked about love and life, and they really spoke to me. My father bought me a guitar as a reward for gaining admittance to university, and I became enamoured with pop music and the folk music coming out of America and the UK. While the Western world was celebrating new wave, synthpop, early hip-hop and metal, in China we were just getting in touch with music that had been released 20 years before. An American professor, Ann Herbert, gave me a book of American Growing up in China 39

folk songs to try to improve my language skills. I taught myself the guitar, and began singing along to Simon and Garfunkel, and Peter, Paul and Mary. I listened to the Beatles and marvelled at the new sound. I remember the first time I heard a Western-style love song in Chinese, and I couldn’t believe my ears. The first time I saw a brick-sized cassette recorder, I couldn’t figure out how it worked because I’d only ever seen reel-to-reel tape recorders. The first time I heard a classmate talking about ‘stereo sound’, I couldn’t figure out what he was discussing until I listened to his Walkman. It was the most unbelievable sound I had heard. The introduction of cars also represented a big cultural shift because at the time they were almost non-existent in China. They introduced ‘They introduced Citroens to China when I was at Citroens to China university and I dreamed of owning a car one day. when I was at When the suit made its way to China, I university and I remember saying to one of my friends: dreamed of owning ‘Wow, can you imagine that one day we a car one day.’ might all be wearing suits?’ It was akin to saying that one day we might all be travelling to work in flying saucers; it was that improbable. Possibly the best change I noticed during these years was that women stopped wearing drab, dull-coloured clothing. They started having their hair permed and wearing high heels, and while it was a tremendous culture shock, it was a pleasant shock. A friend and I used to stand outside the Beijing Hotel on Chang’an Avenue, and marvel at this luxurious statement of wealth and prestige. The Beijing Hotel had been built in 1901, and its banquet hall was home to all the state functions after the establishment of the People’s Republic. Visiting heads of state including Nixon, Khrushchev and Ho Chi Minh stayed there – to us, it was a symbol of privilege and power. And it had automatically opening doors − the first time I’d ever seen such a thing. I saw those foreigners walking in, or Chinese who had something to do with foreigners, and I said to myself: ‘One day I will go into one of these hotels, I will have the right to do that.’ I didn’t understand why 40 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

In my dorm at Peking University (1981) Growing up in China 41

foreigners could go in there but I couldn’t; all I knew was that entry into that hotel was a sign of being successful and that privilege only belonged to the chosen few. Whether you were a top government official or a wealthy businessman or a top interpreter, walking through those automated doors was a sign that you’d made it. I knew that this was what I would strive for. Despite enjoying campus life, I was also studying hard. Trying to improve my vocabulary at university, I often translated stories from foreign magazines. I recall reading a story from Time magazine about the actor John Belushi dying. Not only did I fail to figure out who the Blues Brothers were, I couldn’t get my head around the concept of a drug overdose. These circumstances were so foreign to my own upbringing and life experience that it was mind-blowing to read about them. My parents gave me a monthly allowance of 30 yuan (A$5), and in my first year at university I bought a pair of flares. My oldest brother ‘M y mother had wouldn’t let me visit him at his campus always taught me wearing them, and my parents wanted me to throw them away. We eventually that you excel in ended up with a compromise that I your studies, you would only wear these ‘fashion-forward’ excel in life, but trousers on my own university campus, in terms of your but it was emblematic of the values of standard of living, the old China in conflict with the new. you remain in My mother had always taught me that you excel in your studies, you excel in the middle like life, but in terms of your standard of everyone else.’ living, you remain in the middle like everyone else. You didn’t draw attention to yourself. My parents wanted me to conform, and I suppose this was a way to protect me from unwanted attention. Traditionally in China, especially in the old days, society did not encourage individuality. The concept of the individual was not important, because it detracted from the collective good. In Western culture, however, it is just the opposite. Individuality is encouraged. They say with Chinese names, the reason why the family name comes first and the given name comes second is that they want to know which family you 42 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

come from first and then who you are as an individual; while with Western names, your given name comes first and family name second because people want to know you as an individual first and then they care about which family you come from. This was one of the greatest realisations of my university years. My parents had always encouraged me to lie low, but I now believed it was okay to be an individual. When I started at university, it was clear that I was just a boy from Nankou, from the boondocks. In Peking University, they had the best students from all over China. In my class, everyone could speak English much better than I could. I would overhear my fellow students having entire conversations in English in the cafeteria, whereas I could barely ask a few basic questions. So I wheeled out the routine that had served me well before, in high school and while playing the violin – up at 5am each day to conquer the challenge. The lights in the corridors outside our dormitory rooms were on at that hour, so I would sit in the staircase and read books I’d borrowed from the library. At the beginning, I found 40 or 50 new words on each page, and I forced myself to look up each one in the dictionary and write down its meaning. I was reading Charles Dickens, and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. I would also ride my bike to the Summer Palace, and hope for the chance to speak English with some of the tourists who began visiting Beijing after the city opened up around 1978. My lecturers told me that my spoken English lacked the right intonation. I overcame my ‘I remember the first shyness, and started approaching time I met some tourists in the gardens. That was my early experience of rejection, because Australians, and I some tourists would not feel like had so much trouble talking. I had my fair share of people who didn’t want to talk to me. Others understanding them. would be very warm, and were thrilled When I asked them to see a young Chinese man willing to when they had communicate with them in English. arrived in Beijing, That gave me some encouragement in they said, “to die”.’ getting a better command of English. I remember the first time I met some Growing up in China 43

Australians, and I had so much trouble understanding them. When I asked them when they had arrived in Beijing, they said, ‘to die’. It took me a while to realise that it was their way of pronouncing ‘today’! That was my first exposure to people from Sydney. They were very friendly, enjoyed their stay in China and were curious that a Chinese student would just walk up and talk to them. By the end of that first year, I was one of only two straight-A students. I was trying to be good at everything, but for me it was a big shift in perspective when I realised I didn’t need to be the best at everything. I wanted to enjoy life, but not necessarily be number one at everything, because on later reflection, a high score means nothing. Instead, my focus shifted outside China. In 1983, when I was in third year, my brother got an opportunity to study in America. To a newly opened China, America was the epitome of capitalism, of success and abundance. My original dream had been to be a simultaneous interpreter for the United Nations, but that year I noticed a sign on the faculty noticeboard from the Ministry of Culture. A new graduate program had been set up to train career ‘I had never thought diplomats. I had never thought of of being a diplomat, being a diplomat, but travelling the but travelling world and representing my country the world and sounded glamorous and attractive. representing my They were to select 20 students from country sounded five universities in Beijing, and I was glamorous and admitted to the program. attractive.’ Talk about getting what you want! Ever since my brother had gone to America, I had been dreaming of an opportunity to join him there. I was so anxious to go to America to practise and improve my English and to satisfy my curiosity for capitalism. Soon after I joined the graduate program, I got news that an American company, Disney World Company, was going to sponsor six Chinese students from our program to study in America for one year. I was so excited. I wanted to go, but to secure one of the six positions with intense competition was no easy feat. We had to sit for a written exam and an oral exam 44 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

and then those on the shortlist had to be interviewed by the representatives of Disney. As far as I was concerned, I was going. I ‘T he boy from would be one of the six. That high expectation worked its magic again. I got Nankou, who had one of six positions to study in America. Not just in America, but at the centre of never driven a iconic American culture – Disney World. car, was heading I’d won a fellowship to the Epcot Center to the biggest in Florida and was invited to stay for one motor culture in year with students from 10 other the world.’ countries. The boy from Nankou, who had never driven a car, was heading to the biggest motor culture in the world. The boy who sang folk songs with his guitar was going to the world capital of music. The boy who had studied American authors Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner was going to see where it had all happened. I couldn’t wait. Growing up in China 45

2. Disney World to the Opera House: the chauffeur-driven years It was 1984 when I arrived in America. Although it was only a flight away from my homeland, it may as well have been a million miles. Ronald Reagan was President, and had declared his intent to destroy the ‘evil empire’ of Communism led by Russia. The US Government was funding anti-Communist groups in countries throughout Asia, Africa and Europe, as the US increased its weaponry capabilities and the Cold War threatened to heat up. It was the year that the crack cocaine epidemic started in Los Angeles, spreading to the rest of the country in a six-year wave of violence, homelessness, murder and robberies as the nation’s youth became addicted. Vanessa Williams had been crowned Miss America, but was forced to surrender her title after nude pictures were published in Penthouse magazine. George Orwell’s dystopian vision of the world, 1984, was being revisited, with the themes of socialist society and collectivist attitudes newly debated. All in all, it was a confronting picture. I had come from a suburban family, proudly Chinese and supportive of government policies. My father and siblings were in the military, and I had accepted a government-sponsored exchange. My loyalty was truly with my homeland. It was personally very challenging to learn about a country that was debating these big ideas of democracy and social 46 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

organisation. It was a nation also facing widespread challenges of crime, violence and drug use. The Chinese Government had been aware that we might face a tough time in America and had been going back and forth on its decision to send us over there. The officials thought it was a good opportunity for students to take part in the program. But what if these students became ‘bad’ and learned to do ‘naughty’ things? What if we were misled? What if we took our newfound skills, and instead of returning home to the benefit of China, we decided to stay in America? ‘It had been a day of More immediately, it was the sights firsts – my first trip and sounds of America that took my on an aeroplane, my breath away. We had travelled to first time overseas, America business class, courtesy of my first sight of the Disney’s sponsorship. Not that it made much difference to me. I’d sea, and the first never been on a plane before, and time I’d seen real spent most of the trip marvelling at blue sky.’ the job human beings had done to fly something at such an altitude, and such a speed. I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the achievement, and yet it was just the first in a series of amazing revelations. We landed in Florida, ready to begin a year living in Orlando, near Disney World and the Epcot Center. It had been a day of firsts – my first trip on an aeroplane, my first time overseas, my first sight of the sea, and the first time I’d seen real blue sky. Beijing was still a centre of industry and even in its outer suburbs, such as Nankou, smoke stacks poured pollution into the skies. Of course, this was before society’s focus moved in earnest to environmental issues. I had grown up in smog, with a brown haze settling over us each day. Our sunrises were hazy, and the sunsets dim. ‘I stepped off the I stepped off the plane to be greeted plane to be greeted by a blue sky and, taking a deep by a blue sky and, breath in, I thought: ‘This is a land of taking a deep breath freedom.’ in, I thought: “This is a land of freedom”.’ The year of my cultural exchange was to be spent at the Epcot Center, at Disney World. Now just about every Disney World to the Opera House 47

six-year-old on the planet knows the name, but then it had just opened and provided a whole world of possibilities for us. The Epcot experiment was based on Walt Disney’s vision for a perfect community. In an America faced with a crisis in its cities due to overcrowding, poor public transport and a sadly lacking public education system, Disney decided to build his utopia – the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. He saw it as a showcase city, using the best of American enterprise to create the perfect community. He spent the last years of his life engrossed in the project, reading constantly about public sanitation projects, and the best way to engineer a city. In 1982, almost 20 years after his death, his dream was realised on a piece of land twice the size of Manhattan, in the centre of Florida. ‘I met my future While Walt Disney’s vision had been wife, Suzanne, and for a living city, the Epcot Center has together we started become a ‘model city’ with a futuristic dreaming of a life in vision and an international focus. the West, with the China had an exhibit from the first day newfound freedoms of opening, along with eight other countries, and many of these were we had experienced represented on the cultural exchange. We had come from a country where on the fellowship entrepreneurial ideals were not highly program.’ prized, and here we had landed in the opulent realisation of one man’s vision for an entertainment, cultural and social empire. We attended presentations on business by executives from Exxon, Nestlé, Kraft and Heinz. We were inducted into the world of Mickey Mouse, and the magic of animation. We were taught to drive, a requirement for working at the Epcot Center. I met my future wife, Suzanne, and together we started dreaming of a life in the West, with the newfound freedoms we had experienced on the fellowship program. I had first met Suzanne on her university campus earlier that year, when we attended an interview with the American company set to sponsor us on the trip. She had long hair and a beautiful smile, but I did not talk to her because I was shy. My classmate made a comment after seeing her that the girls in her university were prettier 48 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

A driver in Disney World (August 1985) Disney World to the Opera House 49

than those at my university. I first got a chance to speak to Suzanne when we sat next to each other on the plane to America. Prior to that, she probably had not taken any notice of me. When we started talking, she was very pleasant and we talked for hours, in English, about our lives. At the time, she had a boyfriend studying in America and I had a girlfriend from high school. We were very open with each other about everything. During the conversation, she told me that her parents were both musicians and that she had played the violin and Er-hu, the Chinese fiddle. I told her I had played the violin and guitar and that I loved singing. After settling down in Florida, we both got on with our lives. We were both excited about the new environment and busy meeting new people. I still couldn’t believe that I was actually studying in America. At the time, it was almost every Chinese youngster’s dream to go to America. And there I was! In the meantime, I was writing several letters a week to my girlfriend, but things were not going well. It seemed we had been fighting ever since we started going out 18 months earlier. She was my classmate in junior high school and because she was attractive, boys in my class were always trying to be around her, to gain her attention. I was fond of her as well. Maybe because of my shyness, I always acted the opposite − while the other boys were trying to get her attention or please her, I would keep away from her. But I was a straight-A student and also excelled in sports, and I think she was fond of me too though we never expressed anything to each other. In those days, it was taboo for students to fall in love. Boys and girls were not even supposed to hold hands, let alone anything else. After junior high school, I went on to senior high while she went to a technical college. Then I went to Peking University and she got a job in a factory repairing radios. I was happy with my university life, studying, playing sports and playing my guitar. But there seemed an insurmountable gap between the two of us due to the fact that I was at university and she wasn’t. Though I didn’t think that should be a problem, she was under a lot of pressure fearing that one day I would leave her as I progressed in life. I thought it was silly for her to think 50 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

like that, but her insecurity caused us many fights. I had not wanted to admit that the relationship wasn’t working, but also I had not wanted to end it, for fear of failure. That is probably why many unhappy relationships exist. People tend to look at a failed relationship as a type of failure in life. Nobody likes to fail! One day I found a second-hand guitar for sale and bought it. The Chinese students had a pool party and I told everyone that I had bought a guitar. Suzanne asked me if I would like to go back to her apartment, which she shared with a Mexican girl, Consuela, to show her my singing talent. I wasn’t sure she would think much of my singing at the time, given her music training at home. Plus I was short and average looking, so I don’t think she thought much of me as a man. However, we really enjoyed each other’s company. After I started singing, I almost sang the whole night. She really enjoyed listening to me sing. I think that she was pleasantly surprised by my singing voice. And this was the beginning of our story. We went from fellow students, mere acquaintances, to friends. One day, Suzanne told me that her boyfriend was coming to Florida to visit her. By this time, she and I were very fond of each other, but only as friends. We enjoyed each other’s company and enjoyed doing things together. We did not have to hide anything; did not have to try to please each other. Everything came naturally. When I asked her how she was enjoying her boyfriend’s visit, she gave me a bitter smile, and said she enjoyed being with me more than with her boyfriend. It turned out they had spent very little time together. She had only agreed to enter this relationship because he had been courting her. He had been studying at a university in Southern China while she was studying in Beijing. Then he went to study in the US. All the communication had been by letters. So when he finally came to see her in Florida, they realised that they hardly knew each other. I told Suzanne that if she valued that relationship, she should make an effort to make it work. The kind of advice friends would give one another. Soon after, I received a letter from my girlfriend. She was so upset with my previous letter that she told me it was all over. For a guy who had very seldom cried, I cried for a long time. I thought of Disney World to the Opera House 51

myself as a failure. I felt sick for about a week. I lost interest in everything. Suzanne learned about my split with my girlfriend. Seeing the misery I was in, she decided to write a letter to my girlfriend trying to persuade her to change her mind. There was no response from my girlfriend. During this week, when I was staying home sick, I did a lot of thinking. I realised that my relationship with my girlfriend was not going to work anyway. Neither of us had been happy at all. She was a good person. I thought of myself as a good person too. But two good people do not necessarily make a good couple. This was the turning point. The rest, as they say, is history. I said to Suzanne that if the two of us stayed together, we would conquer the world and I would give her everything she wanted to ‘I said to Suzanne have in life. So we formed a lifelong that if the two of us partnership. That partnership has stayed together, we helped us to get where we are today and where we will be in the future. would conquer the As our relationship began, Suzanne world and I would and I enjoyed getting to know each give her everything other in sunny Florida. Being on a she wanted to have peninsula, Florida is surrounded by the in life.’ most beautiful beaches, but still has a quaint southern air. The state is home to all of America’s icons – car racing at Daytona, the spring training grounds for Major League baseball and space shuttles taking off from Cape Canaveral. One thing the proud locals would often pick me up on was my seemingly Californian accent. I couldn’t explain it, except to say that I was big fan of American daytime soaps. I followed Bold and the Beautiful for many years, from back in the days when Ridge Forrester was still a young pup, and Stephanie Forrester and Sally Spectra were arch-nemeses. I used to tape the show every day and watch all the episodes together on the weekend. For me, it was a peek into a different world, the world of high fashion, and also into the wealthy lives of characters in a successful dynasty. The entrepreneur in me must have been asking: ‘What if I could build a dynasty like that?’, though at the time I did not consciously think of that. That’s probably how I picked up my Californian accent. 52 FROM BICYCLES TO BENTLEYS

‘I was inspired by When I first got to America, I couldn’t the possibilities the fully understand TV or movies, but by the end of the year I could understand American way of everything. I also watched a lot of life offered.’ American sitcoms, and my favourite comedian was John Ritter in the early 1980s hit, Three’s Company. In short, I had fallen in love with this country and its dynamic culture. I was inspired by the possibilities the American way of life had to offer. During this time, Suzanne and I also bought our first ever car, a 1964 Ford Pinto station wagon. We paid US$480 for it. It ran well except on humid Florida mornings, when it would not start easily. Also, the driver’s side door would not close properly, so most of the time we would crawl into the driver’s seat from the other side. It was light blue and had a few dings in it, but we didn’t mind. In fact, we were so happy because this was ours. It was the first sense of private ownership we had ever had. Before going to America, we had never owned anything except for our books and bikes. But this was a car − our own car. The day we both got our driving licence, we drove down to Miami for the weekend. Looking back, it was kind of risky. But at the time, it felt quite right and we had a wonderful trip. I was intoxicated by the beauty of Miami Beach and was a bit scared when I had to pay a quarter to a guy with a Spanish accent for some street directions. It was a period when the Reagan Administration was troubled by the constant flow of boat people coming to America from ‘B efore going to Cuba. On the streets of Miami there America, we had were so many Spanish-speaking never owned people, some appearing hostile, that an American girl laughed in a supermarket anything except when I asked her if she spoke English. for our books and ‘Of course! This is America!’ I was also bikes. But this confused when I went to a Chinese was a car − our restaurant where I did not see any own car.’ Chinese. It was owned and run by Cubans − another culture shock for me. When I first got to Florida, I was so shy that I did not dare to meet new people. I would associate with my Italian roommate, Silvio, and a few fellow Chinese students. During the year, my wide interests drew Disney World to the Opera House 53