Lifestyle / Entertainment
Singaporean influencer Xiaxue under fire for accusing politician of stirring up ‘racist sentiments’ and for her own offensive tweets – but refuses to back down
- Xiaxue, real name Wendy Cheng, called out Raeesah Khan in the lead-up to Singapore’s recent general election, angering the online community
- Separately, police reports were filed against Xiaxue for now-deleted racially offensive tweets, and an online petition against her has over 23,000 signatures
Rebecca Liew
Published: 4:30pm, 13 Jul, 2020
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Singaporean blogger and social media influencer Wendy Cheng – better known by her online handle Xiaxue – is no stranger to controversy thanks to her political incorrectness and unpopular opinions on social issues and race.
But the 36-year-old is now under intense fire for accusing female Singaporean politician Raeesah Khan in an Instagram story of stirring up racist sentiments, while finding herself the subject of police reports and petitions for allegedly racist and seditious social media posts.
The post about Khan, which came in the lead-up to
Singapore’s recent general election
, angered the online community, many of whom took to social media to express their disdain for Cheng and her provocative posts.
Screengrab of Xiaxue’s Instagram story attacking Workers’ Party candidate Raeesah Khan.
Police are also investigating two reports made against Khan for the social media posts in which she “allegedly commented that Singapore law enforcement authorities discriminated against citizens, and that compared to other groups, rich Chinese and white people were treated differently under the law”.
Social media users encouraged brands to boycott Cheng, backed by the hashtag #PunishXiaxue, which briefly hit No 1 on Twitter in Singapore. Soon after, beauty giant Fresh announced on Instagram that it had ended its partnership with Cheng.
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“Fresh supports diversity and inclusion in all forms, and we stand by that. In light of this, we have ended our partnership with Wendy Cheng,” the brand said in a comment on a post to mark the company’s annual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Day.
Separately, police reports were filed against the influencer for racially offensive tweets, two of which appear targeted at
Singapore’s migrant worker community
.
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In a lengthy blog post on July 8, Xiaxue defended her actions and shared her experiences of being sexually assaulted by “members of this group” as a child and teenager.
Referring to now-deleted tweets from 2010 and 2011, one of which stated “Coz they molest our people and f*** our maids and leer at girls”, she writes: “I can’t even remember who the ‘they’ is referring to. But it’s probably the same group of people. I have zero idea what made me post it.”
One of the now-deleted tweets from 2011, taken from Xiaxue’s recent blog post on July 8.
One of the now-deleted tweets from 2010, taken from Xiaxue’s recent blog post on July 8.
She also expressed her disapproval for the mob of “cancerous woke folk” online, and accused them of perpetuating a “toxic cancel culture”. She furthered her thoughts in an Instagram post that same day, stating she would not be bullied into silence.
Meantime, an online petition rallying against purportedly seditious content posted by Cheng has attracted more than 23,000 signatures, including from Singaporean YouTube personality PreetiPls, who spread word of the petition in a tweet.
The online petition against Xiaxue is aiming for 25,000 signatures.
Popular Singaporean musician Narelle Kheng retweeted PreetiPls and separately shared screenshots of Cheng’s support for
US President Donald Trump
, including a photo of the influencer posing in a Make America Great Again cap in 2017.
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Cheng had herself posted the photo on the now-closed controversial subreddit r/The_Donald.
Xiaxue showing support for Trump.
Kheng’s move fuelled a heated exchange between the pair, with both taking to social media pages to share their sides of the story.
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In a 48-second video published on July 11, Kheng ended with: “My truce to [Xiaxue] is that we can disagree on a personal level, we don’t have to be friends. I’m sorry that I hurt you, but I still believe your opinions are harmful.”
The duo last worked together on a 2017 webseries called LifeSpam.
Narelle Kheng’s tweet stating her truce with Xiaxue.
In true Xiaxue fashion, Cheng has jumped on the controversy by announcing the launch of a line of T-shirts bearing the slogan #PunishXiaxue.
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