Is Kiasu’ism here to stay in Singapore?
Culture, like a picture, cannot be described in a moment. You need to experience it to know it.
All of us, if not most of us, enjoy residing in Singapore. Better still if we’re a Singapore citizens. So what makes our stay in Singapore such a uniquely Singaporean one to foreigners? I would say that our Singapore culture is a very distinctive one such that you would surely recognise another Singaporean when you are in a foreign country.
If you’re given a chance to name one culture Singapore has that makes us unique, what would it be? I personally would answer: “KIA-SU!!”
Our Kia-su culture can be interpreted by our following behaviour:
The long queues we have here for doing the “in-thing” like..
Queuing for our favorite donuts last year..
What's all the hype that i'm missing out? Lets join them!
Or queuing for our seasonal ToTo or 4D tickets at the top winning outlet, Yishun..
Toto queue up to 300 people at 3pm
Bird eye-view of the Toto queue
Or the “wanna-be-number ONE” attitude we have in the
MRT scene where everyone is always so ‘kan-chiong’ and ‘kia-su’ to be the first to leave the train
Even in the library where people charge forward to find the best seat
So what exactly is Kia-Su?
Kia-su is the unpleasant side to Singapore’s culture and is refers to the behavior where one is usually self-centered who wants to have the best of everything and is cowardly afraid of losing out.
Like this culture or detest it, if you’re a Singaporean or is someone who has been living here for a few decades, this culture can be found in you. Culture is learned and unless you unlearn it, it would be difficult for you to embrace other culture. I personally find the culture of Kia-suism a relatively individualistic one. Think about it- when you use your tissue to “chop” (reserve) a seat in the hawker centre, you do it for your benefit. When you push and run into the MRT train for a seat irregardless of how others around you feel, aren’t you also being self-centred? Such selfishness is a hint of the individualistic culture that we have in the Kia-su culture.
This lady is the groundbreaker of "choping seat" with a tissue packet
Singapore being an Asian country, traditionally has a collectivist culture where the people conform to the society, with the readiness to conform to the people surrounding them. So how did we steer to the individualistic culture like Kia-suism??
Rise of Kia-sui’ism
Many believe that Kia-suism attributes to the behavior of our local government. Even the most ignorant Singaporean would be able to sense the non-verbal message that our newspapers have for us every morning. All our government organizations strive for excellence and always seek to be the best in the geographical region for their activities. I personally feel that the media places a large emphasis on our nation ranking on every aspect. In almost every ranking that Singapore is involved, the result would be highlighted conspicuously. Take the example of this week news titled “Pensions: Singapore ranks low” about how poorly we fare in our handling of tough policy issues. Click HERE for the link. Even from the heading, one can already feel how self-conscious Singapore is with regards to her ranking.
It is thus even less surprising to realise that Kia-suism is bred from our nation’s education. For years, Primary school students are categorised into EM1, 2 and 3 based on their academic performance. I think the government has a kind intention of wanting to drive its citizens to their best capability but the result is not ideal. We are all human beings. None of us like to be classified to the less popular or ‘lousy’ group. Even at a young age of 11-years-old, children are already taught not to excel for all that they do, and never to lose to others. Thus when such social stratification is done at such at the budding age of a child, it is natural that such a “never lose” attitude and behavior will be programmed into the mind, which in turns creates the uniquely Singaporean culture- Kia-suism.
I therefore firmly believe that the influential people around us- our family and nation-rulers are capable of instilling our individual culture. And that we as Singaporeans will always be as kia-su as ever, even with public awareness like the famous PCK music video rap as broadcasted at all MRT stations.
What is your experience with kia-su Singaporeans? Do you think we can change for the better?
CREDITS:
http://sheylara.com/2006/02/08/kiasu-singaporean-wannabe/
This is extremely interesting.
We’re having a individualistic mindset IN a collectivist society which our government preaches, but that’s human nature! It’s survival of the fittest, save-yourself-before-you-save-others kind of mindset.
Individualism is innate in all of us, but us being us, we still conform to the society’s values.
| Posted 2 years, 4 months agothis shows that we cannot just categorize societies in the 2 main branches of low or high context culture. i believe that in every country, there are bound to be mixtures of practices from both low and high context culture. not just in the country, during specific situations, people assume different practices to deal with things.
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agoAlthough kiasuism tends to be thought of as a very individualistic kind of culture, I observe that Singaporeans will also engage in kiasuism for their loved ones or close friends. The aunties that rush onto the train will straddle two seats and put their bag on another for their darling children who are slowly taking their own sweet time to push past the crowds of people. Such people will secret food into their bags at buffets, and pour the free refills at fast food joints into 1.5L bottles, not just for themselves, but enough for their entire family.
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agoculture does affects us in some way. but don’t you think personality plays a part too?
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agoThis is very interesting…I also think it has a huge effect on how the way we are living…Good thoughts!
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agoIs Kiasuism a boon or bane? It depends on how you look at it. On one hand, it is good to be competitive, and societies and individuals thrive on competition. Take a look at the sportsman, they compete in order to win. And the globalized economy we are in is highly competitive. So there are positive aspects of kiasuism, if you relate that to the healthy form of competition. In that sense, even a society like America’s is kiasu, since the US is highly competitive.
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agoHowever, while we all more or less agree that the US society can be highly competitive as well, we do not use the term kiasu to describe them. Why is this so? That’s where this blog comes in whereby some of the ugly side of kiasuism is presented. Having lived outside Singapore, I confess that the rush for the MRT irks me big time. The afraid to lose out mentality, and the having to be ahead at all and any cost (and I have to stress AT ALL COST) is what concerns me. What is the purpose of the need to stay ahead, the need to be the best? I think if the motivation is one of the fear to lose (ie. kiasu), that we will be left behind if we slow down etc., it is a negative form of motivation – one that reveals insecurities. In contrast, if the motivation is one of working towards a dream, a vision, that kind of positive motivation is intrinstic, and will give rise to passion and interest as well. I am referring to the American dream, that you can achieve and be whatever you want if you work hard at it. See the difference in motivation here? And why do you think America, despite its flaws and weakness, continue to produce and attract the top talents in the world? And Singapore, despite doing well in math and science in primary and secondary school test scores, have less “peaks of excellence” (borrowing from Tharman, the former education minister)?
I am NOT saying that America is better than Singapore; they have their own set of problems too. But there are things we can learn from the positive traits in other countries, and this is what got me to writing this response.
That was an interesting post Kelly. And a thought-provocative comment from Ahtong. Kiasuism is indeed a very dire consequence of Singapore’s competitive culture. We are all overly motivated for our selfish reasons. And Ahtong, as you have accurately put it, unlike the Americans’ motivation, we Singaporeans are unfortunately motivated for the wrong reasons. The type of motivation is thriving from our insecurities. And personally, i think the more intense such motivation gets, the more it will proliferate from our behavior. Your surroundings will negatively influence your beavior for the worst- in this case, Kiasuism.
It is however intersting to ponder why Singapore’s Kiasuism culture is prevalent as a result of our scared-of-dying motivation. I am certain that most countries are also as worried as Singapore, over external and everyday problems. There are countries who migh be bombed any time, any moment but why aren’t they Kiasu and go around frantically seeking help or rushing to stock up grocceries in their house? I would thus personally say that our Kiasu culture can be attributed to the Chinese culuture as well. Accompanied with our fear of losing, the Chinese culture also inculcate a sense of #1 mentality within the individual. And a large proportion of Singaporeans are Chinese! What do you think?
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agoIn ancient China, the extended family is very solid. The communities are also very close knit, with members speaking the same dialect and everybody knows everybody else. All the kids grew up together. It could be collectivist because there was a great sense of community and kinship. And because of this exclusive nature of the community, we are taught to see people as insiders or outsiders.
Fast forward to modern Singapore, all the old bonds of the communities are broken, and we have to live our lives based on western concepts of socilization. But because of our history, we still see others as insiders and outsiders, thus we tend to be more cliquish, and “kiasu”. However, kiasu does not mean that we only get benifits for ourselves, we also share it with the insiders. The side effect is that we ignore the plight of the outsiders, and that seems antisocial.
The westerners have been modernising since the industrial revolution, so in terms of the development of social graces, they have a few hundred years headstart in front of us. I guess we will become less kiasu and more like them through the passage of time, with each successive generation.
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agointeresting post.(=
I agree with Yamashita that personality does play a part in Kiasu’ism. However, i feel that the big bulk of it still comes from culture. I mean even if you are not someone who is afraid of losing, living long in an environment with people are are all so afraid to lose, sooner or later, you may change and adapt such personality too.
Though kiasu’ism is never something good, it is something that distinctively differentiates singaporeans from other people.(=
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agouniquely us.^^
Each and every single one of us is bound to have some form of kiasu attitude in us, and it is difficult to try to change that away. Being kiasu has its pros and cons, i think. Let’s just take our secondary school days for example. Because you are kiasu and afraid of losing out, you will definitely study very hard to be top. Good because you are ‘motivated’ to study. However, because of that, you will definitely feel very stressed out because you will always feel that the revision done is not enough.
And well, I do believe that kiasu-ism is definitely here to stay. That is what makes us uniquely SINGAPOREANS.
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agoyea.. Kiasuism is characteristic
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agoGood, thought provoking entry. First off, I think the question that’s important is why and how is the kiasu culture developed. Were people just born with this innate sense that they had to be the best in everything and get everything that they want, or were they influenced by the environment they were in? In Singapore, being a small country with limited resources (i.e schools, jobs…etc), it is almost impossible to get into the top schools or highest paying jobs without being slightly self-centered. If one does not go out and fend for themselves, then they can only watch others take their spot. The situation may be different in other countries, where opportunities and resources are abundant and there really isn’t a big need to be kiasu. That aside, rushing into MRTs to get a seat or reserving your seat in a hawker center is highly unneccessary. There is also the herd mentality. When one grows up seeing what their parents, friends or even just strangers are possibly doing, they think that it is a norm and it is acceptable. No one is there to tell them if it’s appropriate or inappropriate. (Did Singaporeans give the term kiasu to themselves or were they labeled as kiasu by foreigners?) If people aren’t discouraged from being kiasu, then I think the kiasu attitude is here to stay.
Here’s a thought: Do you think that someone with a kiasu attitude will continue to be kiasu he/she moves to another country?
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agoI believe this proves that there is no such thing as a purely collectivist culture, or a purely individualist culture. Being kiasu means that we all have a individualistic mindset. However, accepting kiasuism as a societal norm also proves that Singapore is still on the whole a collectivist culture. As such, there is a mixture of both collectivist and individualistic mindsets in Singaporean culture.
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agoHey,
I think this’ll be really insightful for tourists comtemplating to come to Singapore! Singaporean experience it all the time and it’s really a norm for us now. While this may provide an unpleasant preview for visitors, it is really such intricacies that define who we are as citizens.
| Posted 2 years, 3 months agoAgreed! Such intricacies are indeed what define us as Singaporeans. And we are indeed unique and proud to be so!
| Posted 2 years, 3 months ago