Early Life
Yoong was born on 20 July 1976 at the Sambhi Clinic in Kuala Lumpur. His mother, Johanna Bean, is a British expatriate and his father Hanifah Yoong Yin Fah is a Malaysian of Chinese descent through Alex's grandfather Yoong Wan Hoi who emigrated in 1933. His grandfather worked as a contractor and steel trader but was forced to retire during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In an interview in 1999, Yoong states that he sees himself first as a Malaysian, then part Chinese and part English. His father started racing sedans in 1978 and his mother followed suit in 1983 in rallying. Yoong became an avid follower of Formula One by the age of four. Given an Kawasaki 50cc motocross on his eighth birthday, he demonstrated the ability to be able to race successfully.
Read more about this topic: Alex Yoong
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“The Americans never use the word peasant, because they have no idea of the class which that term denotes; the ignorance of more remote ages, the simplicity of rural life, and the rusticity of the villager have not been preserved among them; and they are alike unacquainted with the virtues, the vices, the coarse habits, and the simple graces of an early stage of civilization.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things and because it takes a man’s life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)