yacht person

English

Etymology

(émigré from Hong Kong): Modelled on boat people.

Noun

yacht person (plural yacht people)

1. (historical, in the plural) A wealthy émigré from Hong Kong who fled the 1997 handover of the colony back to China, taking their wealth with them to settle elsewhere in the Anglosphere and establish close-knit expatriate communities.
   • 2011, David Chuenyan Lai, Chinatowns: Towns within Cities in Canada, page 284:

     As the 1997 deadline approaches, it is expected that more money and immigrants from Hong Kong, particularly "yacht people" (wealthy refugees), will enter Canada, and more New Chinatowns will emerge.

2. Alternative form of yachtsperson