Adapted from an article by Nuri Vittachi, sometime journalist with the Macau Post and other newspapers in Asia.
1. The phrase 'Big Mac' referred to a large Scottish tourist.
2. The Queen of England was generally considered to be the Queen of the Whole Wide World.
3. At government offices you had to pay a special fee to do anything, including paying special fees.
4. Hairdresser referred to anyone who did haircuts, shaves and amateur surgical operations such as circumcisions [still true in certain parts of Asia]
5. Each city had just one TV station a few cinemas but there was a better choice of what to watch then even though we have over 500 channels and even fewer cinemas now.
6. If you wanted to withdraw money from a bank you had to take a day off work.
7. All light-haired, round-eyed people were referred to as Europeans, no matter where they came from. Former President George Bush is still referred to as a European in some parts of Asia.
8. Europeans were generally hated and despised but if one invited you to tea, it was considered a very great honour.
9. All toffee-coloured, curry-devouring people were known as Indians, even if they had been born raised and had lived and died without ever having been within a thousand kilometers of India.
10. Petrol was bought in tiny quantities, often in jam jars [still true today in parts of Indo-China and other places].
11. If you asked children their mother's name, they would often reply,'Which one?'.
12. Blood donating was seen as a legitimate way of earning money, and so was blood spilling.
13. When children got a boyfriend or girlfriend, the first question parents asked was 'What passport does he/she have?'