What is the first thing that pops into your mind when you think of Singapore?

So a couple weeks ago, I was having a slight debate with a few of my Singaporean friends regarding the world's perception of Singapore - what is the first thing people think of when they think of Singapore?

My guess was that most American, specifically mid-westerners, wouldn't know too much about Singapore, and what they did know would probably be based on two things: Banned Chewing Gum and Caning (from the infamous American kid in the 90s who got caught spray painting cars). My argument was that if Singapore did something as simple as just lift the "ban" on selling chewing gum - they would be more successful in attracting foreign talent from developed western countries. No matter how silly the chewing gum ban may seem, I see it as a symptom of the fundamental authoritarianism that exists in the gov't here.

So the results of the survey came out a little more random that I thought - I didn't get many "chewing gum" or "caning" responses like I anticipated but the responses were very much varied and interesting. There was about 70 total responses:




When focusing only on Nebraskans, the results are highly skewed towards neutral and negative. I think a lot of this is due to Nebraskans having absolutely no clue what to think about when someone mentions Singapore.