''Kiasi'' () is a

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...

phrase, literally means ''afraid of death'', to describe the attitude of being overly afraid or timid. Kiasi is commonly compared to

Kiasu Kiasu () is a Hokkien word that denotes a "competitive” attitude" that arises from fear of missing out OR fear of being left out. Etymology and usage Kiasu comes from the vernacular Chinese phrase , meaning 'fear of losing’. It is commonly ...

(literally: “fear of losing”); both are commonly used to describe attitudes where Kiasi or Kiasi-ism means to take extreme measures to avoid risk and

or Kiasu-ism means to take extreme means to achieve success. ''Kiasi'' is not as popular as ''

kiasu Kiasu () is a Hokkien word that denotes a "competitive” attitude" that arises from fear of missing out OR fear of being left out. Etymology and usage Kiasu comes from the vernacular Chinese phrase , meaning 'fear of losing’. It is commonly ...

'', but is widely used by Hokkien-speaking people in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Etymology and usage

The history of ''kiasi'' can be traced back to the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

idiom "Greedy for life, afraid of death" (), which describes a person's extreme fear of death, and may drive a person to lose his sense of justice and righteousness. The idiom was originally applied to cowardly soldiers on the battlefield. In modern usage, it refers to people who are irrationally frightful to undertake any task.

In popular culture

* ''Kiasu, Kiasi : You Think What?'' (Paperback, 160 pages) by

David Leo David Leo is a writer in Singapore. Leo received a Publishers Prize for ''Ah … The Fragrance of Durians & Other Stories'' in 1993, a (Singapore) National Book Department Council Book Awards for works in English in 1994 for ''The Sins of the Fathe ...

External links

Definition from www.talkingcock.com

{{Malaysia-stub Singaporean culture Malaysian culture Southern Min words and phrases Singlish

Etymology and usage

In popular culture

See also

External links