Ultimately, however, Ng's competitive edge lies in his ties to the ethnic Chinese community.
But in Singapore this style of parenting, especially among the ethnic Chinese majority, is rarely questioned.
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Despite the presence of small ethnic Chinese communities in many islands, the Caribbean continues to look north.
Political stability may also lure business people and investment, including ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs.
"The Salims are affected by the crisis, " says Singapore-based political scientist Leo Suryadinata, who studies ethnic Chinese businesses in Indonesia.
Malaysia's governing coalition won a key election in the Borneo state of Sarawak over the weekend, but it lost most of the ethnic Chinese vote.
Indonesia's ethnic Chinese have their own newspaper, and Chinese firms compete with U.S. and European companies for Indonesia's vast reserves of oil, minerals and gas.
One of the handful of pribumi -- indigenous -- entrepreneurs in an economy dominated by ethnic Chinese, he owns leading Java cement maker Semen Cibinong.
The families who run South Korea's industrial conglomerates, or chaebol, are not ethnic Chinese, and their business empires are different from those of South-East Asia.
The phone company's first ethnic Chinese chief executive is also confronted by intense competition as Hong Kong's telecommunications market liberalizes in line with the rest of Asia.
But a walk down the street or ride on the subway reveals that there are many, many foreigners in Japan who are not ethnic Chinese or Korean permanent residents.
No one knows how many ethnic Chinese have left Indonesia, but the embassies of likely destinations, such as Australia and Canada, have reported a sharp increase in visa applications.
ECONOMIST: The ethnic Chinese in Indonesia continue to live in fear
"Our service was terrible - that was the assumption from the beginning, " says the Ivy Leaguer, whose ethnic Chinese family founded Thai Farmers (No. 96 in the 500) in 1945.
Kwik's ethnic Chinese background, for instance, could have as great an impact on the sentiment of wealthy Chinese entrepreneurs who moved much of their capital offshore as any specific policies he may implement.
One of the six cofounders, Hedrick-Wong is a charming and highly articulate ethnic Chinese who has spent more than 16 years working in Asia as an economist and consultant for the World Bank and the United Nations.
He has worked to bridge divisions within the opposition, which includes the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, his own People's Justice Party and the Democratic Action Party, which mostly appeals to ethnic Chinese voters, and to turn the loose alliance into an effective campaign machine.
It extends well into areas of the city where ethnic Han Chinese form the majority.
The ethnic-Chinese business networks across East Asia were a crucial source of capital during the economic boom.
ECONOMIST: The ethnic Chinese in Indonesia continue to live in fear
Mr. Najib's predecessors crafted the measures to give a leg up to the country's ethnic-Malay Muslims to reduce tensions with the wealthier ethnic-Chinese population.
Many of the biggest conglomerates are controlled by ethnic-Chinese businessmen, such as Liem Sioe Liong of the Salim Group and Bob Hasan, a timber tycoon.
Dr Mahathir's coalition still won a thumping victory, but only with the help of the ethnic-Chinese and indigenous voters from the two big states in Borneo.
Social Entrepreneurship: University of Hawaii professor Kate Zhou's Education Advancement Fund International (www.yifei.org), for a loan program for ethnic minority Chinese women in Xiangxi, in Hunan Province.
In South-East Asia, for instance, most business is still controlled by a small number of ethnic-Chinese tycoons, who cultivate close ties to local governments and to each other.
The child of an ethnic-Chinese street vendor in Bangkok, Mr. Charoen started a small distillery with partners after dropping out of school and successfully bid for a government liquor concession.
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For example, the musical ensemble has been expanded to include wind instruments and the dancers costumes have been influenced by the clothes of other Chinese ethnic groups.
They are more likely than other Asians to be employed (though they earn slightly less than Indians) and Sri Lankan children do better at school than any ethnic group bar the Chinese.
Home to many of China's 56 ethnic minorities, the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan is known for its diversity in food, dress, language and geography.
Sabah's 48 constituencies are drawn around the state's three main ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese and Kadazandusun, a catch-all term for Sabah's 30 or so indigenous groups.
China is home to a sizable North Korean community, both North Koreans working in the neighboring nation and Chinese citizens of ethnic ancestry who consider North Korea their motherland.
The city's many ethnic communities - Javanese, Batak, Chinese, Melayu, Indian, Arab - have managed to stay fairly separate, each with their own way of life.
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