Life of a young Expat in the early 90's
- B K
- Sep 23, 2017
- 4 min read
One day I woke up in a small tropical rainforest climate island in southeast Asia, located at the end of the Malayan Peninsula, a place to be known as Singapore, one country, one city. As a young kid, living a life in Asia with his parents and his two brothers, I have to admit I was very lucky and a spoiled brat. The 90's was an awesome decade, the music, the fashion, films and technology was crafting the world for the next decade to come. It was a good time to be young and living life in a foreign country.
From 1990 - 94, I remember clearly, everyone I had come across in my childhood was different and unique in their own ways, everyone was from another country, I lived in an international community, went to an international school, Tanglin Trust School. I had so many friends, which til this day I have remained contact with some of them over the years. We were never board and I could also remember smiles on everyone's faces all the time, everyone seemed to be happy and safe. I was very acceptted regardless of my background or appearance and felt like I was the coolest kid on the block. This one time, I had invited most of my friends to come over to watch WWF (World Wrestling Federation) and everyone brought their action figures, costumes, there must have been like 20 of us, and we had our own royal rumble. Can't believe my parents let this happen. I remember the facial expression on my maid's face...she must have been stressed and overwhelmed, I laugh about it time to time, I still have all the action figures from 89 - 95 and will never ever trade them for anything. Everyone in Singapore loved basketball, especially the Chicago bulls and Shaquille O'Neal who was draft 1st picked in 92 draft for Orlando Magic. My brothers and I also had a chance to meet him for a few minutes, he signed my brother's poster of the shaq himself and we watch him play with our good friend, Sonny and due to the fact Sonny's father was one of the owners/partner of Reebok Asian cooperation.
I experienced my 1st taste in music during my time in Singapore. When McHammer toured in Asia, my dad refused to go with us as he would say "rap is crap", my older brother, his friend Chris (aka Wiz) from the UK and myself went to this concert and we said to our parents,"we're going with or without supervision". After that night, I wanted to learn about beats, rhythm and drums. On the 29th August 1992, I saw Michael Jackson live, the dangerous tour. No words can express that moment - just speechless and totally an amazing performance, as a M.J. fan, it was dream come true to see him live. I am glad to not have been part of the Justin Bieber young generation, it's just so sad how Bieber became a total douche bag and he could have done it right, like M.J. with his music, made it real and not taken for granted.
Music was changing me and I started to take note of Hip Hop when Kriss Kross's Jump & LL Cool J's Mamma said knock you out was release, my brother was developing new taste for the grunge style with bands such as Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Nevermind remained on Billboards for nearly two years after its premier appearance on October 12th 1991.
Aggressive rollerblading was a huge part of my Asian life, its the one thing I still maintain to this day, and the sport took me to places in life where education could not offer.
I had my first kiss and discovery of sexual behaviour experience. Nothing too crazy or wild, but it certainly was an sexual activity, we both were touching each other and fooling around naked, and curiously questioning about the changes going through the human body phyically and emotionally, just learning to become a young respectable teenager, having mixed emotions as any 12/13 year old would experience in their lifetime. Believe it or not, Me and that girl still remain friends today.
On another note, living in Southeast Asia, my family and friends would travel a lot around Asia, it was so easy and affordable to travel around the early 90's. It was very common to travel around Asia frequently. I would hear friends of mine that would say, they were going to Bali for a weekend, or Malaysia or Indonesia, anywhere close to Singapore. I guess it had to do with our and as well as their parents with their jobs to travel for work and they would bring their families along as it was opportunity to explore new things, esp for young kids to learn about the world and other cultures, it was very educational in many levels as the internet did not even existed back then.
Life in Asia will never be forgotten and I miss that life, it was very hard to accept the fact we had to move back to Australia for the last time knowing we may not ever have the chance to have that great expat life after leaving. My younger brother was able to adjust the transition easier compared to my older brother and myself. All three of us moved overseas throughout our 20's, constantly in and out of Australia but on our own terms without Mum and Dad, for work and more towards life experience reasons. However, I have not stopped trotting around the globe, I guess I'm still chasing the dream and to find a way back to southeast Asia. It is getting harder and harder especially as I get older year by year. I hope that I will try to find a way to return to Asia for while and willing to do anything or work in any industry to achieve my goal.
There's no place like home, there's no place like Singapore.