Asian Nationalism Is a Barrier to U.S. Business

I would like to make two points about James Flanigan’s column, “Asia Beckons. . . . “ I just returned from a year in Singapore, where I worked at the U.S. Information Service and my husband taught at the National University.

Flanigan stated, “Young people no longer live with their elders.” In Singapore, you cannot buy an apartment (and almost all apartments are bought rather than rented from the government) until you are 35.

There was some talk about lowering the age to 32 for a single person to live in an apartment alone but that hardly qualifies as “young people.”

Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia are much poorer countries than Singapore, their birthrate is high and housing is short, so I do not believe that their young people are leaving the family home and setting up separate households. Besides, Chinese customs and values would be very much against it. It would be considered anti-family.

Second, I think you were a bit hard on U.S. companies. I can only speak from my experience, but it is firsthand and recent. Since we lived in a university-owned apartment, we lived in a Chinese neighborhood, albeit “middle-class” by their standards. I shopped extensively in the neighborhood and at shopping centers nearby. When shopping for small appliances, several times I attempted to buy American-made products. I was shocked by the shopkeepers’ anti-American attitudes. They plainly stated that “American products are no good.” Buy Japanese, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.

You can look at this in a couple of ways. Perhaps American products are not good. But I suspect that is not wholly the answer. I believe Asians are becoming very nationalistic. Even though most Singaporeans harbor deep anger toward the Japanese for their cruel occupation, they are still proud to see Asians gaining respect in the world.

Consequently, I think American firms will continue to have a hard time in the Pacific Rim no matter what their business strategy may be. We, after all, are not Asian and we still retain the “colonialist” connection. If our objective is to sell to the average Pacific Rim consumer, I suspect we will continue to have a hard time.

REVA S. FETZNER

Thousand Oaks