Singapore Poly student dies in stabbing incident in China

[whitegals]

Singaporeans in other countries are relatively easy to spot, they are often loud and rowdy.

Just the other day, I was in London having dinner with a local fren. Anyway, about 4 tables away from us were 2 women and 1 guy, age like late 30s to mid 40s. What really irked me and as far as I could see, the people who were in the restaurant, was this loud and boisterous guffawing emitted from this particular table.

Their entire conversation was available for the entire restaurant to hear, all that boasting and sucking up to each other's asses really made my blood boil. And how did I know that they were from SG?

Well apart from the Singlish that they were using, they kept comparing how convenient their EZ link cards were compared to the buses in London that are still issuing bus tickets. And also things like why is it in SG every corner got one NTUC, here in London must walk for miles to find a decent supermarket etc. And the most embarrassing must have been the loud boasting about the different countries they had visited between them. Apparently the guy had been to about 250-300 countries in the last 5 years, while one of the women claimed to have visited close to 500 countries in the last 3 years.

Anyway, it was all quite embarrassing what with everyone in the restaurant staring etc. So I played the good Samaritan, went over and bought them a round of drinks and gently asked them to keep their volume down, and told them for their own benefit that there are only 195 countries in the world, there's no way anyone could have visited 500 different countries.

Know what I got in return for trying to be nice? They laughed really hard at me, one of the women actually patted me on the shoulder and said to me, I quote her exact words, "Young man, you got chance must go out and walk around and see the world! The world is so big you think got only 195 countries ah? Come on! In Asia already got more than 200 countries!"

In summary, over my 10 plus years of staying in England, I have met countless singaporeans holidaying and studying or working in England. While not all have been bad encounters, I can sadly say that only 1 or 2 out of 10 have left me with nice memories. The ones that I have met are either very hao lian or just simply cannot accept that they can be wrong at times.

[Mekatulia]

Originally Posted by Niceman

...
Why TW and HK can survive in China? ....

1 often heard comment from several seasoned SG businessmen is that - due to our meritocracy mindset infused either through our education system or social norm, most SG'reans instead of banding together while operating in foreign land, are the first to try to outdo each other. In war, I believe this is called - fratricide. Heard too many examples already.

The Taiwanese are known to grab the biz first, even at a lost, but try to get each other to find a way to gain as much as they can out of it.

And so it seems the very core value of "meritocracy" so emphasized in SG becomes our achilles heel.

[Mekatulia]

by the way, i read that this happened in Jiamusi... I was just there in August! No problems for me...

Originally plan to stay for 1 nite, but decided to extend 1 more nite.

[omgwthbbqme]

damn scary sia i read this in newspaper, one of my friends in SP also in china having attachment now also. Lucky not same group..

[hoseloves]

In china, those KTVs and Pubs are operated by Mafias, gangsters and even people with criminal records.
Want to go these places better be careful, especially you foreigners,
can be a target for extortion.

[Unrepented]

Hi Samsters,

I like the humor of samsters of this forum.

This is my first post in this forum and had to be this, and I would like to share some of my experiences as well as teachings from other expats "lao jiaos" in china, in the hope that samsters can avoid (a-lak) trouble in china. But another time.

Just some background, I have worked in china for about 10 years and lived there for quite a couple of years. All my qingchun spent there....and I still quite young...I think.

When I first saw the headlines, same sterotyping of the boy's behaviour came to my mind...maybe unfair to him since we do not know the whole story but seldom see singaporeans get into fights with local chinese in china, except Koreans seow (no offense) and Taiwan Kia who are really daring.

The company in China that I work also accepted and mentored singaporean students on industrial attachment. I advise these young teenagers; "come China, most important thing is to learn to be streewise and experience all there is infront of you, throw ego aside but not dignity, and tell people out there you are Malaysian (incase you do or say anything wrong, won't malu singapore...he..he) and most important don't french kiss or share drinks (some of the girls got TB), and most important always wear raincoat." Well, that's part of the orientation

Some smart alex try to act innocent; "Got so much rain in this part of china meh?" These are the ones kana jia lut jia lut from me Kiang toh ho, mai kay kiang (all right to be smart, but don't act smart).

What you guys shared and views of Singaporeans overseas is quite true...unfortunately.....but those are the green green ones. The more inexperienced and insecure they are, they louder they get.... sometimes due to their fasination of new culture or the "elitist syndrome" - company spend money to send me overseas...I big shot or somebody liao

Some of you may notice, people who have been places usually don't talk about it very much unless there is a point to be made.

I feel sad for this boy's parents, my condolences (even they don't read this forum). In china there is one saying: Zuo ze qu, tang ze hui lai (sit upright going there, come back in a lying position).

But after this incident.... industrial attachment in China may no longer be as fun... I guarantee I bet all the legislators will be trying to cover backside by thinking of measures to avoid similiar cases, however effective they will be. Or even better, parents and student sign a declaration form "Go at your own risk" and introduce "Pei Du" mama for our students over there.

[crapp0]

Originally Posted by kelvingoh45

Strongly agreed. Somemore still want to act high class, moden,open minded etc. Not all sg ppl are like that but quite a number out there. Sad. Can this ppl just be more humble.There's ALOT of ppl in the whole world dont even know the excistence of singapore!!!!!

We singaporean hv to tell them that it is some where near Malaysia.

Are you sure its not the other way around?

[Unrepented]

Hi Crapp0,

In a relative sense, I would agree with Kelvingoh45. Depending on who you talk to, and their knowledge of geography. Relative to US, France etc. when we mention Singapore, some may have heard of it but don't know where is the exact location (some available maps are quite crappy in print, so it is not easy for them to find the tiny red dot and the tiny words).

I think the point Kelvingoh45 is trying to make (base on connotations) is that we think we are very "lau wa" and well known, but when we actually begin to see the "world".... we are not what most "singaporeans or singaporean companies" think we are.

Sometimes foreigners (I dont want to name the country) do look down on singapore; "oh, that little country, I heard you have to buy water...blah..blah"

I told them our valued resources are our people....guess what is the reply from some foreigners...."we have 1.3billion...what is your population size?" And looking at the attitute and the way some of our citizens work... some wa yang wa yang, some hang around and push problems away.."cham liao"

Since I do feel grateful for this little red dot, I did try to be proud and promote this little red dot we call home.... but it is a very tough to promote. Now maybe we are a bit better because of certain events that slowed the progress of some countries.. and they are emerging and very hungry due to current lack of their own local opportunities for most individuals (imagine what will a bunch of hungry ppl do?).... we are very very vulnerable and I worry for the future of the little babies born here...

Reinvent singapore... keep our fingers crossed

Sorry for the OT.

Originally Posted by crapp0

Are you sure its not the other way around?

[bangbangben]

Originally Posted by whitegals

Know what I got in return for trying to be nice? They laughed really hard at me, one of the women actually patted me on the shoulder and said to me, I quote her exact words, "Young man, you got chance must go out and walk around and see the world! The world is so big you think got only 195 countries ah? Come on! In Asia already got more than 200 countries!"

Maybe he was thinking Geylang is 1 country, Ang Mo Kio is another??

Since they are so stubborn, you could have pulled a fast one like.
"That's a shame! I been to the moon with my property agent to view the land I purchased. We could get a better view of the world from there"

[Peggie83]

Originally Posted by old_yet_horny

Yeap...


Was in HangZhou about 1.5 years back.

Visited 1 KTV with MMs...

Ended up kena chop carrot and confrontation with the staffs there.

Almost cannot walk out of the place until my china associate agree to pay the demand... Whopping SGD3K+ for 4 cartons china beer and a couple of MMs...

From that day onwards, whenever I go China, will only cheong with people who are familiar and knows the KTVs...

The good old saying...龙游浅水遭虾戏...so dun be hero...

One of my good friend with his china associate visited a high end KTV in Beijing last year. Also kana chop carrots

The bills come around RMB 5,000+ with all sort of service charges inside the bill like waiters pouring liquor for them &
mummy servicing them. In addition, they are paid another RMB 2,000 cash tips for the KTV gals & mummy.

[Unrepented]

High end KTV are normally rmb5K to rmb10K.

One experience my collegues related to me was at with mid range KTV in Guangzhou, all of a sudden the whole room blacked out and when the lights came back on, there were afew crates of beer. Bouncer standing at the door way and presented with the bill LL