https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/data/pdfdoc/2001050103.htm
Recap back in 2001...Hungery is very important for success in China and Vietnam
What is the key difference between China and Hong Kong? It is the
hunger, the drive, the determination of the people to improve themselves and get ahead. The mainland Chinese are hungry. The Hong Kong people are talented and enterprising, but much more affluent and less hungry.
Singapore is lucky to be more affluent than China. Are we hungry enough to keep forging ahead?
I showed the article to our union leaders. They have travelled to many countries, including China. They confirmed what the article reported. They said it is not just the PRC Chinese who are like that. So are the Vietnamese. Recently an NTUC delegation visited Vietnam. Comrade Heng Chee How reported:
"When I visited Vietnam, I saw the same sense of
�hunger�. A street where a night school was situated was crowded with people and bicycles around 9 pm, and that was because one shift of students was leaving the school and the next shift [was] starting."
Another comrade commented:
"I see no "hunger" for learning here [in Singapore], as I too saw in Vietnam where the little girl who sold me cards and books in the market attended night school after a long and hard day's work � Many things have come easily, so there is no "hunger". We have it all on a silver platter."