A Malaysian-born who invented the "loom bands" in the United States and is now a successful entrepreneur has said that he had to leave Malaysia in the early 90s in order to pursue education.
 
Cheong Choon Ng wrote in the British newspaper The Guardian that he could not get into the local university because "Malaysia's race based quota system limits the number of ethnically Chinese students."
 
"Like many of my friends, I had to leave Malaysia to go to university," he wrote.
 
Loom bands, also known as rainbow looms, is the art of using rubber bands to make bracelets or any other objects, in 2011, and last year his company sold more than US$40 million worth of rubber band looms.
 
He said that he had now seen the British royal family and Pope Francis both wear them.
 
"I looked at the pictures and thought to myself: 'Wow, that was started from our dining room table'," he said.
 
Cheong ( left ) invested all US$10,000 of his family savings following years of forging a career in crash safety in the Detroit motor industry to order rubber bands from China and started making the bands, which he had initially made for his two daughters.
 
"I spent months going round toy stores in Michigan with my daughters, trying to sell the loom band. Nobody was interested," he said.
 
"So I asked my niece and my daughters to create YouTube videos, explaining how to make rubber-band bracelets. These created a trend," he added.
 
From there on, the business picked up, he said.
 
"The journey has been magical, but there have been many challenges," he added.