Kiasu Culture: When Winning Trumps Kindness
Step into the shimmering, soul-sucking void of Malaysian social media, and witness the grand illusion: a landscape teeming with “content,” yet strangely barren of genuine creativity. We’ve become a nation of manicured curators, not bold creators; obsessive accountants tallying likes, not artists chasing visions. The relentless, anxiety-inducing pursuit of that tiny red heart or thumbs-up isn’t just draining our joy; it’s systematically strangling the vibrant, messy, uniquely Malaysian spark of originality right out of us. Welcome to the Conformity Factory , where algorithms are the foreman and virality is the only quality control. Observe the homogenised wasteland. The same sunset silhouette at the same over-photographed Penang mural. The identical plate of nasi lemak , artfully scattered with biji selasih and an obligatory half-peeled banana, shot from the same overhead angle. The endless parade of influencers striking the same three “candid” poses i...