If you want to have an idea of the Western perception of what Singapore was like back in the noughties, and perhaps even now, this episode of popular reality series World's Strictest Parents might serve as a good starting point.

The premise is simple: Take "problem children" from countries like Australia, the U.K. and U.S. and send them to a stricter family, usually situated in a different seemingly "stricter" country.

One of the episodes of the Australian version of World's Strictest Parents involved Zaine and Memphis, two Australian teenagers whose parents had reached the end of the line.

Zaine, 16, was coming in hours after curfew and engaging in underage drinking, while Memphis, 17, did pretty much the same things, and also jumped on a police car.

Here is some riveting dialogue showcasing Memphis' inner workings:

"She (her mother) can't control me, so I always win".

They are soon sent packing to live with the Chuas in "one of the strictest societies in the world", a family which consisted of a parenting coach, a bank employee, and their two daughters, one of whom was attending Raffles Institution Junior College at the time.

"I believe in authoritative parenting", which the mum explained to The New Paper as "taking the responsibility as a parent, bearing in mind that you love your children".

"It's not authoritarian parenting," she also said.

The rest of the episode is an absolute gem.

Despite the firm rules laid down by the strict parents, the two rascals tried their best to rebel.

Here is a montage of their tomfoolery.

Here they are sleeping in class.

Here is their take on the entire Raffles experience.

"I didn't learn anything, except if I sleep on my arm like that (mimics how he slept in class) I get a sore arm."

"There's too many people, I can't understand anything they say, and it's just sh*t altogether."

Ringing endorsement.

According to the same TNP article, this is how the high school dropouts got their chance at attending Raffles.

"A Raffles spokesman said that the Chua family had asked the school to allow the two teenagers to attend classes for a day or two, as the teens were meant to experience everything that Ada goes through."

The highlight of the episode, however, has to be when one of the daughters desperately tries to find Zaine and Memphis, who are hiding from her.

Just follow the cameraman lah.

You can watch the entire episode, all 40 minutes, here:

It was recently uploaded in full on Aug. 31, 2019.

While it is unclear how this little stint impacted them in the long run, the immediate impact, for Memphis at least, was captured in an interview Australian magazine Now to Love, conducted with Memphis' mother.

"But it didn't help. "Memphis didn't change. If anything her bad behaviour was exaggerated," says Michelle, 47. "I think it was so strict over there that she came back and went wild."

Oh no.

Image from World's Strictest Parents

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