Assessment survey conducted in 2012 which surveyed 2000 people, “kiasu” and “competitive” appeared as the two highest answers on a list of how Singaporeans would label their society. Rather than purely viewing kiasuism as a negative behaviour, Singaporeans have begun to embrace kiasuism as part of their national identity. For example, in 2017, the supermarket chain Giant, sent out an online quiz to find out which town in Singapore was the most kiasu. The quiz received 57,000 entries, with Tampines winning the competition. As a prize, Giant gave away free goods such as milo and canned drinks to Tampines residents. Kiasu also reached prominence in its international status when it entered the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in March 2007. In 2015, kiasu was OED’s Word of the Day. Cultural contexts On February 1989, the Report of the Advisory Council on Youths announced that kiasuism played an important role in shaping Singaporean youth’s perspective towards various facets of life such as education and work. While kiasuism is a behaviour taken on by an individual, this behaviour is also part of the Singaporean shared “cultural norm”. This means that in social situations where competition is required, Singaporeans would feel obliged to adopt a kiasu behaviour because they presume that everyone else would do so too. For example, the inflow of foreign talent into Singapore has convinced Singaporeans, collectively, of the need to be more competitive to be on top of their field of work. To match Singapore’s high quality of living, Singaporeans find themselves pressured to embrace kiasuism as a means to improve their studies, be eligible for benefits at their work, and have an ideal personal life. Education culture Kiasuism is noticed in regard to Singaporean attitudes towards education. Due to the elite nature of Singaporean society, success is often measured by how well one performs at school. Therefore, to get ahead of others and be successful, students perform kiasu acts such as the kiasu-negative tactic of sandbagging. In the context of Singaporean schools, sandbagging refers to students lying that they have not studied much hoping it convinces other students to not put in too much effort. Other tactics include attempting to secure more and higher quality study materials and attending tuition, both of which can be seen as either positive or negative depending on intent. Many Singaporean parents equate kiasuism as a means of achieving academic