Singapore—It’s been an challenging season for die-hard followers of Singaporean personality Xiaxue, who has come under fire from many, especially after the controversial blogger went after Workers’ Party’s Raeesah Khan, now MP-elect for Sengkang GRC, during the campaign period earlier this month.
Two police reports were filed against Ms Khan in early July due to comments she made online a few years ago. Xiaxue, whose real name is Wendy Cheng, wrote an Instagram story about Ms Khan that read, “Oops guess it wasn’t a good idea to stir up racist sentiments was it? I’m not a fan of the lack of freedom of speech we have in Sg, but I love it that whether you post woke or anti-woke comments, the gov’t is gonna come after you all the same. At least this is better than in Western countries where leftists can say they want to kill all white people but woe betide you if you use the wrong pronoun, it’s a criminal offense. stop fielding radical feminists/leftist as candidates ffs we don’t need their poison infecting our politics.”
Many netizens, who found nothing wrong with what Ms Khan had done, rallied to support her and called the blogger out. Moreover, they asked the brands that sponsor her to end their partnerships, with some degree of success as she was dropped as an endorser and replaced as a host for an upcoming show.
This caused Ms Cheng, long known for her controversial, take-no-prisoner stand on many issues, to rail against “cancel culture,” and to switch access to her Twitter and blog to private, as well as to file for a protection order and harassment suit against those who have tried to cancel her.
But Xiaxue still has a number of fans online, who believe that she has the courage to voice out what many are thinking.
Now, her remaining fans may yet have a reason to rejoice. According to AsiaOne, Ms Cheng has made herself available via Authentic Celebrity Experiences (ACE). The platform allows followers to enjoy a shoutout from Xiaxue for the price of $276 and gives Ms Cheng an income stream after being dropped by the brands that used to pay her as an endorser.
AsiaOne explained that ACE works along the same principles as the popular Cameo app overseas, which gives people personalized video shoutouts for an amount of money. ACE appeals to the South East Asian market, and popular regional and local celebrities such as Kumar, Patricia Mok and influencer Nicole Choo can be found on the platform.
And so, apparently, can Xiaxue. AsiaOne also posted a comparison of how much people pay for celebrity shoutouts compared to the fee Ms Cheng commands, writing that among the Singaporeans on the platform, she charges the highest. Here are some other celebrities and the prices they ask for: Gurmit Singh ($124), Alaric Tay ($89), Constance Lau ($62).
ACE apparently receives 25 percent of the fee, and the celebrity gets the remainder. AsiaOne also adds that there seem to be no shoutouts online for Ms Cheng quite yet, while we at TISG wonder if any one of our readers would like to be the first? —/TISG
Read: Playwright Alfian Sa’at schools influencer Xiaxue on what ‘cancel culture’ really is
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