Mai kiasu lah!!

• Main Author: Hong, Ethel Shuen Wen
• Other Authors: Ng Ee Ching Candice
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Visual arts and music::Design
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/167960
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Being ‘Kiasu’ is a uniquely Singaporean experience that permeates through every cultural and sub-cultural fabric of Singapore, specifically in cultural climates that involve any form of competition. The term ‘Kiasu’ refers to the fear of losing out to others or opportunities. This kiasu mindset is especially prevalent in Singapore’s hostile and strict education landscape, affecting students across all academic fields. Likewise, design as an academic course in Singapore is also governed by grades and performance, despite it being difficult to have unbiased, set parameters to base how good an art piece is as it is always subject to personal experiences and preferences of the perceiver. When paired with the kiasu mindset, young Singaporean design students may feel the pressure to accommodate their professor’s preferences to perform better in terms of grades, which may hinder the expression of creativity and development of design skills when designing in school. The differences in studying design overseas as compared to Singapore is the emphasis on experimentation. With experimentation comes to high risk of failure, which Singaporean education culture does not seem to understand. Thus, Mai Kiasu Lah!! (Don’t be Kiasu!!) is a semi-fictional narrative told through the perspective of me, an adult who is reflecting on my experiences with academic validation, which caused my overly kiasu mindset I struggled with throughout my life and specifically now studying design. In this graphic novel, I characterise my “fear of losing out” mentality as an imaginary monster. Through a series of short stories detailing the adventures and tribulations the Kiasu monster and I navigate, I unpack my relationship with this kiasu mentality growing up in Singapore’s education system. This project will study the influence of the Singaporean kiasu mindset and design education culture and its impact on how I approach design education, because I want to uncover the ways in which kiasuism affects and manifests in design students and how to cope with a performance-centric education system, to foster the pursuit of creativity instead of purely focusing on academic excellence. Through the retelling and archiving of various experiences of kiasuism in the form of short comic, Mai Kiasu Lah!! hopes to challenge and discuss the performance-centred nature of Singaporean society and question the effectiveness of a meritocratic education system on nurturing young creativesin Singapore. It also aims to provide a sense of solace to those who struggle similarly.