CHINESE CULTURE THROUGH A SINGAPOREAN LENS.
Some of China's Top Elite Talent are Moving to Singapore. Yes, Singaporean Culture has Always Been Very Chinese Influenced. But it's Uniquely Singaporean, too.
This week, we’ve been looking at Chinese culture in honor of the Lunar New Year. We’ve had a Top Ten CultureQuiz on China, an article on traditional Chinese culture, a CultureTalk chat on the changing nature of Chinese culture.
Coincidentally, a news story also broke this past week that many of China’s elite talent are leaving China and its current economic and social problems for the freedom and opportunities of nearby Singapore. Singapore, having been founded and essentially run by expatriate Chinese since its inception as a nation, is a comfortably familiar environment for these young, new entrepreneurial Chinese expatriates, but as is the case with all cultures - even those that are similar in many ways - working and living in Singapore means living and working in a culture that is in some critical ways, still very different from China.
Here are a few examples of Singaporean culture that are unique to Singapore, that are not typically found in China, and can be as perplexing to new young Chinese expatriates as they are to anyone from anywhere else:
“La, do you want to go to that club tonight?”, Lee asks his friends at the end of the meal.
“OK, sure, let’s go, la!”, one of them gets up.
“OK, I know the way, follow me, la”, another adds. “Shall I chope a spot for us, la?”
As a new member of the group, you scratch your head and wonder, “What is all this ‘la-la-la” about? And what’s “chope”? (no, it’s not a typo).
SINGAPORE HACK: “La” and “Chope” are just a few common examples of “Singlish”, that unique blend of local English, British English, Chinese and Global English that is spoken in Singapore. Here’s what they mean…
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