Just watched a documentary of overseas chinese via CNA this afternoon. I think the chinese have it in their blood that hard work is a must and they will do all it takes to succeed.
First, the programme talked about the chinese in Indonesia. During the suharto era, chinese were discrimated. They were not able to celebrate cny and they were not allowed to work in the civil service. So at that time, one would never see chinese pilots, doctors lawyers etc. Suharto thought this was a way to bring his own race up but never did he know that by doing so, this stoked the entreprenuerial spirit of the chinese. They set up all sorts of businesses and today the chinese make up just 5% of the Indo population but they control 75% of the country's economy.
Then the second part talked about the chinese in russian siberia. This doctor went over to Irkutz and set up his own clinic, charges twice the rate of a normal russian doctor but still receives 60 clients a day on an average consultation of US$165. The russian doctors there must be feeling the heat.
And this chinese female teacher who started off by trading bazaar items in siberia, eventually set up her own restaurant and hotel. When interviewed, she revealed that the russians there actually disliked the chinese and made things very difficult for them. Examples are constant harassment from the local police and incooperation from the locals. When the local natives were interviewed, they acknowledged that the chinese were a hardworking lot but were disliked because they normally keep to themselves.
Reminds me of the chinamen in singapore. They are like what LKY said, hungrier. And it's a known fact that they do not mind working longer hours for a relatively lower pay. And sgporeans in general dislike them.
There are chinese businessmen all over the world. The spirit of the chinese is second to no other race. It is for this reason, that I think one day Singaporean chinese will fall at the hands of these overseas chinese....simply because we are not as hungry as them. How ironical, our forefathers replaced the laidback natives of this land in the 1800s, now we slowly find ourselves in the same plight.
Today LHL said that our fertility rate is 1.09, way below the population replacement rate of 2.1. And the govt said they will take in foreigners at a "measured" pace? Haha let's go figure.
The Chinese are known for hardworkers and frugality in the past.
But I don't see young people being that anymore...
the China Chinese are really something when it comes to work and money...they really look forward to the future and undaunted by the shameful pasts and from where they from...
isn't our CNY reunion dinner served by China Chinese in restaurants?
I guess its the way chinese people think. To have a good life, must have face, competitive and pride. All this will voice down to money. Therefore, money is what make the chinese work so hard. Even in the new generation young chinese, they are the same accept those chinese kids born under silver spoons. They are useless and lazy as hell. I mixed around with many young chinese people. Those who are from a poorer background, they are extremely hardworking. Those whos parents are super loaded, they basically dont work. They party and spend. Extremely spoilt brad
Today Chinese mainlanders are different from those back then, I meant do Chinese back then have the heart to manufacture products that will harm their own fellow Chinese?
Heh.....depending on how far back? The dynasty era? If you read the chinese history, the practise existed long time ago.
In 1966, the Indonesian government issued a policy which strongly recommended Indonesian citizens of Chinese descent change their names into Indonesian ones to prove their loyalty to Indonesia.
This policy was released in the wake of the Soeharto regime's closures of Chinese schools, bans on public expressions of Chinese culture and language and widespread government suspicion regarding the Chinese community's role in the PKI's (The Indonesian Communist Party's) uprising in 1965.
Being a heterogeneous and diverse community, the Chinese in Indonesia responded to the name-changing policy in distinct ways. My father chose to change his name to Didi Dawis from Djie Ie Ling.
His other six siblings chose different names for themselves. One of his siblings who chose to keep his Chinese name.
While the names chosen by my father's family (except for his youngest brother) have been Indonesianized to the extent most people cannot tell that they are Chinese, there are other Indonesian names chosen by the Chinese in Indonesia that implicitly indicate that they are still Chinese.
For example, those with the Chinese surnames of Tan, Ong and Wee chose Indonesianized surnames such as Tanuwijaya, Ongggara and Wijaya.
These names show a desire to retain a sense of Chineseness while at the same time complying with the government's policy.
When Abdurrahman Wahid served as the President of Indonesia between November 1999 and August 2001, he abolished the Presidential Instruction Number 14, signed in 1967 by Soeharto, which restricted the practice of Chinese customs and religions to private domain.
Following this abolition, he signed the Presidential Instruction Number 6, stipulated in the year 2000, which allows the public celebration of the Chinese New Year.
Megawati took a step further by declaring Chinese New Year has been a national holiday in 2003.
As extracted from: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/02/06/i-am-chineseindonesian.html
An indo chinese who started the Gudang Garam empire:
The vision for today's Gudang Garam success began back in 1958.
On 26th June 1958, Mr. Surya Wonowidjojo began the business as a 'home industry' selling the kretek cigarette product under the brand Gudang Garam. Using traditional tools, the company initially hired about 50 people only to make the initial production of Kretek Klobot Cigarettes (SKL), kretek cigarettes using dried corn husks as the cigarette wrapper and Hand Made Cigarette (SKT) in the first factory located on the leased land of 1000m2 at Jalan Semampir II/I at Kediri, East Java. Gudang Garam initially produced about 50 millions cigarettes in 1959. In the beginning, the products were sold locally in the immediate Kediri area, but the Gudang Garam fame was soon to spread.
Extracted from: http://www.gudanggaramtbk.com/company/index.php?act=history
Another indo chinese who started the Sampoerna empire:
The Journey Begins
The story of Sampoerna begins in 1898 in the Fujian Chinese village of Anxi. It was in the late spring of that year that Liem Tioe bought passage on a cargo sail boat heading south to the Indian Ocean for himself and his two young children, a girl aged six and a boy aged five. Only the three of them boarded the ship bound for Indonesia because the mother of the two children, Tan Sie Nio, had tragically passed away the previous winter. It was her death that seemed to have prompted Liem Tioe to seek a milder climate, more promising working conditions, and a new life for his young family. On its voyage south, the boat stopped briefly at the British colony of Malaya where the father, probably for economic reasons, allowed his daughter to be adopted informally by a Chinese family in Singapore.
Liem Tioe and his young son, Liem Seeng Tee, then boarded a second, less hospitable boat travelling east to the port city of Surabaya in East Java.
To read on: http://www.houseofsampoerna.com/e_sampoernaco_founder_01.htm
This is the difference between Singapore chinese and Indo chinese.
The typical singaporean mentality is study hard, get a good degree and possibly a scholarship and one is set for life.
The typical indo chinese mentality in modern times are to also study hard but come back and help in the family's business.
That is the brief gist on why singaporeans are never entrepreneurial in nature, besides other discouraging factors such as high rental and high relative cost of labour.