Acknowledgement
I would like to thank everyone who has
encouraged or supported me during the writing of this book.
I am grateful to The Hon. Dr. Geoff Gallop, Premier of
Western Australia for the foreword; Mr. Richard Tan,
President of Chung Wah Association, Western Australia; Mr.
Wilson Wu, President of Western Australian Chinese Chamber
of Commerce and Industry, as well as Dr. Eric Tan, a
prominent West Australian Chinese, for their messages and
encouragement.
I am
indebted to the Hon. Tony McRae, the Member of Parliament
for Riverton for his help and support, Ms Trinch Quach for
the spellings of Vietnamese Chinese surnames, and Mr. Zhao
Zhen for the “coupled poem” [duilian] used as the theme of
the book. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to
Mr. Edward Chin, Mr. Liu Hua and Mr. A. B. Koh for proof
reading some of the chapters; Ms
from Overseas Exchange Association of Guangdong province for
proof-reading the section on Guangdong. To all of them I say
“chengxin ganxie” (thank you from the bottom of my heart)
for their contributions.
The Australian Post is most gracious for
permitting me to reproduce the Chinese zodiac stamps.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank
Adam Junid for proof reading some chapters; and my sister Oi
Lin for her valuable insights in writing and presentation,
in addition to improving my English text.
My
sincere appreciation to Mr. Woo Kum Wah for editing the
entire text several times over and Mr. David Chang Chee
Siong for the creative book cover.
Last but not least my eternal gratitude to
the person who in many ways co-contributed to the production
of this book, my wife Soi Har, who painstakingly went
through every word, both in Chinese and English. Her
critical comments, constructive suggestions and constant
support throughout the years are crucial to the success of
this book
