Cross-culture

In The New Eurasian, Singapore, Oct-Dec 2009

Published by
cheryl
at October 18, 2009 in Cross-culture and PhD. 11 Comments

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro in The New Eurasian Oct-Dec 2009

In The New Eurasian, October to December 2009.

Cheryl_Marie_Cordeiro_TNE1

The New Eurasian: People

A truly multi-cultural perspective

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro, former beauty queen, and current academic – has this year graduated with a PhD from the University of Gothenberg in Sweden with a thesis that compares the management styles between her adopted country, Sweden, where she is a PR, and her native Singapore.

“I came to notice that there were many foreigners coming to Singapore to set up and run Asian market head offices. Among those were many Swedish organisations. Based on Singapore’s financial and economic strength, it was apparent that these foreign companies were part of what made Singapore a successful business hub,” she said.

Her curiosity led her to get in touch with businessman Jan-Erik Nilsson, who lived in Sweden. As one of the founders of the East-Indiaman Gotheborg III ship project, it was Jan-Erik who encouraged her research plans. In 2002, she left Singapore for Sweden to begin her doctoral studies. Four years later, she and Jan-Erik married.

The talented Eurasian has a BA (Hons) from the National University of Singapore and graduated in 2000 with two separate masters degrees: an MA in English Language from NUS and an MSc in Information Studies from Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

As if she wasn’t busy enough with her studies during her undergrad days, she also took time to represent Singapore at the International Miss Universe Pageant in Trinidad and Tobago in 1999. Around that time, she also appeared as an actress in the MediaCorp TV’s series Brand New Towkay. But her passion for academic research never waned, and she returned to academia.

She hopes her thesis Swedish management in Singapore: a discourse analysis study will help Swedish executives doing business in Singapore to better understand the culture here and will also “show how different cultural backgrounds can make or break any cross-national deal, however brilliant things look on paper”.

As well as her academic life Cheryl, who speaks Swedish and Mandarin in addition to English, keeps a fusion blog on her Northern European experiences, writing on fashion, food, travel and lifestyle.

———oOo———

Thank you, to the Eurasian Association of Singapore, for a wonderful write-up and an update on Eurasians around the world. The October to December 2009 issue of The New Eurasian is out, and personally, I’m already looking forward to the New Year’s Eve Maquerade Soiree! For more information on October to December’s upcoming events, please visit the EA’s website.

35 for Gothenburg: a book by Edwin Thumboo

Published by
cheryl
at October 7, 2009 in COMMENTARY and Cross-culture. 3 Comments

Singapore Literature booth, Göteborgs Bokmässan, 2009

Singapore literature, displayed at the Singapore booth at Gothenburg’s annual Bookfair, 2009.
Photos © Jan-Erik Nilsson and Cheryl M. Cordeiro for CMC, 2009

Even with new publishing spaces and mediums available on the internet with e-journals, online magazines, webpages and blogs, books in print continue to remain a stable platform for voices to be heard. It seemed that this year’s annual Gothenburg Bookfair was just as busy and electric in atmosphere as previous years. In fact, this years visit went straight to my heart. In the maze of exhibition stalls – some piled with books from the ground up so as to obscure vision – was a cozy and neat, red and white walled unit labeled, Singapore Literature. Even its colours reminded me of home and I was completely drawn to this year’s event as such, focusing my attention on the International Square, a hall dedicated to international authors.

Singapore Literature booth, Svenska Mässan, Bokmässan 2009

The Singapore Literature booth, at the Göteborg Bokmässan 2009, with Alvin Pang, Editor of ETHOS journal and Henrik C Enbohm, International Secretary of the Swedish Writers’ Union.

Amongst the Singapore representatives were those both from the writing and publishing fields, including illustrators who make the reads more interesting, were there to share insights into Singapore’s literary world.

I went home that day naturally, with a handful of books from the Singapore booth. I had Russel Wong’s book on his photography, pictures collected from several of his portfolio, a must-have Singapore cookbook by Wendy Hutton, who’s known as the Queen of Asian cooking and whose cookbook made me long to be in the presence of a hawker center in Singapore and a poetic compilation of works by Edwin Thumboo, in both the English and Swedish languages.

35 for Gothenburg, by Edwin Thumboo

The book, ‘35 for Gothenburg’, by Edwin Thumboo has 35 selected poems, translated into Swedish alongside its version in English.

It was a moment of suspension in consciousness when I held the book, 35 for Gothenburg in my hands, a tangent déjà vu. The locations of the icons featured on the front cover were so familiar to me that it was difficult at first, to register that they were in print, in the form of a book cover.

Pages: 1 2 3

When things are different

Published by
cheryl
at April 3, 2009 in COMMENTARY and Cross-culture. 1 Comment

The following article was first published in Swedish on 16th April 2007 in the University of Gothenburg’s Journal. This post brings you the English translation of the article, followed by the article in Swedish. The article in Swedish can also be accessed via GU Journalen’s website.

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro. Photo by Steven Grindrod

Photo: Steven Grindrod.

I’m a Singapore citizen and a research student with the department of Linguistics at Gothenburg Univeristy. When I arrived a few years ago, it was no small cultural shock that I experienced. While I generally found Swedes to be a warm, helpful and friendly bunch, it didn’t help that I still felt completely isolated. I didn’t understand the language and the various social activities I attended inherently contained values and codes that were unlike my own and what I was used to.

Compared to Sweden, Singapore is fairly conservative. It was only a generation ago that arranged marriages were the norm and the concept of sambo or living together without getting married for all practical purposes is still unheard of. A Chinese girlfriend of mine had a magistrate marriage ceremony in Singapore and thereafter, both husband and wife returned to their respective parents’ place to live. They only moved in together after the traditional Chinese wedding ceremony was conducted a year later.

Graffiti is unthinkable. The competition between organizations and individuals is also tougher in Singapore. Delivery is calculated within the hour rather than days in between and it is not unusual to call after office hours and still get excellent customer service. The public transport system is clean and efficient, with trains arriving every three minutes during peak hours.

About a week ago, I was invited to an international student / researcher reception held at City Hall with the Mayor of Gothenburg as host. It was interesting to have met so many people who were like myself, non-natives of Sweden and who came from various cultural backgrounds.

A French researcher I met that evening said that on his part, he would rather not get to know a country, its culture and its people prior to working / living in that country. This is so that he doesn’t get a coloured vision of the country and he could begin getting to know the different culture without bias.

That was an interesting point of view. In part because it didn’t quite par with my experiences on getting to and living in Sweden and in part, it was my area of research interest. I research Swedish leaders of Swedish owned organizations in Singapore and how thier experiences with the local culture influences / affects their leadership style.

In the way that fish are quite unaware of the water in which it swims, I believe Swedes in general don’t seem aware of Swedish idiosyncracies from the eyes of a foreigner and I’m not talking about snaps, hard bread and small little pigs that run around the Midsummer Pole come Midsummer. It’s much more subtle than that, such as implicit status symbols, hidden hierarchies, politally correct feminism, consensus seeking behaviour etc.

But look at it however, from a Swede who is now in a new culture, in some part of the world away from Sweden. It would be someone deemed to have leadership skills, whose job is to establish and steer a Swedish based organization abroad. They would have the pressing job of performing from day one and thier appointment in the foreign country is costing the organization in terms of salary and benefits. They are the best man for the job and the fate of the organization overseas is in their hands.

If that place were to be Singapore for example, everything would have been clean and tidy. Any season other than warm weather with or without rain, does not occur. The people are effective and friendly but the laws, social, family and organizationnal orientations are different. A congregation of over ten persons in public is forbidden and nobody laughs about the chewing gum ban. The land is multi-religious and religion is taken seriously. You can’t seem to order food from the local hawker center and people might be horrified at your table manners. There are social taboos not to be spoken of or referred to. Status symbols are a mystery. Everyone seems polite enough and they smile a lot but at the same time, you wonder why it is that what you want done just doesn’t get done even when the answer was yes when you asked.

My point with this not that we should stay home and not venture overseas and not even try to understand the different cultures abroad, but rather to point out that it is important for us to recognize the different nuances between cultures, which is much more than theatre, song and dance. There are institutions, the law, the passions of the people and fundamental values and beliefs in which we, with all our hearts, are convinced that is Truth, given by God, Allah, Brahma, Hunab Ku, Viracocha or Tom Cruise.

As a tourist, we perhaps can afford to explore unbiased and call the reception when we need help, but if the aim is to work with others in a different culture, we’ll need to be aware that there exist different understandings of what is real for others, what makes their morals, their truths and what is right for Them and understand their ambitions.

I believe if more resources were allocated to the study, understanding and respect of different cultures, there is much to be gained for all involved.

My hope is that my research will be a small contribution to this end and that it will help towards a deeper understanding of cultural differences.

Pages: 1 2

When failure is success: a change of view in expatriate integration

Published by
cheryl
at October 6, 2008 in Cross-culture and INT'L MANAGEMENT STUDIES. 0 Comments

The job of the expatriate in international job transfers is hardly an easy transition. Most Scandinavian expatriate contracts in Singapore for example average 3 years, during which time, the employees, usually at managerial level, are supposed to make adjustments along several dimensions, both in the private and public domains.

International managers not only need to adjust to a new home, perhaps a new language, and new schools for the children if the family is in tow, but they are also expected to adjust into the new role within the organization and perform on the job.

If the ballpark figure is given at about a year to adjust to a foreign environment, then 3 years for the average expatriate contract, isn’t much time given to get things working smoothly, since as soon as you begin to feel comfortable in the new environment, it’s time to go home. Going home is not also always smooth sailing since you’re perhaps faced with a host of re-acculturation issues due to that you have gained new knowledge from the new environment and now cannot help but apply that new knowledge back home.

During the 1960s and up until about ten years ago, the majority body of literature that governed relocation and expatriate managers’ experience overseas equated their transition success with how far they’ve come to be integrated with the host country’s culture (Black, 1988; Janssens, 1995)

In speaking with Scandinavian respondents about their experience in socializing with Singaporeans, many of them mentioned that they felt marginalized and not at all integrated into the Singapore society. It didn’t seem to matter whether they were there for three years or in some cases, fifteen to twenty-six years. Disheartened and feeling not quite successful in the aspect of cross-cultural socializing, many said they felt ‘outside’ of the local system, some even mentioning that they felt more ‘Swedish’ or ‘Danish’ when they were in Asia, than when they were back in Scandinavia.

When it came to cross-cultural socializing, the organizations had office functions and staff dinner and dances, which they found a perfect opportunity to mingle with the locals, but apart from such events, they found themselves rarely socializing with the locals.

Pages: 1 2

Cohabitation before marriage, the Singapore view

Published by
cheryl
at September 4, 2008 in Cross-culture. 2 Comments

Affordable housing in Singapore, the HDB government subsidized apartments. Picture by Judhi Prasetyo, 2004.

Living with parents if unmarried, a norm

In Singapore, living alone if not married is basically unheard of, while in Sweden, as many as a third of all couples living together are not married (Rutgers Cohabitation Report, p2).

In Sweden most young individuals by age 21 would have an apartment of their own. This trend had its roots already in the 1960s, where a combination of social changes and a notable lack of housing caused the concept of living in sambo to became a socially accepted norm.

A corresponding young individual in Singapore however, is not eligible to purchase an affordable, government subsidized apartment of their own before the age of 35. A private condominium is possible but few young individuals would be able to afford that.

This legal move by the Singapore government has helped to conserve social traditions and reinforce the social norm, that young individuals should live with their parents until they are married. Marriage in itself is rewarded by the government by making heavily subsidized apartments available for couples, once they are married.

Strong Traditions

Apart from the Singapore governmental housing policies, traditions and social values also discourage cohabitation between young couples.

In what I think is an extreme example of discouraged cohabitation, I had called a girl friend of mine, awhile back, on the evening of her Registry of Marriage (ROM) to send my congratulations. To my surprise I found that she was at home with her parents, with her husband nowhere in sight. I had rather expected her to be having a romantic dinner with her husband to celebrate the event, if they were not inaugurating their newly wedded bedroom. But no, both of the newly weds were back at their respective parents home since the traditional wedding ceremonies that the family required, would not take place before the beginning of the following year.

I found myself pondering the odd situation in which my girl friend, after having gone through an ROM would need to go through a legal divorce to separate from her husband, yet she was still not allowed by her parents to live with her husband.

So while the Singapore Government is currently worrying about increasing divorce rates and falling birth rates (The Straits Times, 1997, Singapore Window, 2004 and Asia News, 2006), I can’t help thinking that it is not necessarily a good thing to wait until after a formal wedding to discover the realities of prolonged living together with another person. In old times the households were in all respects larger and the family hierarchies more complicated. Now relations are more one on one, so to speak, family economy is more complicated, the social fabric of the society is different compared to even one generation back.

All in all, I think the Asian society will need to modernize its stance of premarital cohabitation but, we are not there yet. So, if you are sending your date home a late evening, expect a brief peck on the cheek and that the dark figure in the doorway behind your disappearing date is a parent, still up and waiting.

Cross-Cultural Dating in Singapore

Published by
cheryl
at August 4, 2008 in Cross-culture. 1 Comment

Regardless of how westernized the Asian societies might appear today, dating someone from a different culture is dating more then just one person. First, meet her parents
Model: Carol Chin. Photo by Kevin D. Cordeiro.

In this none too scientific post, my target audience is primarily western / Scandinavian males who are going to work or are working in Singapore. Since the scientific research I have been doing over the past few years has been mostly about Scandinavian top managers working in Asia, the point of view and perspective reflected will with few exceptions come from those with whom I’ve spoken. To this, I have added my own point of view as a woman and individual who has grown up in Singapore.

The dating scene in Singapore is lively
The pubs and restaurants and the social life in general encourages all kinds of human interaction in public places at all times. You are out meeting people more often than not. Most events from having breakfast at the local kopitiam (coffee-shop) to having coffee, lunch, dinner or anything in-between is a reason to meet. Technically speaking “dating” is not a problem while eventually everything around it might be.

Singapore, an easy place to blend into
A poignant surrounding factor that can cause problems when dating a girl from an Asian society is, culture. With that, comes a host of other related issues within the web of culture such as language, tradition, beliefs, religion and – food.

A spread of traditional Nonya food by the Straits Chinese. The customs and traditions of the people are as intricate and detailed as the wrappings and presentation of the food. Picture by King’s Hotel, Singapore (Khoo, 1998:130).

The culture in Singapore as well as in most of Asia is collectivistic in that sense that families are close, tightly bound, large – in some cases amounting to clans – and run by patriarchal values supported by a large, often gossipy bunch of aunties (and almost all elderly women in Singapore are called ‘aunty’) with opinions on everything and everybody.

Yet Singapore, as Asia goes, is an easier place than most other Asian societies to blend into due to its immigrant beginnings. More or less everybody came from somewhere else just a few generations ago however, well into the 20th century marriages were arranged between suitable parties, as most Asian cultures from the Indians to the Chinese, had arranged marriages as their tradition.

Today, the Singapore society at large bothers little about cross-cultural relations and interracial marriages, being currently more concerned with its falling birth-rates since 2004 (see Washington Post and the Singapore Window). Yet local to non-local relations still make interesting topics and a couple is still looked upon, observed and commented on – even by people who hardly know you.

A total stranger, when least you want to hear things
Anyone can step-up to you and start asking very personal questions, such as the woman who serves you coffee at the local kopitiam (coffee shop). One Swede observed that he from morning to morning got lower prices on his coffee obviously to soften him up for some reason. The price on his morning kopi-o (coffee, black) ran from the ang-moh (Hokkien word to mean ‘Caucasian’) price of more than $1 SGD, down to the local friends’ price of 40 cents. Flattered by the close fren price he was still unprepared for the attack. The conversation went like:

Coffee Lady: Sir, where you from?
Swede: Sweden (*one raised eyebrow*)
Coffee Lady: You how old?
Swede: Eh? Around fifty …
Coffee Lady: You got chirrun?
Swede: Eeeh?? Yes
Coffee Lady: How many?
Swede: Eeeeeh?? .. well, two …
Coffee Lady: You here for business or wat
Swede: Yes
Coffee Lady: You got your own business
Swede: Yes, in fact I do …
Coffee Lady: You earn how much?
Swede: Ehm, well yes …
Coffee Lady: You here for gerfren (girlfriend) ah?
…
After the questions had been satisfactorily answered and the coffee lady had figured out whether the Swede would be in the market for a meeting with any one granddaughter, niece, daughters of friends, third cousin’s neighbor’s friend’s daughter or some other eligible young woman that was felt was lagging behind in her family career of getting married and having children and needed a push in the right direction, the coffee price eventually went right back up again to the normal solid $ 0.80 SGD.

To the utter embarrassment of the younger generation, aunties can also have no qualms about inquiring about family relations and trying to set up meetings even in the very presence of the persons in question. They will happily talk right over your head as if you were not there. If you think of this as a most well meaning tradition based on the collective nature of the Singapore society you might get used to it and react on it in the proper way, which is to give evasive answers and a friendly smile. I think of it as having its roots in a kampong (village) tradition where everybody knew and cared about everything and everybody. So initially, you will also be dating the whole family, whether you know it or not.

Sarong Party Girls (SPGs)
The collectivism leads to another aspect of cross-cultural dating, its social implications. Even if social gossip may not affect a foreigner with a possible time limit to his stay, there will be a social pressure from family, friends and perhaps even total strangers that might cause problems for the local woman.

The different Singaporean sub-cultures are different in this respect about social pressure and each will have varying degrees of open-mindedness towards foreigners in the family.

As I have mentioned in a previous post, some Swedes I have interviewed for my research were well aware of the concept of SPGs. This is a loose expression for a local woman who would consider dating a foreigner in much the same way as a western girl would i.e. with no immediate plans of getting married to him as soon as possible and not even asking to be paid to do so. The label implicates questionable moral on the part of the woman or at least bad business sense, in a society where arranged marriages were the norm not more than a generation ago.

So while dating a local woman is not impossible, the foreign male should remember that he is anyway out on uncharted territory. In Asia, you are not dating just one person but rather, a culture and a mindset.

Rather than be discouraged, there is plenty to gain in dating cross-culturally, new ideas and perspectives to discover and share. A key to smoother relations is to begin with understanding that it isn’t just a pretty face you’re meeting but that behind her is a history, her people and values that could well differ quite dramatically from what is known in the west and in Scandinavia.

… Meet her parents. Then, meet her family
Picture by Lily Khoo, from The Straits Chinese (Khoo, 1998:94):

… her family, whom you will also be dating whether you know it or not. This picture shows 4 generations of a family, gathered to celebrate the 80th birthday of the family patriarch. Picture by Khoo (1998:39).

References

  • Khoo, Joo Ee, 1998. The Straits Chinese. The Pepin Press: Amsterdam, Kuala Lumpur.
    •