Cultural Chameleon, even at 176 and blonde

Pictures: Singapore & Hong Kong

As early as entering the airport in Singapore (or even in Hong Kong), when coming from Mainland China, one can just sense the increased organization and civility. Let me explain what I mean by this by sharing some of my observations…

When the subway train rolls to a stop and the doors open in Singapore people can actually get off the train. This is a novel concept in China: people in Singapore wait until those getting off have done so, and then they proceed to get on. In China, those getting off feel like fish swimming upstream as they face the onslaught of people clamoring for the–often non-existent–empty seats.

In Singapore, the Chinese (94% of Singaporeans are ethnic Chinese) actually put diapers on their babies. In China, by comparison, the baby’s pants are split along the seam to allow easy access for the child’s wastes to the sidewalk. My friend Aana (a New Zealander who has been in Singapore for 5 years) told me, in Singapore they have to put diapers on the babies. Singapore is famous for being meticulously clean (generally true, except in Little India), while China is notorious for being dirty. Of course, this means you won’t find any spitting in Singapore, nor will you find the bus assistant throwing 2 days worth of trash out the window. (Note, this behavior is not characteristic of every Chinese person–I know plenty who are refined, educated, and sophisticated–but it represents the behavior of the masses.) So why, you might wonder, has Singapore been so successful at curbing the obnoxious habits of Chinese people, yet Mainland China can’t seem to do the same?

There are many reasons:

1. Singapore is a much smaller place with far fewer people;
2. Until 60 years ago, Singapore was a British colony;
3. Singaporeans are better educated and more cosmopolitan than they average Mainlander;
4. Laws in Singapore are very strict; and
5. Singapore has some of the most effective public service campaigns of any country.

Singapore is well-known for its strict laws and harsh punishments. Tales abound of being lashed for chewing gum and executed for possessing drugs. And these certainly have been effective; however, laws are essentially meaningless if no one knows about them. Therefore, education, along with laws, regulations, and enforcement, are necessary. To educate the public and promote a better society and life for Singaporeans, public service campaigns are a common fact of life in Singapore.

Aana explained to me that each year the Prime Minister selects an issue of social concern that he wants to focus on. For example, I noticed on many of the food stalls, signs that said, ‘you can ask for more vegetables and less oil’ or ‘you can ask for less sugar and less cream.’ And I wondered who was so health-conscious. She explained that this was a previous public service campaign. The current public service campaign is customer service, such as is provided in hotels, restaurants, retail establishments, and hospitals. These public service campaigns are so effective partly due to their multi-faceted approach. The government uses traditional advertising mediums, such as TV, radio, outdoor signage, and presumably newspapers as well. But they also enlist businesses for support and cooperation. In the example of encouraging healthy choices of food, clearly the government exerted influence on the food stalls. For improving customer service, the government had segments as part of the traditional news program demonstrating how to improve employer-employee relations at service establishments. By working directly with businesses to promote the ideals of the public service campaigns, the government not only reaches those specific employees, but also multiplies its impact through the customers those businesses deal with. The influence of the government on Singaporean society is stunning, as is the difference between social norms in Singapore and China.

However, such heavy government influence and such successful public service campaigns come at a price. Aana suggested that the strict government rules and regulations stifle innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. She also mentioned that freedom of speech is rather limited. Individuals can not own property (land); they can only lease it for a certain number of years. As Westerners, we consider these last 2 issues fundamental human rights: freedom of speech and the right to own property. As you can see there are definitely trade-offs to the Singaporean system. (On the other hand, Singapore is one of the best examples of a peaceful pluralistic, multi-racial, multi-religion society.)

Nonetheless, I believe China could learn from Singapore. China has various approaches to cleaning up its people’s obnoxious behaviors. However, needless to say, these have been less than successful. For example, China requires travel agents to tell their outbound tourists not to spit or litter in foreign countries. But if only 100 to 130million Chinese travel abroad each year, the other 1.2billion will never hear of this concept. As TV is the most popular form of entertainment in China, the government needs to follow Singapore’s example and reach the masses through TV campaigns. TV is further a valuable medium because it doesn’t require literacy nor travel nor individual ownership. And since the government controls all the media (namely TV) anyway, there is no reason why appropriate public service messages couldn’t be shown on television. The government should also influence businesses and public servants to set a good example. For instance, 2 of Shanghai’s taxi companies are government sponsored, so those taxi drivers should be the first to respect pedestrians and stop spitting out the window. A more committed effort on the part of the Chinese government would result in greater success than its current approach.

Though far from perfect itself, there is a lot Singapore could teach China about refinement of peoples and society, and about the effectiveness of education, laws, regulations, enforcement, and public service campaigns.

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Recently I returned from Singapore and Hong Kong, where I enjoyed site-seeing, shopping, dining, clubbing, etc with many friends.

Pictures wth friends mentioned below.

In Singapore, Brenda and I were able to spend time with our mutual friends: Stuart, Stanley, Melissa, and Quan. And she saw another friend from high school. I also saw Aana, as well as my very close friend from USC, Kacey. In Hong Kong, I reconnected with Teresa, Phoebe, Edmond, Raymond, Vivien, Leon, Hilton, Peter, Grace, and Joseph. It was great to see all of you again! I also enjoyed meeting other friends of Aana, Stuart, Kacey, and Joseph. Since most of us met either on out-going exchange, in-coming exchange, or through case competition of the USC Marshall School of Business, I think we all owe our thanks to Sean O’Connell for facilitating the international programs and therefore our meeting. I’m so glad to know you all and I hope the next time you will come to visit me and I can show you around. A special thanks to Brenda and Aana for letting me encroach on their personal space for far too long.

All of us studied business and as we chat about who we know across the globe, we come to find we are actually a fairly small global community of undergraduate business students who participated in exchange (or other international programs). This makes me wonder if in 3-7 years we’ll all be competing to get into the same MBA programs. Then we may find that those same people who were only our classmates for 1 semester in undergrad (say at USC) may become our classmates for 2 years of MBA say at INSEAD, or somewhere else completely remote from USC. Then in 15-35 years we may all find ourselves leading some of the world’s largest and most well-known firms. And we may again come to rely on each other, not as group mates for a group project, but as suppliers and customers, or consultants or financiers that help us make our next billion $$. I wish all of you the best of luck!

Its truly a wonderful thought to know that I have friends in multiple countries. When you think about it, knowing people in other countries really enhances your appreciation of those countries. Those far away and exotic places become more real, more tangible, more authentic, and more human. When we know people, and particularly have friends in other countries, we are more likely to have a favorable impression of those places and to feel they are trustworthy. In doing so, we won’t feel ill-will toward them, and also would have no reason to want to cause them harm. In its most basic form, the concept I’m referring to is Peace Through Tourism. When written like this, this seems like a very basic, straight-forward concept. But yet, in reality, it seems very difficult to put into practice. I wish that more people would have and would take the opportunity to make friends throughout the global community. In doing so each of us could individually contribute to peace on a global scale. As we create trans-border friendships, we strengthen our global bonds, interconnect our worlds, and create peace among us. I wish that everyone could have at least one good friend who is not of their birth country.

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Last night I left Singapore and flew to Hong Kong. I had a great trip to Singapore and Hong Kong is going well so far. However, in my trip to Singapore I learned a couple of important lessons.

Like most travelers, and particularly most backpackers, I tried to lighten my load and carry as little weight as possible. So when I was packing for Singapore and Hong Kong, I thought to myself, those are both modern clean countries and the food will be safe and healthy, so I don’t need to bring prescription pills for stomachaches or other similar afflictions. This assumption seems to make sense coming from Mainland China. However, for a day and half I was the most sick to my stomach I have ever been while traveling and have continued to be somewhat ill since then. You can bet I definitely wished I had brought those pills with me. So my first lesson is, it’s better to carry around a few extra items than to sacrifice a day of the trip to illness and to feel extremely sick. And, I guess also I shouldn’t make assumptions about quality of food and water because it is possible to get sick anywhere, anytime. So from now on I shall carry my extra medicine to ward off illnesses and other ailments.

My second lesson is about the importance of preserving and carrying along 2 very important documents associated with electronics, namely a purchase receipt and a warranty card. Panasonic, for example, has a 1-year global warranty where they’ll repair your equipment for free, whether it’s your fault or due to product malfunction, provided you can show them those documents. If all electronics companies have as valuable of repair-warranty policies as Panasonic, we may all start carrying those documents for our cameras, MP3 players, and other electronics with us while traveling. I learned my lesson to always keep the receipt and warranty card. Then I can scan them and at least have them easily accessible in electronic form, if not, in hard copy as well. And so maybe in the future I will save myself $200!

Unfortunately, these were painful (literally, in one case) lessons to learn, but if you don’t learn while traveling, what benefit is there? It’s like the commercial, ‘Live and Learn.’ In this case, I just hope you can take my advice and benefit from it since I have already learned the hard way.

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Ways that I’ve benefitted from spending time abroad:

• Independence: Spending significant time in time-zones vastly different from that of my parents’ has allowed me to develop into my own person. Without their nearness, I have become more independent, resourceful, and capable. I also now have my own aspirations, hopes, dreams, views, and opinions.
• Name Brands: I’ve become far less concerned with which brand of clothing, shoes, handbag, etc, I or anyone else is wearing. Though as Americans we may think our brands have a global presence (and many do), American clothing brands mean far less overseas than they do at home. Like any young girl in the US, I used to care who was sporting which designer brand but after spending time in Europe and realizing that brands can and do change their image across countries, the whole concept seemed far more fluid. Especially in Asia, where the same factory can produce for multiple labels and there is such a proliferation of brands and knock-offs of brands its nearly impossible to tell what’s real and what’s fake, it doesn’t seem to matter to me or anyone else. As long as you’re smartly dressed, in quality clothes, that fit you properly, it doesn’t matter to me. Its actually quite a relief to not be a brand whore and instead just enjoy shopping for clothes because of their style and affordability.
• Calmed mind: As someone who always had 50 things running around in her mind telling her to keep busy and do the next thing, before going abroad, I could never relax. However, with the change of pace I encountered in Europe, particularly the lifestyle of the Spanish, I slowly was able to calm my mind and just enjoy being. Lazy afternoons at a cafe, people watching and enjoying the setting used to be painful as my mind kept telling me, ‘you’re wasting time, get busy.’ However, now I feel this is one of the most enjoyable ways to spend an afternoon. The appreciative nature of traveling also helped this as my sole purpose was to see, enjoy, and appreciate the sites, people, culture, and cuisine.
• English: In going abroad and learning about global business, I’ve learned that English is the language of commerce and beyond that, it is fundamentally important to traveling. English is the common language between people from Japan and South America or between the Thais and the Europeans. No other language is as widely spoken as a second language. For example, there are more people studying English in China than in Great Britain. I believe this random fact speaks to the importance of English as the accepted global language. Therefore, I’m glad to have mastered English.
• Languages: While English may be the accepted 2nd language on a global scale and ensure basic communication between diverse groups of people, its nothing like the sincere appreciation a native has for a foreigner who genuinely attempts to speak their language. Learning a second language offers a far more profound experience than simply ‘getting by’ with English. In speaking both Spanish and Chinese in countries who call these their native languages, I’ve been appreciated more, treated better, and altogether had a better experience in the country. Because of this I know the experience can only get better by becoming completely fluent in a second language. As such, I hope during my time in China I will become fluent, as there’s no better way to learn a language than to live in the country and speaking everyday with native speakers. Already my Chinese has improved significantly since arriving.
• Cosmopolitan: Through going abroad, I’ve become more sophisticated, educated, and worldly. My geographical knowledge has improved immensely, I have a much broader understanding of various issues, I’ve learnt from diverse perspectives, and I’m more conscious of living in a global society. My roommate from Suzhou enlightened me to many preferences of the Chinese (worth another post entirely). A conversation I had with Spanish soccer players made me realize the disgust they had for President Bush, especially in the aftermath of the 2004 Madrid subway bombings. It was really an eye-opener to find out how deeply Americans were disliked at every level of society (at least in northern Spain).
• Friendships: By spending time in other countries and as others have come from far away countries to the US, we have all built friendships that span the globe. I am trule grateful to have friends in as far away places as Ireland, Brazil, Qatar, the Netherlands, Singapore, and many more countries and locales. Its an amazing thing to be able to call such a diverse group of people my friends.
• Aesthetics: Through seeing so many different places, I’ve come to appreciate nature, architecture, and other beautiful things. Seeing the diverse forms of architecture worldwide, I have fallen in love with architecture. Seeing nature in its many diverse forms has led me to appreciate nature in its infinite, timeless beauty. And by seeing some of the most picturesque places on earth, I can truly say I can appreciate beauty. Instead of thinking everything looks the same, I appreciate diversity and diverse forms of beauty and these I seek to capture on my camera. In seeing many things and places, I’ve come to understand aesthetics, which brings joy to my world, and through the more appealing photographs I’m able to take canalso inspire others to seek out beauty in their own world.

Well, initially I sought to write about some of the more surprising ways I’ve benefitted from going abroad, but the list turned very conventional, so I’ll stop and just let you imagine the many ways I have and anyone else could also benefit from going beyond the borders of their own country.

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