香港90后看新加坡 #跨区文化挑战 #HK-JP-SG Cross-community challenge

支持@orientalhub 的所有活動！…虽然有点迟快deadline ( @moneybaby 你也去過新加坡，快來分享你和你buddies 的經歷吧~)

剛出來工作的時候待過新加坡兩個月，畢竟是商科生，又生於香港- 亞洲的另一個金融中心，當時就對新加坡這國家有了很深刻的感受。小時候從沒過自己可以在新加坡的CBD上班，與不同國籍的同事在同一部門一起做野，倫敦、美國、印度、日本、新加坡、馬來西亞，有些還是投行DB, JP Morgan 前輩， 想不到這麼容易就實現了，一個從沒想過的夢想！

大學年代，第一次去獅城玩，覺得新加坡是全世界最悶最無聊像Disney一样假的地方，再次踏足工作才了解發現這是一個好特別、比香港文化更多元的國家，更是一個適合用來和香港做比對的城市。

那两个月跟新加坡同事相处下来，加上一些個人觀察，总结出几个跟香港分别比较大的点：

1.政府态度 - 新加坡科技发展快，政府落实措施效率比较高，看看两地的施政/财政报告就知道了。我相信这是跟政务人员素质有关的。新加坡政府的官員，听说都是国外最好学校的留学生，而且一旦做政府人员就不能移民出國，小孩不能去外國讀書，只能一心一意留在國家，搞好政策，去serve自己國民。我們的首長呢？... 都拿好了英國護照，小孩都跑去英國唸書了。记得有一个政策：遊客可以免費入賭場，但本地人就要收100新加坡幣，防止本地人沉迷賭博。这么特别无前例的措施，能想出来的人厉害！

2.创意精神 – 与新加坡同事合作Group Project，得出以下结论

• 香港人：规矩没说明不可以做的，就可以做啊 （倾向踩界、更更敢于尝试新方向）
• 新加坡人：规矩没说可以做啊，就是不可以做啊 （Follow the rules）

3.生活安稳 – 香港最大的土地问题，相反新加坡人就没太多担心，当地大部分都是祖屋，可拥有99年，和私人市场分开，就没了投资客炒高楼价的现象。看到我当地的同事都很开心啊，家有3、4个房间，还可以养狗…那隻狗，它能占的空間比我們香港人人均住的地方還大…
还有，每個地區一定有一個cheap cheap但well organised的Food Court，迎合低下階層需要，連CBD最中心的地方也有！3.5SGD (<20HKD) 吃個蝦麵，我們可憐的香港打工仔可以嗎TT
另外，好多社會必需品，例如油、水電媒都係國家企業，而且政府對地產有好大控制權，避免出現香港的地產霸權、仇富情緒...

4.社会福利 — 新加坡行精英主義，中產家庭生一個小朋友就有好多補貼，而低下階層無，由此鼓勵社會中上層嘅人去繁𧗠下一代。

當時在想，雖然和香港一樣，新加坡也有好多外來人口、文化背景欠奉，但市民安居樂業，政府除了不讓有媒體自由外，大多時候得市民尊重。香港市民怎麼就分裂成不同派别，香港政府就怎麼天天被罵呢？

Fully support all events held by @orientalhub, although the challenge has been a while and unfortunately it gonna be deadline today lol

SG is a country with high degree of similarities as HK in terms of size, economic development, international position, etc., they are apparently good twins for comparison. So, this blog would share about my experience and insights gained from my 2-month work life in Singapore almost 2 years ago.

Few things I’d like to share about the differences of the 2 metropolis:

1.Government efficiency & quality: From my perspective, SG has a more efficient political system with more political talents, simply comparing the policy address budget you could tell the difference between effectiveness of polices. In SG, the selected government officers are from outstanding overseas universities (Harvard, Cambridge…). Once they got on-board, they would be forbidden to migrate to other countries and their younger family members would not be allowed to study abroad. While in HK, it’s sarcastic that most of top government officers have obtained the British passports implying they leave themselves an “escape” channel to go UK anytime if HK is no longer an ideal place to stay. Not a small number of these people also send their kids to study abroad, which raised lots of criticisms from people that the policy makers are not even confident in policies they made themselves.

2.Entrepreneurship / Creativity: When I was working on group project with my SG teammates, the following conclusion was made that my SG colleagues also agreed

• HK people: If sth not forbidden by regulations, we can try to do that (more risk-taking, prefer to try out new ways to do things)
• SG people: The regulation didn’t say we can do this, we cannot do it (risk-adverse, prone to follow rules and old practices)

3.Living Standard: HK people obviously has serious land supply shortage issue – property price rises every month and most of young people are in deep shit with their future livings, since most of their salary won’t be able to catch up and afford purchasing own flat without parent subsidies. In SG, HDB is a scheme that sells flats at discounted price to local citizens. The separation of local housing demand from investment market avoid HBD flat price to be driven up, hence can ensure locals are able to acquire own living place with affordable prices.

4.Social Class:
According to my SG colleagues, elites in the society are well-respected with various allowance while the less outstanding groups will be looked down on in different aspects in life. For example, when a child was given birth in the middle or upper class family, they receive higher portion of subsidies when comparing to the grassroot families. They also make sure everyone was given equal opportunity to study and good chance to secure place in school, but if someone is not smart/hardworking enough, they will gradually fall in the less privileged social class. The screening system literally perform screening on quality of people and tries to nurture a society of more elites.

附上这张照片，上面可说明几个小发现：1）当天是国庆节，新加坡人穿的红白衣服就象征国旗上的颜色；2）桌子上的纸巾、杂物是他们去餐厅用来占位子用的！这是他们的习惯，让我不禁想起了自己小学也是用这方法占位子hahha 3）这家店位于CBD中心，但居然3X HKD 可买到一大碗鲜鱼汤面! This photo basically tells 3 facts about Singapore: 1) Locals would dress in red and white as in the colour of the country flag to celebrate the national day🇸🇬🇸🇬 2) People put tissue, name cards, umbrellas, etc. on tables/chairs to occupy seats everywhere