Una Ragazza on Shop: Is Being Kiasu "Uniquely Singapore"?

Like many Singaporeans, I laugh when others tease us for being a kiasu nation.

For those not schooled in Singlish, "kiasu" is Chinese for, literally, "fear of losing." It implies overzealous efforts to avoid falling behind – no matter how seemingly trivial the endeavor – in a hyper-competitive nation.



The tag line of the Singapore Tourism Board, which comes complete with its own song:www.uniquely-singapore.com

There is no denying the label is well-deserved; we even have our own comic strip for those who need a little encouragement to wear that badge of honor. My expatriate friends who live in Singapore love to remind me of their encounters with kiasu Singaporeans. The rush into the MRT trains is a perennial favorite in the game where everyone tries to outdo one another with stories of the ugliest Singaporean. Another tale guaranteed to draw laughs when retold at parties is the heaping of buffet food on overflowing plates at shareholders' meetings and the bringing of Tupperware containers to cart home leftovers. And sometimes kiasu-ism leads to goals that may not match one's true capabilities. Puzzling and embarrassing behavior often ensues.



Mr. Kiasu, the unofficial mascot of the Lion City

Interestingly, over the years, I have come to realize that kiasu-ism is not a unique Singaporean trait. In fact, there exist many other kiasu species on this planet.

Not so long ago, the U.S. supermarket chain Whole Foods Market decided to raise awareness on recycling by launching Anya Hindmarch's "I'm not a Plastic Bag" tote bag as a marketing gimmick. The company successfully garnered a lot of publicity on these bags, for the night before they were to be sold (on a fall Sunday morning), long queues had formed outside each of the stores in Manhattan. Now, I had seen an image of the bag during that publicity stunt and had decided that it looked like a glorified shopping bag (think Harrods but with a preppy and cleaner look) for which I would pay no more than US$6.99 (it retailed at $15). However, the style (and hype, I presume) seemed to have gone down very well with Asian Americans and Asians in general. Of the hundreds of people in line outside the Chelsea store that night, at least two-thirds appeared to be of Asian descent; in addition to English, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Malay and Singlish conversations were overheard.

Unfortunately for the shoppers, it would rain heavily that night, guaranteeing that everybody received a good soaking even before they received their coveted cloths. (It was ironic to see shoppers later leave the store with their bags carrying a recycling message in Whole Foods plastic bags.) Needless to say, when some of these bags later made it onto eBay for resale, the cost of the overnight camping in soggy clothes was promptly factored into the bid price, which went as high as $300.



Satisfied Whole Food customers and their environmentally-friendly totes in environmentally-unfriendly bags

When fast fashion Swedish retailer H&M launched its collection by Stella McCartney, pandemonium broke out at its New York flagship store. Hordes of women – many of them looking like New York-based professionals, not tourists – dashed into the store and started grabbing clothing from the collection off the shelves. They were in such a mad rush and were hoarding multiple pieces of the same design that it was clear their mentality was "grab and buy first, try on later." The situation was so dire that when a sales girl came out from the storeroom with a large armful of clothes on hangers, the shoppers started flipping through them while she was still holding on to the hangers. What happened next was unthinkable, yet unfortunately quite understandable: the sales girl did not bother walking up to the racks but instead stopped short in her tracks and dropped the entire stack of clothes on the floor, leaving the women scrambling for the pieces on their knees.



The queue for the Stella McCartney launch going round the block of the H&M Manhattan flagship store

Kiasu-ism also shines forth when New Yorkers shop for child care. Some parents are embracing the "No Child Left Behind" act too enthusiastically by having their kid jump on the Chinese bandwagon through learning the language from Chinese au pairs and nannies, often employed for this unique skill they possess. It is also not uncommon for parents to move homes to be in a better school district and to undergo multiple rounds of interviews at nursery schools to try and impress their way to a slot for the kid. At times, it sure feels like Mr. Kiasu has caught the direct flight from Changi to Newark.



The New York Times: To Give Children an Edge, Au Pairs from China

Searching for an apartment brings forth a similar amount of anxiety. When I first decided to move to Manhattan from across the Hudson river, I had spent a copious amount of time identifying apartments and turning up for open houses, only to be greeted by long lines or large crowds in each tiny one-bedroom unit, having been beaten to the game by Manhattanite-wannabes from all around the world. They feature junior bankers from across the Atlantic moving to the city to continue their careers with European financial institutions at their U.S. headquarters, Rich Asian college kids on the FMS ("Father-Mother-Scholarship"), and Americans from all around the country seeking to launch their careers in just about anything – fashion, marketing, law, acting, culinary and hospitality, finance, insurance and real estate.



The apartment listings page on Craig's List likely has the highest traffic of apartment seekers in the city

It didn't matter if I arrived punctually for each appointment; many people would show up much earlier than the designated showing time. It got to a point where I found myself obsessively refreshing the Craigslist housing page every five minutes during work hours, with my AOL chat window open and ready to IM my boss about a housing emergency should the ad justified an immediate departure from the office to place an application and deposit. In one case, I did exactly that but when I arrived at the apartment one hour after the ad was posted, I was informed that two other applications had already been received.

Perhaps the most unfortunate incident resulting from kiasu behavior in recent history is the 2008 stampede at a Wal-Mart store in Long Island on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that traditionally marks the official start of the year-end holiday shopping season. A 2,000-strong crowd had gathered outside the hypermarket's doors, many of them overnight, for sale items including 50-inch plasma HDTVs going for under $800 and $8 Wrangler jeans. When the store doors opened, the uncontrollable crowd rushed in, resulting in the horrific death of an employee who was trampled to death by the frenzied shoppers. Four other people, including a pregnant lady, were injured.



This New York Daily News photo was taken just moments before the Wal-Mart store opened that fateful Black Friday in 2008

At the turn of the recent millenium, a doctor and a truck driver exchanged punches over a Hello Kitty toy promotion by McDonald's in Singapore. The incident remains a cornerstone of any local conversation epitomizing kiasu-ism.



The innocent party in the most highly-publicized case of kiasu-ism in Singapore

Fighting and fainting over a mouthless toy cat is no doubt baffling, although taking a man's life to save a few bucks over a TV undeniably takes the cake.

Here's hoping that McDonald's and Wal-Mart will never consider a joint promotion in Singapore.