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I don't think Singapore was ever cool. In fact I'd say up until a few years ago most Americans didn't even know Singapore existed. Why would they? Now maybe that's changed with Crazy Rich Asians, Tiktok, and the "Senator, I'm Singaporean" meme. For SEA, Thailand was always the cool kid on the block.

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hmm. I would say for most Americans it was Japan. Sushi did numbers.

Thailand was for sex tourism.

Singapore was cool to government/political types because Lee Kuan Yew really did pull off a miracle.

If you read to the end of my comment then you'll see I was only considering Southeast Asia, but if we talk about Asia in general then yeah, we gotta mention Japan ^_^

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