Of Chinese descent, I was born in Penang, Malaysia.

I attended the Malayan Teachers’ College in Wolverhampton, England for two years. After graduation, I taught in Malaysia for five years. Seeking to further my education, I enrolled at the University of Queensland, Australia from which I eventually obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English Literature. Returning to Malaysia after graduation, I went back to teaching.

In the third year of my return to Malaysia, I married Lyn. We have two sons from our marriage, Bradley and Derek.
Next came immigration to Australia with my family in 1978. Once in Australia, I resumed teaching in schools.

In 1991 I took three months' long service leave, sat down and wrote my first novel When Dining with Tigers.

My half-hour radio plays Paper Doll, Where the Peacock Flies, No Stars in the Sky, Ghost Story and Come, Murder Me and a short story The Interview, written in English were broadcast by Radio Malaysia in the period 1976-1978. My ten-minute play Anita Walker Walks Again was short-listed for the 2006 Sydney Short and Sweet Festival of short plays. My ten-minute play The Laptop was short-listed for the 2006 Melbourne, the 2007 Sydney and the 2007 Singapore Short and Sweet Festivals of short plays. My first novel When Dining with Tigers (ISBN 0 9585805 2 9) was published by Indra Publishing in 2000. In 2005 I won the New South Wales Writers’ Centre Poetry Sprint for my poem It's not Your War.