Lee Kuan Yew is known as the founding father of Singapore. Singapore’s rise is inseparable from Lee Kuan Yew’s efforts. The outside world has always believed that Lee Kuan Yew was a figure close to the West, but in fact Lee Kuan Yew was not as recognized by the outside world. From a certain perspective, he was even a figure who opposed Westernization. He once said that Singapore must not be allowed to a western society.

Lee Kuan Yew, a legendary figure, cannot be simply completely Westernized or Orientalized, because he is a thorough pragmatist, and his ideas are not that enigmatic. In his eyes, how to build Singapore better is the most important thing. His values ??include both Western culture and Eastern culture. If he had to use one word to describe it, it would be "Asian value theory".

At the beginning, Lee Kuan Yew did consider turning Singapore into a Westernized society. In fact, this had a lot to do with his early acceptance of Western culture, but Lee Kuan Yew was Asian at heart. Blood, the most influential thing for him is Eastern culture. When Singapore was Westernized, Chinese classes were no longer the main curriculum in some schools and were replaced by English classes. However, this policy was not implemented forever. This was because Lee Kuan Yew discovered a problem.

Westernization of society will cause Singaporean youth to lose the quality of hard work. They have enjoyed the benefits brought about by social progress since birth, which will make them take prosperity as a matter of course. Once problems arise in society, they will question in turn: Where are the miracles created by the previous generation?

This type of problem is what Lee Kuan Yew is most worried about. He is afraid that excessive Westernization will make Singaporeans value personal interests and even put personal interests above collective interests. This will turn Singapore into a Western nation and lose its identity. characteristics of this nation.

After Lee Kuan Yew discovered this series of problems again, he deliberately strengthened the education of traditional Confucian culture. Not only did he ask people to translate Confucian classics into English, but he also made Chinese a main course in schools. This series of The policy is to prevent excessive Westernization of Singaporean society.

So today’s Singapore has become a bilingual country, and when Westerners mention Singapore, they think they are a pseudo-Westernized country. In fact, this pseudo-Westernized society is precisely The embodiment of the fusion of Chinese and Western cultures, this kind of society is the characteristic of Singapore and is also the best propellant for Singapore's development. Singaporeans should be grateful to Lee Kuan Yew for his timely policy of promoting Eastern traditional culture. It is precisely because of such changes that the prosperous Singapore is now.

Reference purple information: "Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew"