A Singaporean woman who had been enjoying some Instagrammable spots in Bali with a friend recently took to TikTok to share about how they were interrupted by a British woman who made racist remarks and “bullied” them.
Ms Fuwari, 24, posted a video on Oct 1, which she said was their first day in Bali.
https://www.tiktok.com/@fu.wari/video/7149201187747761409?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7108688882145134086
“We have just encountered racism at a very Instagrammable famous spot called Penny Lane Bali,” she said.
She and her friend, Ms Kaelia, had been taking selfies in a corner of the bathroom under a painting of pop superstar Beyonce, “minding our own business” like many others.
But a Caucasian woman approached them and asked, “Is this what you all do with your life?”
And when Ms Fuwari said “Yeah,” the woman went on to ask if she is “like some influencer, is it?” or like a “K-pop idol?”.
The Tiktoker answered, “No, J-pop,” and she and her friend did not encourage the conversation, as they had no desire to engage with the woman, whose attitude they did not like.
“Obviously, she was trying to bully us into feeling bad about taking hot pictures of ourselves,” she added.
The woman then asked them to speak Japanese for her and even began to speak “basic” Japanese phrases, but Ms Fuwari told her that her parents told her not to speak to strangers.
The woman went on to call them “elusive” but then asked if they “even know what elusive means”?
And when Ms Fuwari answered, “Yeah, we speak English back home, the woman said, “I doubt so,” and asked them to give her the definition of the word.
The TikToker told her she does not owe the woman an explanation.
Ms Kaelia added, while the TikToker spoke to the woman nicely, the woman had been “super rude.”
“And condescending,” Ms Fuwari added.
The woman then told them that they were “scared of her because she’s English.”
“Meaning British la. Good for you, la! So proud to be colonizer, is it?”
The woman “kept on” backing them into a corner, but they continued to ignore her.
However, at one point, Ms Fuwari took her phone and began filming the woman, which made her leave all of a sudden.
“So after she saw the camera, she started to leave the toilet, as you can see. But anyway this was clearly racism, okay, because everyone else was taking pictures, like all the ang mohs or whatever.
Why (did) you target us?” she asked, adding that they were the only Asians in the restaurant when this occurred. /TISG