1987年末我在澳洲第一次遇到华人
1987年12月27日上午，我乘坐的澳洲Qantas航空公司班机降落在悉尼。我是前一晚从温哥华机场起飞的，中国大陆护照上贴的是澳大利亚驻温哥华领事馆签发的独立移民即PR签证。当晚在温哥华机场及飞机上旅客很少，好像人人都在昏昏欲睡，也无交流。在当时华人面孔罕见的悉尼机场，我推着行李车走过机场大厅过道的时候，恰好遇到一位个头不高的新加坡华人男子。他与我年龄相仿也是30岁出头，肤色稍暗，两人英文交谈。得知我来自中国大陆，他显得很高兴。交谈中他知道我一人来澳，尚无安排住处，就邀请我到他的公寓里暂住，因为他是一个人住。我很高兴，起先正一路盘算下机后如何寻找住处呢。我跟着他去了他在悉尼东郊Bondi Junction 的公寓。他未婚，一个人住在高级公寓群的一个三居室内，说是当时价值30多万澳元。我当时对澳洲房价一无所知，口袋里只有一张自己在加拿大用所有剩余积蓄购买的3000多元旅行支票（当时加元澳元1:1汇率），很庆幸这位新加坡人帮我省了临时寻找旅馆的麻烦。如今那个公寓楼群还矗立在Bondi Junction 沿着公路边的Westfield 购物中心附近，我感觉应当就是79-81 Grafton Street那座浅红色的公寓大楼，看最近网上销售当时的三居室如今价值应接近300万澳元。
这位新加坡男对我独自一人以独立移民身份来澳洲表示欣赏不已，估计也有点惊讶。他说他父亲是位富商，但在家中很专制。他自称非常崇拜香港的李嘉诚，自己也要学李嘉诚成功创业经营等等。他的新加坡口音英文我第一次遇到，比如他说 “thinker” 我听成 “tinker”, 但两人交谈基本无障碍。我告诉他我会很快自己找到住处搬出去，且会自己寻找工作。他跟我说会帮我找电脑程序员工作云云，我虽感激，也未太抱希望。因为据我在加拿大找程序员工作的经验，知道得有一些过程和手续。
这位独身新加坡男的三居室公寓在高层，进出有安全门卡，室内有门禁对讲机，但除了床和简单桌椅沙发外，并无什么豪华家具装饰，我甚至都不记得他有私人电话？因那时大家也无手机之类移动通信器。我也未见他有女朋友之类，也无人来访。白天他出去大概是交际应酬或工作？但那时正值圣诞至新年的澳洲假期时节，估计也没多少人认真打工。我自己忙于打公用电话找单独的住处，也未在意新加坡人如何进出公寓。他倒是对我毫无防范，给了我入门钥匙门卡等等，但我估计他公寓内也无贵重物品，连厨房都挺干净，大概他不怎么做饭。
我买了报纸查看各种租房子的信息，看到悉尼的租金显然比我刚刚离开的加拿大维多利亚小城昂贵不少，而且可租房源也紧张。当时悉尼甚至有些专门帮助潜在租客寻找房源的公司：就是你交给这些公司一些钱，他们帮你找一些适合你条件的潜在待租房子，你可以去挨个看看合适与否。我没有想使用这些掮客公司的服务，自己按照报纸广告信息打电话寻找了几个房源，甚至坐火车从市政厅站一直跑到南边较远的Cronulla 站。因为我初来悉尼，对地理远近概念模糊。一开始我甚至对如何确认澳洲的住宅地址都不清楚，因为澳洲的街道名字有许多都同名，比如乔治街George Street, 到处都有，但与街名后面的郊区名（Suburb）联合起来，就可以准确识别一个地址的位置。这许许多多的郊区把整个澳洲划分为易于投递邮件与区别地址的小块地域，每一个或几个郊区享有一个唯一的邮政编码，比如Sydney 2000， Blacktown 2148, 等等。记得我那次找到南边Cronulla 的一间出租房，收拾的挺干净，屋主是西人妇女，但我感觉离市中心较远，就没有租。后来我匆匆租了一个在近市中心Petersham 郊区的Terrace 小楼房里面的一个房间，租金现已记不太清，但应该是每周$100以下（相比之下我在加拿大Victoria市租一个单间是每月$175），就决定搬离新加坡人的地方，因为我感觉总免费住在人家那里过意不去。我起先告诉他我欲在Petersham 那附近找住处时，他还帮我分析，说那里会有公交车服务等等。
确认租到住处后，正好新加坡人不在家，我写了张感谢与告别纸条，与他给的钥匙和门卡一起留在他桌子上，带上房门，就拖着两个行李箱乘出租车去了新租的房间那里。对新加坡人的几天免费招待我心存感激，但当时他家里并没有电话，所以从此也就没有再联系了，其实心中还是挺遗憾的。 如今四十年过去，不知这位老兄是否仍在悉尼啊？ 衷心祝福祝愿他这些年及今后一直安好。
In the morning of Dec. 27, 1987, my flight on Australia Qantas airline landed at Sydney airport. I boarded the plane the previous night from Vancouver airport, carrying my Chinese passport with an immigration visa to Australia issued by the Australian Consulate in Vancouver. In the airport corridor where Asian faces were seldom seen at that time, I met a Singapore Chinese man at his 30’s, similar as me. When he learned I was a mainland Chinese coming to Australia as an independent immigrant he was quite surprised and felt happy to meet me. We chatted in English for a while. As he learnt I haven’t had a place to stay in Sydney yet, he invited me to stay with him in his apartment, since he was living alone. I thanked him and felt grateful for his generosity since all along the flight I had been considering how to find an accommodation once arriving in Australia. The year end Vancouver airport and the flight across the ocean had very few passengers around and everyone seemed to be very sleepy so hardly any verbal communication happened.
The Singaporean man had a slightly darker complexion and relatively short height. He lived in a high rise apartment in Bondi Junction. The building had a light dark red external colour, several dozens storeys, security access with swipe cards for residents —— from today’s viewing online it could probably be the 79-81 Grafton Street, Bondi Junction building that still stands close to the Westfield shopping complex.
The apartment the Singaporean owns has three bedrooms, showers, bathrooms, toilets, kitchen, balcony, etc, plus intercom for communicating with downstairs visitors. He told me the apartment had a value over $300k, which I had little understanding since at that time Sydney’s realestate market was totally unknown to me.
Singaporean man told me his father back in Singapore was very rich and also quite dictatorial. He himself admires the HongKong merchant tycoon Ka-shing Li and aspires to become a similarly successful merchant, etc. It was my first close encounter with a Singaporean and his English accent sounded a little bit strange for me, however we mostly chatted along smoothly. When he learned I will be starting job hunting soon he said he will help me find computer programmer job the next day or so, which I appreciated but understood that might need some effort and procedures as I experienced in Canada in the previous year.
The apartment was very simply furnished with beds and sofa plus a few chairs and tables. Kitchen was rarely used so looked quite new and clean, I then cooked instant noodles a few times there. I don’t even remember he had a telephone at home. Apparently he didn’t have a female partner, nor visitors either during those days when I was there. In the daytime he went out to meet people or handle his usual business so left me alone at home. He trusted me quite well by leaving me entrance keys and security swipe card(although honestly speaking there were very few valuables in the apartment, apart from the TV set probably?)
I was a total stranger to Australia at that time. Choosing to come to Sydney was purely because it was the largest city of the country so I reckoned here it might be easier to land a job. All I had with me were luggage suitcases and a $3000 plus traveller’s cheque that I purchased with all my remaining money in Canada (then Canadian dollar and Aussie dollar had exchange rate of 1:1). When looking around for accommodation initially I couldn’t even identify property’s address correctly, since many streets share same names such as George, High, etc. There are many suburbs that divide Australia’s cities and countryside so locating a property’s address its street no. and name need to be combined with its associated suburb name plus the postcode. At that time Sydney’s rental property market was very tight with very low vacancy rate, plus the year end/new year start was holiday season so relatively few rental properties were on the market. There were even rental property agents then who were charging people money by simply showing you potential rental properties: often several potential properties will be offered to you after you pay the agent some fees. I didn’t pay money to these kind of agents, but started looking for new rental properties by browsing through newspapers’ advertisements. Public telephones were my main tools to talk to potential landlords who advertised on the newspapers. Since my lack of geographic knowledge of the Sydney metropolitan area, sometimes I went quite faraway from the city centre to inspect a rental place. Once I went to the suburb Cronulla where an Australian lady had a room for rent, that was very clean and quiet. However considering the train travelling distance and time I didn’t take that. I also once travelled to Granville to inspect a rental property, and to the suburb Rockdale. I particularly looked at near CBD inner west suburbs such as Petershsm, Stanmore etc. I remember when I mentioned Petersham the Singaporean started discussing with me if there was bus service there to the City etc.
The Singaporean man’s trust on me made me quite grateful. However I did feel it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to overstay too long in his place free of any possible payback, so once I locked in a rental room in Petershsm suburb along the Crystal Street with a weekly rent below $100, which in comparison with the rent in Canadian city Victoria BC was much higher (I was paying C$175 per month for a single room in 1987 whole year), I packed my luggage suitcases and prepared to leave. I wrote a thank you note to the Singaporean and left it on the desk, together with his security swipe card and door keys. Closing the apartment door then taking a taxi downstairs, so I left the Bondi Junction building with some regrets, since the Singaporean wasn’t at home that entire day. Unfortunately ever since then I haven’t had a chance to meet him again. Thirty eight years on today I do wholeheartedly hope he has been faring well, and wish him well in all future years. Maybe you are still living in Sydney nowadays, brother?
参看：
1988年一月我在悉尼第一次租房子
这位新加坡男对我独自一人以独立移民身份来澳洲表示欣赏不已，估计也有点惊讶。他说他父亲是位富商，但在家中很专制。他自称非常崇拜香港的李嘉诚，自己也要学李嘉诚成功创业经营等等。他的新加坡口音英文我第一次遇到，比如他说 “thinker” 我听成 “tinker”, 但两人交谈基本无障碍。我告诉他我会很快自己找到住处搬出去，且会自己寻找工作。他跟我说会帮我找电脑程序员工作云云，我虽感激，也未太抱希望。因为据我在加拿大找程序员工作的经验，知道得有一些过程和手续。
这位独身新加坡男的三居室公寓在高层，进出有安全门卡，室内有门禁对讲机，但除了床和简单桌椅沙发外，并无什么豪华家具装饰，我甚至都不记得他有私人电话？因那时大家也无手机之类移动通信器。我也未见他有女朋友之类，也无人来访。白天他出去大概是交际应酬或工作？但那时正值圣诞至新年的澳洲假期时节，估计也没多少人认真打工。我自己忙于打公用电话找单独的住处，也未在意新加坡人如何进出公寓。他倒是对我毫无防范，给了我入门钥匙门卡等等，但我估计他公寓内也无贵重物品，连厨房都挺干净，大概他不怎么做饭。
我买了报纸查看各种租房子的信息，看到悉尼的租金显然比我刚刚离开的加拿大维多利亚小城昂贵不少，而且可租房源也紧张。当时悉尼甚至有些专门帮助潜在租客寻找房源的公司：就是你交给这些公司一些钱，他们帮你找一些适合你条件的潜在待租房子，你可以去挨个看看合适与否。我没有想使用这些掮客公司的服务，自己按照报纸广告信息打电话寻找了几个房源，甚至坐火车从市政厅站一直跑到南边较远的Cronulla 站。因为我初来悉尼，对地理远近概念模糊。一开始我甚至对如何确认澳洲的住宅地址都不清楚，因为澳洲的街道名字有许多都同名，比如乔治街George Street, 到处都有，但与街名后面的郊区名（Suburb）联合起来，就可以准确识别一个地址的位置。这许许多多的郊区把整个澳洲划分为易于投递邮件与区别地址的小块地域，每一个或几个郊区享有一个唯一的邮政编码，比如Sydney 2000， Blacktown 2148, 等等。记得我那次找到南边Cronulla 的一间出租房，收拾的挺干净，屋主是西人妇女，但我感觉离市中心较远，就没有租。后来我匆匆租了一个在近市中心Petersham 郊区的Terrace 小楼房里面的一个房间，租金现已记不太清，但应该是每周$100以下（相比之下我在加拿大Victoria市租一个单间是每月$175），就决定搬离新加坡人的地方，因为我感觉总免费住在人家那里过意不去。我起先告诉他我欲在Petersham 那附近找住处时，他还帮我分析，说那里会有公交车服务等等。
确认租到住处后，正好新加坡人不在家，我写了张感谢与告别纸条，与他给的钥匙和门卡一起留在他桌子上，带上房门，就拖着两个行李箱乘出租车去了新租的房间那里。对新加坡人的几天免费招待我心存感激，但当时他家里并没有电话，所以从此也就没有再联系了，其实心中还是挺遗憾的。 如今四十年过去，不知这位老兄是否仍在悉尼啊？ 衷心祝福祝愿他这些年及今后一直安好。
In the morning of Dec. 27, 1987, my flight on Australia Qantas airline landed at Sydney airport. I boarded the plane the previous night from Vancouver airport, carrying my Chinese passport with an immigration visa to Australia issued by the Australian Consulate in Vancouver. In the airport corridor where Asian faces were seldom seen at that time, I met a Singapore Chinese man at his 30’s, similar as me. When he learned I was a mainland Chinese coming to Australia as an independent immigrant he was quite surprised and felt happy to meet me. We chatted in English for a while. As he learnt I haven’t had a place to stay in Sydney yet, he invited me to stay with him in his apartment, since he was living alone. I thanked him and felt grateful for his generosity since all along the flight I had been considering how to find an accommodation once arriving in Australia. The year end Vancouver airport and the flight across the ocean had very few passengers around and everyone seemed to be very sleepy so hardly any verbal communication happened.
The Singaporean man had a slightly darker complexion and relatively short height. He lived in a high rise apartment in Bondi Junction. The building had a light dark red external colour, several dozens storeys, security access with swipe cards for residents —— from today’s viewing online it could probably be the 79-81 Grafton Street, Bondi Junction building that still stands close to the Westfield shopping complex.
The apartment the Singaporean owns has three bedrooms, showers, bathrooms, toilets, kitchen, balcony, etc, plus intercom for communicating with downstairs visitors. He told me the apartment had a value over $300k, which I had little understanding since at that time Sydney’s realestate market was totally unknown to me.
Singaporean man told me his father back in Singapore was very rich and also quite dictatorial. He himself admires the HongKong merchant tycoon Ka-shing Li and aspires to become a similarly successful merchant, etc. It was my first close encounter with a Singaporean and his English accent sounded a little bit strange for me, however we mostly chatted along smoothly. When he learned I will be starting job hunting soon he said he will help me find computer programmer job the next day or so, which I appreciated but understood that might need some effort and procedures as I experienced in Canada in the previous year.
The apartment was very simply furnished with beds and sofa plus a few chairs and tables. Kitchen was rarely used so looked quite new and clean, I then cooked instant noodles a few times there. I don’t even remember he had a telephone at home. Apparently he didn’t have a female partner, nor visitors either during those days when I was there. In the daytime he went out to meet people or handle his usual business so left me alone at home. He trusted me quite well by leaving me entrance keys and security swipe card(although honestly speaking there were very few valuables in the apartment, apart from the TV set probably?)
I was a total stranger to Australia at that time. Choosing to come to Sydney was purely because it was the largest city of the country so I reckoned here it might be easier to land a job. All I had with me were luggage suitcases and a $3000 plus traveller’s cheque that I purchased with all my remaining money in Canada (then Canadian dollar and Aussie dollar had exchange rate of 1:1). When looking around for accommodation initially I couldn’t even identify property’s address correctly, since many streets share same names such as George, High, etc. There are many suburbs that divide Australia’s cities and countryside so locating a property’s address its street no. and name need to be combined with its associated suburb name plus the postcode. At that time Sydney’s rental property market was very tight with very low vacancy rate, plus the year end/new year start was holiday season so relatively few rental properties were on the market. There were even rental property agents then who were charging people money by simply showing you potential rental properties: often several potential properties will be offered to you after you pay the agent some fees. I didn’t pay money to these kind of agents, but started looking for new rental properties by browsing through newspapers’ advertisements. Public telephones were my main tools to talk to potential landlords who advertised on the newspapers. Since my lack of geographic knowledge of the Sydney metropolitan area, sometimes I went quite faraway from the city centre to inspect a rental place. Once I went to the suburb Cronulla where an Australian lady had a room for rent, that was very clean and quiet. However considering the train travelling distance and time I didn’t take that. I also once travelled to Granville to inspect a rental property, and to the suburb Rockdale. I particularly looked at near CBD inner west suburbs such as Petershsm, Stanmore etc. I remember when I mentioned Petersham the Singaporean started discussing with me if there was bus service there to the City etc.
The Singaporean man’s trust on me made me quite grateful. However I did feel it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to overstay too long in his place free of any possible payback, so once I locked in a rental room in Petershsm suburb along the Crystal Street with a weekly rent below $100, which in comparison with the rent in Canadian city Victoria BC was much higher (I was paying C$175 per month for a single room in 1987 whole year), I packed my luggage suitcases and prepared to leave. I wrote a thank you note to the Singaporean and left it on the desk, together with his security swipe card and door keys. Closing the apartment door then taking a taxi downstairs, so I left the Bondi Junction building with some regrets, since the Singaporean wasn’t at home that entire day. Unfortunately ever since then I haven’t had a chance to meet him again. Thirty eight years on today I do wholeheartedly hope he has been faring well, and wish him well in all future years. Maybe you are still living in Sydney nowadays, brother?
参看：
1988年一月我在悉尼第一次租房子
33 个评论
跟Ai聊了聊，Ai有全套的社会资料，了解历史是个很好的工具。
这个人若是健在，大概率应该还在新加坡。
根据文章的内容，这个新加坡人出生于1950年代，而新加坡是1965年立国的。也就是这个人出生的时候，新加坡正处于英国直属殖民地时期。
他是个富二代，因为他住的公寓当时价值30万澳元，而彼时澳洲人均家庭年收入是2万~3万澳元，这个公寓是人均收入的十倍，可见富二代名不虚传。
那么既然是富二代，那么他爹是什么人呢？
这个人的父亲崇拜李嘉诚，家教很严格，这都是富一代的人风格，并且他是想来澳洲寻找扩大家业的机会，而富三代通常都是要求守业而不是继续扩大产业。
我们可以要继续推理，50后的父母应该是1930左右的人。1949年中共建政之后，闭关锁国，出国几乎已经不可能。这个人的父亲当时刚刚成年不久，应该无法轻易出国。
因此，这个人很可能是华人第三代，也就是新客的后代。
新客是指1900年到1930年代因为躲避战乱去往新加坡的华人。
新加坡1819年莱佛士开埠的时候，当地都是马来渔民和海盗，华人很少。
莱佛士大力招商引资，游说附近马六甲和槟城的土生华人来经商。那些地方的华人懂英语，生活西化，wiki中描述
而这些土生华人在当地经商之后，有了大量的劳工需求。于是他们就去中国找东南沿海的人当契约劳工，也就是“猪仔”。
虽然早期清朝也有海禁，普通人也很难出国。但是南京条约之后，清朝开放海关，华人形成了移民新加坡的高潮。很多广东，福建的同乡会，会馆，主要的生意就是从中国找人下南洋，去外国当劳工。
到1920年的时候，这些会馆的劳工派遣链条已经相当发达，
这个华人的祖父，应该是1900年的人，1920年，他的祖父刚刚成年，当时中国正是中原大战，政局动荡，连年战争。他的祖父很可能为了躲避战乱而去了新加坡。
所以，他的父辈应该也不是从特别底层上来的，他的祖父辈已经在当地有了基础，让他的父亲有准备在1950年代富裕起来。
1950年6月朝鲜战争爆发后，美国及联合国军大量采购军需，橡胶成为了重要物资。当时马来西亚是最重要的橡胶生产国，新加坡是马来西亚的出口转运中心。美国的军需订单如同雪片一样飞来，橡胶等物资疯涨。
当时新加坡还未独立，监督几乎没有，很多人囤货提价，大发战争横财，当时只要你在新加坡做转口贸易，接到几个军队的订单，你就可以迅速完成财富积累，实现阶级跨越。
这个人的父辈很可能就把握住了这样历史机会。
所以想想这个世界很荒谬，我的祖辈在当时是国内大后方当苦力，他的父辈在南洋疯狂赚钱。
境遇之不同，仅仅是因为我们的祖辈，在清末的时候，一个润出了中国，一个留在了中国。
到了1980年代，新加坡人开始把家族的资产向海外延伸。当时，新加坡人去澳洲投资是非常流行的，因为澳洲足够近，也是英属国家，法治健全，而且当时澳洲资产价格相对还比较便宜。
这个人过去寻找商机，应该就是去找进出口贸易，或者房地产投资机会等等。
但是这个人留在新加坡的几率不高。
因为1990年之后，亚洲美元市场开始成熟。尤其1997金融危机之后，很多东南亚国家受重创，但新加坡无资本利得税，企业税低，政治稳定，未受到致命性影响，所以新加坡也开始成了金融中心，世界资金都涌入新加坡，澳洲反而没有新加坡的机会好。
到了2000年左右，这个人的父辈已经年迈，他肯定要彻底接手家族财富了，而新加坡是没有遗产税的，他回去接班，是最优的选择。若是在澳洲接班，税务反而是一个麻烦事情。
所以大概率，这个人应该在90年代，就已经回了新加坡，成家并接手了家族财富。
盲猜个八卦，他已经是三代华人，文化基本已经西化，所以我猜他可能天天出去社交，就是去找女人约会？哈哈哈
-----------------------------------
了解得越多，越感觉选择有时候大于努力。
之前听秦晖讲爱尔兰的美国移民史，即使都是白人，也是用了3代人的时间，才能被美国社会接受。
而华人在南洋也是如此。这个新加坡人的好运气，来自于百年前，他的祖父辈的一念之间。
也许就是那么一天，村子里来了一个买猪仔的同乡会的人，问谁愿意不愿意趁着春天的季风，坐船，去南洋打工。也许就再也回不来了，但是也许还能混得好一些，总比被抓壮丁强。
村里有一个小伙子想了想，咬了咬牙，交了钱跟着人就走了。
他可能想不到几十年之后，他的后辈会住在澳洲的一个高级公寓里，把一个从加拿大来中国的留学生小小震撼了一下。
这个人若是健在，大概率应该还在新加坡。
根据文章的内容，这个新加坡人出生于1950年代，而新加坡是1965年立国的。也就是这个人出生的时候，新加坡正处于英国直属殖民地时期。
他是个富二代，因为他住的公寓当时价值30万澳元，而彼时澳洲人均家庭年收入是2万~3万澳元，这个公寓是人均收入的十倍，可见富二代名不虚传。
那么既然是富二代，那么他爹是什么人呢？
这个人的父亲崇拜李嘉诚，家教很严格，这都是富一代的人风格，并且他是想来澳洲寻找扩大家业的机会，而富三代通常都是要求守业而不是继续扩大产业。
我们可以要继续推理，50后的父母应该是1930左右的人。1949年中共建政之后，闭关锁国，出国几乎已经不可能。这个人的父亲当时刚刚成年不久，应该无法轻易出国。
因此，这个人很可能是华人第三代，也就是新客的后代。
新客是指1900年到1930年代因为躲避战乱去往新加坡的华人。
新加坡1819年莱佛士开埠的时候，当地都是马来渔民和海盗，华人很少。
莱佛士大力招商引资，游说附近马六甲和槟城的土生华人来经商。那些地方的华人懂英语，生活西化，wiki中描述
根据殖民地官员，琼斯·丹尼尔·沃尔根（Jones Daniel Vaughan）在其19世纪所写的《海峡殖民地华人的风俗与习惯》（ The manners and customs of the Chinese of the Straits Settlements） 中的论述：
虽然土生华人穿长衫、瓜皮帽，如同中国人，但他曾遇过被当成为中国人的土生华人，以不满的语气表示他不是中国人，他是英国臣民（British Subject），乃白人 （ Orang Putih， 马来语，Orang指人，putih指白）。土生华人所组织的俱乐部亦不让新来的中国人参加。在俱乐部中，他们打桌球、保龄球，喝白兰地、苏打水等，生活相当洋化
而这些土生华人在当地经商之后，有了大量的劳工需求。于是他们就去中国找东南沿海的人当契约劳工，也就是“猪仔”。
虽然早期清朝也有海禁，普通人也很难出国。但是南京条约之后，清朝开放海关，华人形成了移民新加坡的高潮。很多广东，福建的同乡会，会馆，主要的生意就是从中国找人下南洋，去外国当劳工。
到1920年的时候，这些会馆的劳工派遣链条已经相当发达，
这个华人的祖父，应该是1900年的人，1920年，他的祖父刚刚成年，当时中国正是中原大战，政局动荡，连年战争。他的祖父很可能为了躲避战乱而去了新加坡。
所以，他的父辈应该也不是从特别底层上来的，他的祖父辈已经在当地有了基础，让他的父亲有准备在1950年代富裕起来。
1950年6月朝鲜战争爆发后，美国及联合国军大量采购军需，橡胶成为了重要物资。当时马来西亚是最重要的橡胶生产国，新加坡是马来西亚的出口转运中心。美国的军需订单如同雪片一样飞来，橡胶等物资疯涨。
当时新加坡还未独立，监督几乎没有，很多人囤货提价，大发战争横财，当时只要你在新加坡做转口贸易，接到几个军队的订单，你就可以迅速完成财富积累，实现阶级跨越。
这个人的父辈很可能就把握住了这样历史机会。
所以想想这个世界很荒谬，我的祖辈在当时是国内大后方当苦力，他的父辈在南洋疯狂赚钱。
境遇之不同，仅仅是因为我们的祖辈，在清末的时候，一个润出了中国，一个留在了中国。
到了1980年代，新加坡人开始把家族的资产向海外延伸。当时，新加坡人去澳洲投资是非常流行的，因为澳洲足够近，也是英属国家，法治健全，而且当时澳洲资产价格相对还比较便宜。
这个人过去寻找商机，应该就是去找进出口贸易，或者房地产投资机会等等。
但是这个人留在新加坡的几率不高。
因为1990年之后，亚洲美元市场开始成熟。尤其1997金融危机之后，很多东南亚国家受重创，但新加坡无资本利得税，企业税低，政治稳定，未受到致命性影响，所以新加坡也开始成了金融中心，世界资金都涌入新加坡，澳洲反而没有新加坡的机会好。
到了2000年左右，这个人的父辈已经年迈，他肯定要彻底接手家族财富了，而新加坡是没有遗产税的，他回去接班，是最优的选择。若是在澳洲接班，税务反而是一个麻烦事情。
所以大概率，这个人应该在90年代，就已经回了新加坡，成家并接手了家族财富。
盲猜个八卦，他已经是三代华人，文化基本已经西化，所以我猜他可能天天出去社交，就是去找女人约会？哈哈哈
-----------------------------------
了解得越多，越感觉选择有时候大于努力。
之前听秦晖讲爱尔兰的美国移民史，即使都是白人，也是用了3代人的时间，才能被美国社会接受。
而华人在南洋也是如此。这个新加坡人的好运气，来自于百年前，他的祖父辈的一念之间。
也许就是那么一天，村子里来了一个买猪仔的同乡会的人，问谁愿意不愿意趁着春天的季风，坐船，去南洋打工。也许就再也回不来了，但是也许还能混得好一些，总比被抓壮丁强。
村里有一个小伙子想了想，咬了咬牙，交了钱跟着人就走了。
他可能想不到几十年之后，他的后辈会住在澳洲的一个高级公寓里，把一个从加拿大来中国的留学生小小震撼了一下。
