When I see Singaporeans in a rules-free environment, I am often reminded of this Zen story about a horse that worked its whole life turning a grinding stone in a mill; when it was retired and allowed to graze on a large field, it went to the only tree in the field, and continued walking circles around the tree (like it did when it turned the grinding stone).
Like the horse, a lot of Singaporeans who grew up with a lot of explicit and implicit rules tend to be lost when they are thrown into an organic environment where the only limits are the ones you set for yourself. Like the horse, they then draw their own rules, and limit their own thinking to the imaginary box that they grew up with. So even if they are in a large open field, they will find their own tree and orbit around it. ...
I suspect that is why there are so many implicit social rules for Singaporeans, like "marry and have three kids", "get a stable job", etc., often without any real questioning of assumptions. Most people in Singapore complain about the pressure of social norms; they really only have themselves to blame if they unthinkingly accept those norms and apply them to their own lives.
