Touch a Chinaman for Luck: A Tale of Different Cultures

This book is a reflection on what is was like to grow up in a traditional Chinese family in Malaya and Singapore in the l930's and 1940's and the cultural differences between that environment and life in Australia after moving there in 1954 for further education and employment, especially as Australia had then the White Australia policy, and was not the multicultural society it is today. It also comments on life and experiences working as an Australian Trade Commissioner in China in the 1980's and early 1990's when the People Republic of China began to open up to the West. His knowledge of the Chinese language and of the differences between Chinese and Australian cultures allowed him to have a more intimate insight into the so-called inscrutable Chinese thinking.

The author was born in 1936 and spent his early years in Malaya during the Japanese occupation. He moved with his parents to Singapore where he attended a Chinese middle school and then the prestigious Raffles Institution, a select high school. He spent a year at Melbourne Boys' High School and after matriculation attended Melbourne University where he obtained a Science Degree. He worked as a scientist for 11 years, before joining the commercial world and becoming a corporate executive. He later ran his own import/export business. He then became a Trade Commissioner for Australia and was posted to Beijing and Hong Kong for almost 8 years. He retired to a grazing property near Tamworth in New South Wales, Australia, where he breeds beef cattle.