A land of wealth and opportunity. That was how Chinese sailing south from the mainland saw Singapore and the Nanyang region (literally "southern ocean"), according to renowned historian Wang Gungwu.
The Chinese who came here originally had no intention of settling down. In fact, they would be best described by the phrase luoye guigen, or sojourners who would one day return to China, as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said at the National Day Rally in August.
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