So let me disclaimer 1st: I am a Chinese myself. So please don't say that I am racist ok.

I grew up in a not-so-typical Chinese household whereby my father was locally English-educated and, my mother, was educated in a Western country until she graduated from University.

Nevertheless I went to an SJK ( C) and went all the way until SMJK whereby I also took my Chinese in SPM and got an A for it.

And now I am working in a medium-sized audit firm (already 2yrs+), whereby my colleagues are 80~90% Chinese (and majority of them are from TARC, UTAR etc. I myself went to a local government uni though).

Throughout my student life and also my working life, I've witnessed how hardworking are these Chinese-educated Chinese (despite I myself being one of them).

Dang, the amount they put into studies and also their work ethics is so.....beyond me. Very hardworking and competitive indeed. At the same time, very materialistic too.

But it really does create a mental stress to me when looking at them being so competitive and hardworking.

Sometime I wonder, is it me who has personality / attitude issues?

I admit that I was blessed with certain level of intellect whereby I could just slack through my way, and still got Full As in my SPM, and lucky enough to be accepted into a Matrikulasi, and went to a local government uni, and again, fortunate enough to got my 1st class by slacking through my degree.

I've never understood why they had to be this hardworking and competitive, when, at the end of the day, they might end up with same position as me, or perhaps end up to be at a lil better position than me. What's the whole point?

And I noticed that sometimes its like ingrained into their DNA you know? Like hardworking is the only way to achieve success. Not to mention on how they actually measure success - which is solely by your wealth.

It seems that the Chinese society doesn't let you say that "I'm not so into high salaries, if huge sacrifices needs to be made. I rather take care of my health, my happiness, etc.". It seems that the moment you say this kind of statement, you are automatically a loser (well, 1st hand experience from myself).

Until this day I still failed to figure out the reason. Could this be due to upbringing / family culture problem?

As explained earlier, due to my parents background, they were really not typically Chinese minded. I also always failed to understand all the stories which my peers / friends would say, like how their parents would force them to study, ask about their grades, how their relatives will gossip about your grades and also, your salary. They all never happened to me. My parents / relatives just didnt gave a single f**k. Just be a good person, take care of yourself and that's it.

Whereas for typically Chinese minded parents it seems that they want their children to be "dragon / phoenix among the people" (人中之龍 / 人中之鳳). And everything revolves around money, material success. IIRC comedian Ronny Cheng  once said "Do you know what does Chinese wish each other in CNY? Gong Xi Fa Cai (May you get rich) ! Not Happy New Year."

The question is, why?

Seriously, I admire the Malay working culture more because they are generally more relaxed. Whereas most of the Chinese I know would label it with negative connotations such as "lazy", "unmotivated", "easily satisfied and no dreams in life". Well, what if my dream is to live a happy, normal life?

Your father’s generation already well off. So, you grow up in an environment of abundance. Now that you are an adult and you said you probably do not want to start a family, you soon realise that your parents wealth will go to you sooner or later plus the fact that you probably have more than enough living on your own salary means that there is no reason for you to strive very hard. People with at least some abundance are likely to want work life balance, especially when they have not tasted poverty. Try putting yourself in the situation of being brought up in a not so well to do family, then you will understand why they work so hard.

This is serious /k, if you wana troll go kopitiam troll la. I’m just addressing your retarded comment in a serious forum. You talk about overbreeding, but other countries are already exploring space in hopes that the human race can continue to survive once Earth becomes uninhabitable. Meanwhile, we’re fighting over Malay rights, Malay superiority and religion superiority, in a country where Malay and Islam is the majority, and Malays are in charge. Such an oxymoron eh?

I was once a noti boy in chinese independent highschool. Result was ok and im the T10 student among the same age/grade in our school. When i was 15, i was ask to go see headmaster after doing some silly things at school. After a long speech by that lady, was ask to write an essay to story my opinion about life.

Being a naive boy, i go on to write about my own thinking. In the essay i wrote, we should enjoy life and be happy, do whatever we likes bla bla bla.

Next thing after submitted the essay, i was called by the stupid headmaster again. This round kena fuck kaokao and next thing she sent me to be cane by our discipline teacher.

I was never the same after that, my grades drop and from the T10 student i drop to the B20 grade.

More than 10years pass, still dont understand why were i being canned that day. If i have a child, i will never send them to a chinese school or atleast not this one.

I hate that stupid lady and i hate chinese school..

As a Chinese, I inherited some of the racial traits. We are industrious as we work for tomorrow. Life doesn't going smoothly all the way, that's y we need to have savings/built up reserves. 1 more thing, we are willing to sacrifice ourselves for later generations(前人种树，后人乘凉).

Dude, I think u have misunderstood of what I am trying to said above.
If U come from a poor family(live in poverty & poorly educated), would u want your children following the same path of yours?
I won't give them $$$ which is going to spoilt them rotten, They have to find their way to earn their livings when they grown up.

when one day, you look at your kids running around,

and imagine that 10 years later, after they get their SPM result,

all can you do is tell them to go apply PTPTN because 'daddy have no money',

then you might want to think again.

Dude, I think u have misunderstood of what I am trying to said above.
If U come from a poor family(live in poverty & poorly educated), would u want your children following the same path of yours?
I won't give them $$$ which is going to spoilt them rotten, They have to find their way to earn their livings when they grown up.