Anthony Bourdain’s savage takedown of maid culture in Singapore goes viral again

SINGAPORE: As it does every once in a while, a clip of the late chef Anthony Bourdain calling out Singaporeans for how maids are treated in the city-state has gone viral yet again, with commenters online echoing Mr Bourdain’s attitudes.

The clip was posted on May 30 on the Facebook page of SBS Australia, a national public broadcaster which specializes in multicultural and multilingual programming. It has since gotten over 600,000 views and been shared 1,400 times.

It comes from the Singapore episode of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, which first aired on CNN on October 1, 2017. In the particular segment, he’s having a meal at a hawker centre with Singaporean writer Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh and two women involved in the local food and culture scene.

One of them said that there are many women in Singapore’s workforce because they have maids at home to take care of their children, going on to call helpers “the opiate of the masses.”

She also said that her husband no longer knew how to get a glass of water for himself, but just signals for the maid to get it for him, which the other woman laughed at.

When asked by Mr Bourdain whether the women did laundry, or if they even knew how to do laundry, they said yes, “in theory,” and laughed again.

The chef did not find this to be quite as humorous, saying that he himself enjoys doing laundry, as he finds it to be satisfying and makes him feel self-reliant.

He then added, “You know, listening to you people, I’ve got to tell you, I want to go out and join the Communist party. It’s like bourgeois, man. You’re living off the labour of an oppressed underclass, yeah.”

However, he quickly walked this back as somewhat of a joke.

Mr Bourdain passed away in 2018.

While the segment did not cause much comment at the time it aired, it surfaced online in 2022 and went viral.

What netizens are saying

A commenter on the recently shared clip pointed out that Mr Bourdain’s feelings had been obvious.

“He then chided that he was teasing them, but you can feel the heat. Anthony hated it when someone was being degrading to househelp, waitstaff, and servers,” one wrote. 

“Wow, so much to unpack and they’re all laughing, and Anthony’s like ew,” another wrote.

“He was calling them out; they thought it was just banter,” a netizen added.

“Anthony lectured them well,” a commenter observed.

A female commenter wrote, “Her husband sounds ‘lovely’ the way he summons for the water.”

Not that Mr Bourdain was against having household help, as he publicly spoke very positively about a Filipina named Vangie who took care of his daughter.

“Vangie was with her from the very beginning of her life, and in time, my daughter came to know her son, her daughter-in-law, their kid, and in time, an extended family and friends—in New Jersey, Southern California, and the Bay Area. And of course, most importantly, Jacques, Vangie’s grandson, her best friend, from whom she has been inseparable since infancy—her older brother in every way but biological. Partners in crime,” he told the Philippines’ GMA News in 2016.

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