An Unlocalized and Unglobalized Subculture

Reflecting upon the cultural basis of Singapore's bilingual education policies, Singapore's elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew stated in his memoirs:

The irony was that I was keen and anxious as anyone to retain the best features of Chinese education. When I acted as legal adviser for the Chinese middle school student leaders in the 1950s, I was impressed by their vitality, dynamism and discipline and social and political commitment. By contrast, I was dismayed at the apathy, self-centredness and lack of self-confidence of the English educated students.