Similarities between Singapore's and China's cultures:
Apart from the hope of a better life, people’s primary incentive behind pursuits is to not lose out. For example, one may think this way: If I don't get this promotion today, someone else will, therefore in that case I will suffer a defeat. In both countries, this kiasu mindset is deeply ingrained in children’s education. In Chinese culture and many other Asian cultures, education has traditionally been held with very high regard. Children start tuition from a very early age, often in primary school. Anxious parents nudge their children into a gruelling machine of competition way too early, in hope that they get an edge over others at the starting line. This shows the similarity between Singapore's and China's cultures of being too afraid to lose.
Although Singapore has diverse races, they are mostly made up the same race; large population of Chinese. Similarly, China is made up of a large population of Chinese with 56 different ethnicity.
Furthermore, both Singapore and China rely heavily on imports for their manufacturing industry. Singapore lacks natural resources of its own and its manufacturing industry's high value-adding nature, while China do so due to a mixture of importing semi-finished products to complete assembly in China, importing heavy machinery for production processes and transitioning to higher value adding manufacturing.
Lastly, the official written language in Chinese for both countries is simplified Chinese, the standardised simplification of Chinese characters promulgated in the 1950s by the State Council of the People's Republic of China.
Differences between Singapore's and China's cultures:
Singapore is a small and open economy with few natural resources to offer. So its economy is heavily dependent on all its trading partners, including the US, China, the EU and other countries in Southeast Asia. On the other hand, China is a huge and not fully opened economy and sometimes when others are in crisis, China can shield its domestic economy partially from the crisis. An example would be how little mainland China was affected by the 1997 Asian financial crisis in comparison with its counterparts in Asia.
The exchange rate policy is different for Singapore and China. Singapore's exchange rate policy is called managed float where by the government sets a band within which Singaporean dollar is allowed to fluctuate and the government will step in to adjust its value whenever it goes too far out of the band.
Lastly, the interest rate policy is different. China has full control over the interest rate policy and is able to adjust it when there's the need to stimulate or cool down the economy. Singapore, unfortunately, is deprived of this privilege as it could not manage the potential influx and outflow of short-term investment money should it have its own interest rate and change it away from what the US or other large economies have.
Reflection on culture (iceberg or 4 Fs):
I think that culture can be defined in numerous ways, as it is the way of life of a particular group of people, hence there is no precise right or wrong definition. Different countries have their own culture developed from the start of time, and evolving till this day. There are similarities and differences between cultures which we should learn to accept and respect. In my opinion, when we travel to a foreign land, we should aim to recognise and understand the perspective of the locals through a cultural lens. We should take the initiative to deepen our understanding of other cutural perspectives and learn to appreciate them. Of course, being the newcomer, we may not be able to fully integrate into their culture, but the least we should do is show intercultural sensitivity. Just because we do not have similar culture does not mean that we can insult or offend them. We should always bear in mind to be careful with our choice of words, and appreciate their culture by praising it genuinely for its beauty. This way, we would be able to develop multicutural mindsets: it will help us be more open towards other countries' cultures as we experience more differences.
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