Definition
Kiasu is a Hokkien word that means a grasping, selfish attitude.
Kiasu
What is ‘Kiasu’
A Chinese adjective used to describe a person’s fear of losing out (to someone else). Kiasu is a traditional Chinese word, but is most popular in Singapore. It translates roughly as “scared to lose”.
Explaining ‘Kiasu’
Kiasu describes being (or a person who is) greedy, unwilling to share, or competitive in order to advance one’s self. Examples of Kiasu include driving aggressively to get to the front of a traffic line or registering young children early at top schools, prior even to knowing the child’s aptitude. Kiasu describes the idea that one must outdo and outshine all others, have more of any given thing, pay the least amount for items (thereby getting the best deal) and always be the first or best.
This concept has been applied to such financial ideas as marketing campaigns, store sales and understanding market psychology.
Further Reading
- The 2015 Singapore Swing: Depoliticised Polity and the – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- Exploring the Factors Affecting the Use of Kiasu Tactics. – search.ebscohost.com [PDF]
- Postcoloniality and ethnography: Negotiating gender, ethnicity and power – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- Raising successful children: children as accumulation strategy and the renegotiation of parenting arrangements in Singapore – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- Competitiveness in the Workplace: Attributes and Team Benefits – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- Lee Kuan Yew and Malaysia – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- The story of kiasu: expressions of identity and status via conspicuous consumption: an ethnographic study of Singaporean young women in a newly adopted culture – researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au [PDF]
