Singapore — Blogger, social media beauty and lifestyle influencer Wendy Cheng, most famously known by her online handle Xiaxue, is known for stirring up online controversy with unpopular opinions on social issues.
Most recently she has come under fire for her stance and opinion on the police reports made against Workers’ Party (WP) Raaesah Khan.
Ms Khan has since been elected into Parliament after her team won over People’s Action Party (PAP) in Sengkang GRC in the 2020 General Elections.
The 36-year-old influencer is now being targeted by netizens for accusing Ms Khan in an Instagram story of stirring up racial sentiment, and has also been subjected to her share of police reports and petitions for allegedly racist and seditious social media posts made in 2010 and 2011.
Xiaxue’s Instagram story about Ms Khan sees her calling Ms Khan a “racist” and a “toxic woman”.
Ever since she posted these controversial remarks, netizens have banded together in an attempt to boycott Ms Cheng, with hashtags such as #PunishXiaxue that reached No. 1 trending on Twitter in Singapore. Users have also started to send emails out to brands that are partnering with Xiaxue to stop working with her. Brands such as Fresh and Daniel Wellington have announced that they have stopped their partnership.
Similarly, Xiaxue’s old tweets have also been dug out and police reports have been filed against her for her racially offensive tweets made in 2010 and 2011 regarding foreign migrant workers.
A video that has over 20,000 views has also circulated of Instagram user @biggyviggy who filmed himself making a police report against her tweets.
Narelle Kheng Trump-Shames XiaxueÂ
Singer Narelle Kheng also publicly took a shot at Xiaxue by uploading screenshots of Xiaxue’s open support for U.S. President Donald Trump.
This prompted a reply from Xiaxue, “LOL wow didn’t know you were such a fake bitch the entire time we were filming together”. To which Ms Kheng responded, “I guess I grew up… :(“.
The two worked together on a 2017 web-series called LifeSpam.Â
The two then took to a private conversation to discuss their disagreements. This, however, backfired when Narelle Kheng openly continued to denounce Xiaxue on Twitter which led to Xiaxue posting a series of Instagram stories.
Ms Kheng then posted a series of private Instagram DMs with Xiaxue over this.
Xiaxue has also compiled a Google document with screenshots of the two of their conversation that happened on Whatsapp. Ms Kheng has since posted a video explaining what happened and concluded that “My truce to XX is that we can disagree on a personal level, we don’t have to be friends” and then apologized, “Im sorry that I hurt you, but I still believe that your opinions are harmful.”
A petition has also been circulating around social media titled “Punish Xiaxue for seditious content” that currently has more than 25,000 signatures. Influencer PreetiPls has also been vocal about her denouncing of Xiaxue and has encouraged her followers to also sign the petition.
Xiaxue’s reaction and side to the dramaÂ
In response to the comments and DMs that Xiaxue has been receiving from netizens, she posted a series of Instagram posts standing up for her opinions.
In one Instagram post, it captioned:
Authenticity > money. I’ve been posting unpopular views since 2003.
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Blogged when nobody was paying me, will continue to post if nobody is paying me now either. You want politically correct influencers who grovel and backtrack at every criticism and give fake apologies you can find them a dime a dozen. You may not like my views but I have a right to say them.
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You are not going to bully me into silence, or force me to be a hypocritical woke sheep like you, echoing the same tired sanctimonious virtue-signaling crap every other person on social media is repeating ad nauseam. It’s like all of you are infected by the same mind virus. Blah blah patriarchy blah blah intersectionality blah blah internalized systemic institutional structuralism blah blah cis-heteronormative inclusivity representation acknowledge your privilege blah blah blah. Dude. Have some original thought. And here’s something that will shock you: if your ideologies are all backed up by giant corporations, you are not that radical.
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I post not to please you. I post because I think it’s important to have diverse viewpoints out there for people to decide for themselves. Why? Are your arguments so weak you want to shut down anyone who disagrees with you?
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I have the strength to carry on no matter how hard you fuckers try to bring me down because my supporters expect me to always be real, and to say the hard truths on their behalf when they can’t. Facts are sometimes not nice, but someone has to say it. If it has to be me, so be it. You hateful people don’t matter. My supporters that have been here for years and years matter. #punishxiaxue
She has also responded with a blogpost citing that her reason for releasing those tweets in 2010 and 2011 was due to her past experiences of sexual assault. She also explained her reason for disagreeing with Raaesah’s political views such as aligning with “intersectional feminism” and “Angela Davis’ political views” and questions Workers’ Party for fielding a “candidate who holds extreme left-wing views”.
In an interview with Marketing, in response to brands halting partnerships with her, she said, “I personally feel that every brand that has worked with me knows my history. This does not mean that they fully agree with me, but they still chose to work with me. There are brands out there who feel that they are bullied into disassociating with me.”
“I genuinely feel that it is very sad that the mob is doing this to brands and companies are forced to take a stance. When they do dissociate with me, the mob then celebrates because they think this proves that the influencer is indeed a racist when in fact, the company might have been pressured to take such a stance,” Cheng explained.
Similarly, she also tells netizens that “You are not going to bully me into silence”.
The police have since visited Xiaxue for questioning and it is still ongoing.-/TISG