Because of his mother's circumstances, Ian Gill was conceived in a Japanese prison camp in Hong Kong in 1945 and born in New Zealand after liberation. With his mother, he spent his early life in England, China and Thailand. After boarding school, university and joining newspapers in England, he worked as a journalist in New Zealand, Fiji, Australia, Hawaii, Hong Kong and Singapore for 14 years. In 1985, he joined the Asian Development Bank at its headquarters in Manila. Over two decades, he traveled widely around the Asia-Pacific region, producing video documentaries. Since 2006, he has returned to journalism. During his exposure to a wide range of countries, he has paid particular attention to cultural differences in attitudes towards race, class and gender and how they have evolved over the past two centuries. He currently lives in Manila.