Help! How do I deal with my anti-Singapore family?

SINGAPORE: A local Reddit user asked for help to deal with their “anti-Singapore family”, mentioning an older brother obsessed with the United States and parents with a marked preference for China.

In a March 5 (Wednesday) post on r/askSingapore, u/Palatial_Memes wrote that their family “is crazy”.

The post author’s older brother did not do well in school, and neither did he complete national service in Singapore. Yet their parents lent their brother money to study in the US.

u/Palatial_Memes described their brother as being on a “never-ending crusade to glaze everything and anything related to the US,” which included comparing “one-on-one” the prices of goods in Walmart and at Singapore shops.

As for their mother, she only watches China’s national television broadcaster, while their father plays that country’s national anthem when they eat dinner. The post author added by way of explanation that their father, being a Malaysian, did not perform national service.

However, it is the older brother that the post author finds the most difficult, since he raises his voice to defend the US when it is criticised even casually. The post author “can’t even say anything good about Singapore or any other country without him perceiving it as anti-American”.

When their parents admonished the brother not to spend too much money on branded groceries in the US, the brother retorted that US President Donald Trump would reduce inflation, which the post author found mind-boggling.

“The dinner table conversations are [about] just America vs China all the time and I’m just sitting there just wishing they all would just shut up and eat their very Singaporean chicken rice,” the post author wrote, asking, “How do I deal with this xiao lang of a family?”

Many sympathetic commenters weighed in on the post author’s situation, offering suggestions to help them cope.

A number of them advised the post author to start planning an escape, counting down the days to moving out. The commenters told them to put aside money and work, even part-time, when possible so they can save funds faster.

Some Reddit users suggested that the older brother might have developed a love for the US in opposition to their parents’ preference for China, something they had seen happen in other families.

“I think the only way for you guys to find peace is genuinely to shut up (and make an) active effort to avoid talking about politics or anything like that,” one added. /TISG

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