In the 19th century, my parents braved the storms and waves from China Guangzhou to a land surrounded by sea call: "Nanyang" .in chinese which is the current modern Singapore. My parents found their roots here in Singapore. They worked very hard with all the immigrants who came here and not long after that this little island became to become prosperous by the years. My father back then saw the opportunity in the emerging port of Singapore. He began to build his company and call it "Ho Ah Kiu Shipyard company" . Not long after that he became one of the rich tycoon in the shipping industry of Singapore. He and Mr Tan Kah Kee, the education modern entrepreneur and the sixth rubber plantation magnate in Asia, became good friends. They were the rich and famous in Singapore and Asia wide. They even became friend of the Sultan back then. They were so famous and even have bodyguards surrounding them wherever they go. Unfortunately World War 2 broke out, Hilter in the west and Japan in the east tried to conquer the worlds and peace was therefore disrupted ever since that time. It has destroyed especially my father's business, the Japanese has robbed him of all that he had in his warehouse and used his materials to repair the Japanese ships. My father was very upset and became very sick after that. As the medical facilities were very limited in the past, my father passed away. ` The Japanese did not let us off even after my father has passed on. They even tried to harmed me and my brother, fortunately the students who supported the revolutionary, Dr Sun Yat Sun that opposed the Japanese from Guangzhou Ling Nan University informed us to escape and we returned back to our hometown in China. 3 years of hardship of the Japanese Occupation, they finally surrendered and Singapore was colonized by the British. By then I was 20 years old and I just started my primary, secondary school life. I was older than my classmates and then i enrolled into Chung Cheng high School (Pre-U), because we were very poor and i was forced to leave school. Nevertheless, i was surprised where theres an opportunity of scholarship from the principal, he showed me some newspaper cutting of my past achievement in Yuying Secondary school. I represented Yuying Secondary School in a swimming competition and got gold. Because of that he helped me to apply for a scholarship to complete my studies. I was very happy and agreed immediately. Since then I represented the school to KL, Penang for swimming competition and won many prizes. I even represented Singapore in the 1949 Indonesia Bandung Sea Games . Due to financial poverty, i worked and studied at the same time. I enrolled myself into technical studies and later graduated to work into a shipyard company call "Vesper-Thornycrofd ship building" and became an engineer. Less than 2 years, Singapore and Malaysia separated, the Tunku of Malaysia wants to control all military, financial and educations of Singapore. We do not have any part of democracy at all. With the leading of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the people of Singapore keep on protesting of our rights, street protests and some even lost their lives for Singapore. This little red dot finally have a place in the world map, with equality, democracy. From that time on, Singapore began to build its home and so forth. Translated in English by: Ms Tan