( CULTURAL BRIEFING N^O 01 )

Cultural differences across Asia

_EN

            Having worked in a global branding agency in Shanghai gives one an East–West vantage like no other. You see management label offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and the wider Sinosphere (including Taiwan) under one convenient term: ‘Greater China’.

            But for a Singaporean Chinese who grew up with Hong Kong cinema and Taiwanese 瓊瑤 dramas, my instinctive response was: this classification doesn’t work.

            It doesn’t work because branding, as it is done contemporarily, rarely allows culture to be the foundation. Over the past two decades, nuance has been flattened into frameworks — and increasingly subsumed under the whims and vagaries of marketing.

            Any seasoned traveller will tell you that the cities above are cultural spheres of their own. What works in Shanghai does not automatically transfer to Hong Kong, and vice versa — let alone across civilisations.

            A local example makes this plain. The wave of Chinese restaurants opening in Singapore often arrives with Chinese-only menus. It’s an instant turnoff to our Malay and Indian compatriots. These businesses survive only because a Chinese-majority population can sustain them. But why ignore our other races — especially if there is a possibility to expand into Malaysia or Indonesia in the medium-term?

            We see the same pattern in digital commerce. Lazada failed to scale across Southeast Asia because it overestimated similarity. Shopee, which attempted the same expansion later, adapted to each market’s quirks with far greater sensitivity — and succeeded.

            Asia is not one territory. We are a constellation of distinct sensibilities. Understanding this is the beginning of real branding here.

Notes from Ben:
This Cultural Briefing was first written in Nov 2025. Slight revisions were made in Feb 2026.

( CULTURAL BRIEFINGS )

Executive briefings on cultural matters

( SENSING PLACES )

Sensing cities as cultural barometers

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