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Do Singaporeans have an image problem abroad?
Many Hong Kongers feel that Singaporeans are arrogant. Do they have a point?
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A perception of Singaporeans as being insufferably arrogant will certainly not help in our dealings with others, says the writer.
PHOTO: ST FILE
HONG KONG – At a casual lunch with a Malaysian business manager in Hong Kong some months ago, I was taken aback by her candid view of Singaporeans.
“Singaporeans are always so ‘yaya papaya’,” she proclaimed, using a colloquial term often used in Malaysia and Singapore to describe arrogance.
