Is Bollywood scene in Eternals movie racist? Happy Deepavali!

What is racist?

That may be obvious to many but not to all.

How else do you explain the viral 14-second video posted by a gym of two middle-aged Chinese women doing a seated row with elastic bands while shaking their heads like broken bobblehead dolls and repeating “happy Deepavali” to laughter from an unseen audience?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Wake Up, Singapore 🇸🇬 (@wakeupsingapore)

Never mind the Eternals movie. The video should’ve been rated M18 for immature content.

But someone must have thought it was okay and not racist at all because it was posted on Instagram by F45 Serangoon Garden South to mark the Hindu festival last week.

After receiving “feedback that this video is racially insensitive”, the gym apologised: “We are very sorry for the mistakes and hope to seek your forgiveness.”

With the Internet being the Internet, at least one of the women has been supposedly identified and the company she works for has also been targeted by those demanding that the woman be sacked.

It’s like Amy Cheong all over again. Remember her?

The company responded that it was aware of the video, adding: “We are treating this matter very seriously and we are currently in the process of investigating the incident.”

But the video was not the only racially-charged Deepavali-related incident that went viral last week.

So did this tweet by a Twitter user named sham: “my siblings my niece and i were just playing with sparklers for Deepavali and someone from on top threw an egg at us.”

my siblings my niece and i were just playing with sparklers for Deepavali and someone from on top threw an egg at us????? wtf is this pic.twitter.com/GzQRF3hkGZ

— sham (@sham_ugh) November 4, 2021

He also tweeted pictures of a family including a young girl playing with sparklers outdoors and pictures of a smashed egg at what looked like the foot of a Housing Board block.

The Twitter user did not outright call it a racist incident, but some took it as such.

As one person commented: “I’m sorry that some racist person had to show his/her downright ugliness when y’all were enjoying the sparklers.”



But I would like to report a possibly racist Deepavali-related incident that not enough people are talking about.

It’s in the Eternals movie, which opened in Singapore on Deepavali.



I know the movie received the M18 rating and is banned in a several Middle Eastern countries because of a scene with two gay men kissing. But what raises my hackles is a different scene.

Come on, Marvel, you have the first South Asian superhero Kingo played by Pakistani-American actor Kumail Nanjiani and what do you do?

You put him in a Bollywood dance number.



Stereotype much?

I guess I should be grateful that you didn’t make Gilgamesh played by Korean-American actor Don Lee sing K-pop and play Squid Game.

Or make Ajak played by Mexican-American actress Selma Hayek eat tacos and clean houses.

Or make Sersi played by Chinese-British actress Gemma Chan know gongfu and ride a giant flying Chinese dragon in the end – no, wait, that is another movie.

It is particularly jarring considering the movie is a woke wet dream with a hyper-diverse cast that also includes a deaf actress, two British guys who played brothers in Game Of Thrones and Angelina Jolie.

Plus the movie is directed by what Americans like to call a “woman of colour”, Oscar winner Chloe Zhao.



As Eternals has become the worst reviewed Marvel Cinematic Universe movie ever, some fans are calling its critics racist and misogynist.

So it almost does not matter that Kingo was originally Japanese in the comics. No one is accusing Marvel of brown-washing for making the character a South Asian just to have a Bollywood sequence.

All is forgiven, Tilda Swinton?



Yay, representation.

The movie may not be as outright racist as the F45 video, but both trade on the same old racial stereotypes.

Shaking my head.

But not like that.

- Publihsed in The New Paper, 8 November 2021

Oh, ‘Kamala’ spelt backwards is ‘alamak’? Shut up your face

Alamak, nasi lemak.

Do you know that “nasi lemak” spelt backwards is “Kamel Isan”, which happens to be the name of my Facebook friend in Indonesia?

Sure, she is no Vice-President of the United States of America, but still, what a coincidence!

When US V-P Kamala Harris visited Singapore last week, I saw a bunch of posts online pointing out with some glee that “Kamala” spelt backwards is “alamak”.



Even though the meme spread faster than the Delta variant, I shall resist referring to it as the Kamala virus. There is no vaccine for it – Michelle Pfeiffer-BioNTech, Madonna or otherwise.

Apparently, many were so tickled by the alamak-Kamala joke (if you can call it that) that they couldn’t help infecting others with it.

One of them was a friend of Marine Parade GRC MP Seah Kian Peng.

Mr Seah then became a super spreader himself by sharing the joke on Facebook last Monday:

“As we know, VP of USA, Ms Kamala Harris chose Singapore for her first stop of her Asia tour. And with it, a friend pointed out to me that Kamala’s name spelt backwards is Alamak… what a coincidence! #singapore #usa #alamak #coincidence #humour”

Thank goodness for that last hashtag. How else would you know the post was meant to be humorous? I’m speaking from experience.

But you can’t find the post any more.

Mr Seah told Mothership.sg: "Yes, I did post this on my FB page last evening just before I went for my MPS (Meet-the-People Session).

“Midway through my MPS, a friend ping me and as I reflected on it, I agree it was not appropriate and decided to take down the posting.”



Unfortunately, the Internet doesn’t forget.

Although Mr Seah, who is also CEO of NTUC FairPrice, deleted the post, someone has already taken a screenshot, which went viral with people calling the joke racist and misogynist.



I’m more offended by the repetitiveness of seeing versions of the same joke over and over again.

Before Mr Seah, others have also shared the joke, including SGAG and Goody Feed, and it remains on their Facebook pages. They have yet to be shamed into removing it.



In fact, the joke has been going around long before Ms Harris landed on our sometimes rainy shores.

I first started encountering it last November after Mr Joe Biden won the US presidential election with Ms Harris as his running mate (alleged voter fraud and deadly insurrection notwithstanding).

Even Mothership.sg shared the joke, together with this knee-slapper: “China is already welcoming Biden. China is prepared. They have even named a famous landmark in central Beijing for Biden since the Ming dynasty in the 14th century.”

The punchline: “FOR BIDEN CITY!”

Get it?

And it is still there on Facebook.

(By the way, the Forbidden City was actually built in the 15th century, but what’s a century or two between friends?)

So if the alamak-Kamala joke has been around for at least nine months, why are people seemingly taking offence only now?

As author Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh wrote online: “I’ve seen this Alamak-Kamala ‘joke’ on private forums and comedy boards, but for a politician to do so publicly… hmmm.”

In other words, Mr Seah is an elected official, not SGAG. Or me.



The one good thing to come out of the backlash the MP received is that hopefully, it has made everyone realise how inappropriate the joke is – which he acknowledged – and this is the vaccine that will prevent folks from spreading this over-repeated so-called “joke” ever again.

Don’t be anti-vax.

My friend Kamel and I thank you.

- Published in The New Paper, 30 August 2021

Oh, brother! I once pitched to Mediacorp Channel 5 an idea for sitcom about a Malay family and was told to add a Chinese character

Oh no, she didn’t!

But she did. I think someone just called Mediacorp racist.

Or did she?

That someone is broadcast journalist Sharanjit Leyl.



In a BBC radio programme that aired two days before National Day, she said: “My pride in multicultural Singapore comes with the acknowledgement that had I been born Chinese, my life would have been a lot easier.”

She talked about how even though she had a master’s degree and broadcast journalism experience in Canada, “I struggled to get my foot in the door at the local news broadcaster”.

The “local news broadcaster” she was referring to is, of course, Mediacorp.

So she got a job at Bloomberg, where one of her duties was to provide currency updates to Mediacorp.

“They told my bosses they didn’t want me doing TV updates for them,” said Ms Sharanjit.

“I know the man who ran the newsroom of that same TV channel, who ironically happens to be Indian Singaporean.

“And I confronted him about why there were still so few Indian and Malay anchors presenting their programmes.

“His response was that viewers did not like watching darker-skinned presenters.”

So she was not actually accusing Mediacorp of being racist. She was accusing Mediacorp of accusing its viewers of being racist.

Mediacorp has since released a statement that Ms Sharanjit appears to be referring to its editor-in-chief Walter Fernandez, who did not say what she said he said.

He said: “To my recollection, I did not reference race or skin colour at all in our conversation.”

The company also said that it is “committed to equal opportunities and diversity in our workforce” and its “hiring policies and practices are based on merit”.



I was once (actually thrice) a Mediacorp employee and this reminds me of my own experience there.

I used to work on Channel 5 shows like Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd, Under One Roof, Living With Lydia and Shiver.




We regularly had pitch meetings where we proposed new show ideas for the channel.

One day, I decided to pitch a sitcom about a Malay family. It had never been done on Channel 5 before. The closest we got was Police & Thief, starring Mark Lee and Suhaimi Yusof, which was about a Malay family – and also a Chinese family.



It seems that on Channel 5, while Chinese characters can be the leads, if there are minority characters, they are part of the ensemble or co-leads at best.





The rationale, of course, is that since Singapore is majority Chinese, this should be reflected in the casting of the show to get the most viewers.

But when I analysed the viewership of the most popular Channel 5 programmes, what I noticed was that Malays comprised a sizable chunk disproportionate to their population.

I figured that if I could grow this demographic, I could get boffo ratings for my show. Most Chinese viewers are watching Channel 8 anyway.

So my motivation was more commercial than woke.

I also thought that a Channel 5 series with an all-Malay cast would be a first and make a great marketing hook.

When I pitched my concept, the feedback I got from the executives running Channel 5 (all Chinese) was they liked the idea – but could I include a Chinese character as well?

What? That would defeat the whole purpose of the show!

No, I wasn’t going to change anything, I snapped.

My reaction was so antagonistic that the executives just didn’t want to deal with me any more and moved on to another pitch.

I immediately regretted my outburst. I guess I could have added a Chinese character. Or pretended that I would.

But in hindsight, perhaps it was for the best. A blessing in disguise. I am probably not the most qualified person to create a sitcom about a Malay family.

My idea was a show called Brudder! which would centre around two brothers. A lot of the dialogue would just be them going “Brudder!”

That would not have aged well. I definitely dodged a bullet there. I should thank those Channel 5 execs for saving me from myself by rejecting my pitch, even though it was due less to its lack of merit and more to my obnoxiousness.

But I did do a pilot about an Indian family starring Gurmit Singh for Channel 5 that didn’t go to series and was never aired.

Yes, it did have Chinese characters.

Well, at least nobody told me that Channel 5 viewers did not like watching darker-skinned characters.

- Unpublished

'Black man wearing white': How a UN vote on cannabis in Vienna led to a vote on whether a Facebook comment is racist in Singapore

Everyone makes comments on Facebook. Many even make comments on the Facebook pages of ministers.

But imagine if your comment is called out by Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, who then conducts an online poll to ask whether people think your comment is racist.

Yikes.

That’s what happened to “Nubela Goh”, turning him into Singapore social media’s latest villain of the week.

And it all started with those party animals at the United Nations (UN).

On Dec 2 in Vienna, Austria, the UN voted to remove cannabis from the most tightly controlled category of narcotic drugs to make research into its medical use easier.

Ambassador Khan @ambmansoorkhan, @CND_tweets Chair, opens the 63rd reconvened session – starting with the voting on @WHO scheduling recommendations on cannabis and cannabis-related substances @UNODC @UN_Vienna. Webcast: https://t.co/KMteoWuPpF pic.twitter.com/HOdQvhcZ8X

— CND (@CND_tweets) December 2, 2020

In response, our Ministry of Home Affairs said: “Singapore is disappointed with this outcome.”

Mr Shanmugam told the media: “I put this down to the power of money. Companies see a huge amount of profit, and a very invidious idea that cannabis is not harmful, is being pushed.”

[UN CND Vote on Cannabis] Gave my views on the recent UN CND vote. There is substantive evidence that cannabis use is harmful. Our position on cannabis must be based on science and evidence.

Posted by K Shanmugam Sc on Tuesday, December 8, 2020

So that you don’t have to look it up, “invidious” means “likely to arouse or incur resentment or anger in others”.

Last Thursday, to further make his case, Mr Shanmugam posted on Facebook an e-mail from a “former cannabis abuser”, expressing his “gratitude for keeping Singapore safe from drugs”.

The e-mail read:

“I believe many abusers like myself started to try marijuana due to the widespread misinformation of the media portraying it to be harmless and ‘cool’. I fell for that, as did those around me. True enough, it is the gateway to the world of drugs and other abusive substances.”

The Facebook post got more than 200 comments, including this one:

“My msg to this young person, you are an inspiration… Thank you for sharing your personal experience, It is so valuable for ignorant people.”

And this is where our friend Nubela Goh (not his real name) came in, blithely changing his life forever by replying:

“Have you tried weed? If not, I think you might be the ignorant one gaslighted by a black man wearing white.”

It was buried under hundreds of other comments, so it was a fluke that anyone even noticed it.

A Facebook page called Gong Simi Singapore posted a screenshot of Nubela Goh’s reply, remarking:

“Singapore has no room for racism… This guy... called Indians ‘black man’ and calling people ignorant who had never tried weed while discrediting users who tried and warned people about it.”

Singapore has no room for racism. This comment was spotted at Minister Shanmugam's facebook post on the former cannabis...

Posted by Gong Simi Singapore on Thursday, December 10, 2020

Gong Simi Singapore revealed Nubela Goh's real name and his company as well.

Later that day, Mr Shanmugam also posted a screenshot of Mr Goh’s reply, asking: “Would people think this is racist? Or not?”

[Is this racist?] Nubela Goh, made the following comment on my post. Wonder what Singaporeans will think of the...

Posted by K Shanmugam Sc on Friday, December 11, 2020

The minister even created an online poll on Instagram Stories, where 88 per cent answered yes.

Yikes.

So a UN vote on marijuana in Vienna somehow led to an online vote on whether a Facebook comment is racist in Singapore. That's 2020 for ya.

Having gone viral, Mr Goh posted an apology of sorts:

“MinShan, there was zero intent in racism here and I apologise if you or any other people are slighted by that statement. No ifs/buts on that apology.

“For clarity: I literally said ‘Black man in a white shirt’ to highlight the fact that he is speaking for the PAP. It stands out. What I was trying to highlight is the WHITE SHIRT.

“If you put it into context sans the figure of speech, what I’m trying to say can be distilled down into this: ‘Have you tried weed? If not you might be the ignorant one gaslight by _someone who speaks loudly for PAP_.’”

Not to nitpick, but Mr Goh literally did not use the word “shirt” at all in his original statement. He actually wrote “black man wearing white”, which implied a shirt but it was not what he said he said.

Mr Shanmugam shared the apology, which wasn’t well received. So Mr Goh rewrote his apology and edited it down to: “MinShan, I apologise for the distasteful use of words.”

Nubela Goh has put up a post, apologising, in the following terms.

He has also asked if I could remove references to...

Posted by K Shanmugam Sc on Friday, December 11, 2020

Then the issue of doxxing by the minister came up, which Mr Shanmugam addressed:

“He (Nubela Goh) has also asked if I could remove references to his name and the name of his company. I have decided to do so, but told him – his name and his company’s name were in his original comment when he posted his comment on my FB page. I put up a screen shot, and made my comment.”

Since “Nubela Goh” already has much of his personal details online for anyone to easily google, he has essentially pre-doxxed himself.

Who could have predicted that a discussion about the dangers of pot could morph into a minor controversy about racism and doxxing?

It’s all the UN’s fault.

- Published in The New Paper, 14 December 2020

E-Pay Dennis Chew brownface ad controversy: Everyone is apologising – well, except...

Dear Dennis Chew,

How are you doing, man?

Congratulations on playing Aunty Lucy for all these years. Who knew you could build a career on ripping off Jack Neo’s Liang Xi Mei?

What a week it has been, right? It seems like everyone and their ad agencies have been apologising as a result of that E-Pay ad you did. Some more than once.

Well, everyone except you.

Your employer Mediacorp and the creative agency Havas Worldwide said in a joint statement on July 28:

“We’re sorry for any hurt that was unintentionally caused.

“The message behind this advertising campaign is that e-payment is for everyone. For that reason, Dennis Chew, well-known for his ability to portray multiple characters in a single production in a lighthearted way, was selected as the face of the campaign.”

In this case, “everyone” in the ad meant Chinese men in drag and/or brownface holding a plate of food. That seems like a rather tiny demographic.

How does it feel to be the face of a lighthearted racist campaign?



Nets, one of the organisations behind E-Pay, also apologised “for any hurt that its campaign has caused”.

Then Havas apologised again while Mediacorp released a separate statement:

“The portrayal of some races in the advertisement was done in an insensitive fashion. We take full responsibility and apologise unreservedly.”

YouTubers Preeti Nair and her brother Subhas also apologised for their rap video made in response to the ad. This was after Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam criticised both the ad and the video – but the video more harshly.



However, the siblings’ apology was called out by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as “mock, insincere” because it was “a spoof of an earlier apology issued by Havas”.



So the video makers apologised again on Saturday, this time using the words “sincerely” and “unconditionally”. MHA has yet to respond on whether it’s another spoof.



On the same day, writer Edwin Yeo apologised after writing an article for the Singapore Kindness Movement that said “casual racism” was “okay”, among other things.



Et tu, Singapore Kindness Movement?

That’s like seven apologies in seven days over one thing. It must be a record of some sort.

(UPDATE: Singapore Kindness Movement General Secretary William Wan has also apologised.



So it's now eight apologies in nine days.)

I am still waiting for apologies from Enterprise Singapore, National Environment Agency, Housing Board and JTC Corporation. They are the other organisations behind the E-Pay thing, along with Nets.

They must be wondering what the hell they got themselves into.

Here they are, just trying to get people to use a card or phone instead of cash to pay for food, and suddenly they’re enmeshed in this messy debate about racism and majority privilege in Singapore because of one ad.

All they want is for you to pay for your prata with a QR code, no brownface required.

Now E-Pay will forever be associated with being racist. I believe some drastic rebranding is in order.



And, of course, another missing apology is from the brownface that started it all – yours.

But was it really your fault? I mean, you were probably only following Mediacorp’s orders, right?

Yeah, that was the same kind of excuse the Nazis used.

I’m trying to remember whether James Lye ever said sorry for VR Man.



Would an apology make a difference anyway? Even a sincere, unconditional one?

While some have hailed the Nair siblings as champions for the under-represented, you’ll always be the Chinese guy who wore brownface in that ad no matter what.

Perhaps you can take comfort in the careers of your Mediacorp colleagues Shane Pow and Desmond Tan, which have survived, if not thrived, after they were separately called out for going blackface in 2016 and 2015, respectively.



Both are still starring in TV shows on Channel 8 like nothing happened. Did they ever apologise?

But then Pow and Tan never appeared in an ad that was described as “in poor taste” by the Law and Home Affairs Minister. Yikes.

Oh well, you still got Aunty Lucy.

Hope I don’t have to apologise for this column.

- Published in The New Paper, 5 August 2019

Dear Mr Ong,

I am a retired 66-yr old uncle, and I had spent many years watching Gurmit Singh in various portrayals - as a chinese man, chinese woman, malay man, malay woman, indian man, indian woman, caucasian man, caucasian woman - on TV, roadshows, newspapers, magazines, Internet, stage, advertisements, brochures, flyers, posters, postcards, etc. And what happened. Nothing happened. No problem. Gurmit Singh was not wrong. Mediacorp and its agencies were not wrong.

Gurmit Singh had done it all. Nobody thought there was anything wrong.

I hope you find time to compile old images of Gurmit Singh in his various portrayals and write an article about the evolving perception of racism in Singapore and other countries.

The person hardest hit is not Dennis Chew but Gurmit Singh bcos after what happened last week, Gurmit Singh has to stop what he does best, which is portraying various ethnic men and women.

Where do we draw the line now, after what happened last week? Jack Neo cannot portray Liang Po Po? Dennis Chew cannot portray Auntie Lucy? Kumar cannot portray you-know-what? Wang Lei (getai king) cannot portray "Kong Foo Po" (cantonese granny)? Thank you.

i was at Pink Dot @ Hong Lim Park on Sat-29-June-2019.

Preetipls and her brother were on stage talking and rapping, stirring up the crowd with hate speech that would make Amos Yee blush.

You lack insight to comment on their latest video if you weren't at that Pink Dot event to witness what they did there.

I believe your media company has recorded plenty of footages of what the siblings talked and rapped about at that event. Why don't you look at those recordings?

You should monitor closely how they are hijacking various events and platforms to promote their private agenda of hate.

This is my last email to you on this matter. I will not be drawn into politics and hate speech, as I don't have the energy and time to do so, considering my frail health and lack of resources in my sunset years.

Do you still want Dennis Chew and Mediacorp to apologize? Then what is your view on Gurmit Singh and Jack Neo and Kumar and Wang Lei, etc? Where you draw your line?

UPDATE: Dennis Chew finally apologised on Instagram on Aug 7, two days after this column was published.

View this post on Instagram

My role in a recent ad has caused much disappointment. For many days I held back what I have to say, afraid of making things worse. I feel terrible about how things turned out. I cannot undo things but I would like to say to everyone, I am deeply sorry. We live in a harmonious multiracial society and we must never take it for granted. I will set higher expectations of myself. I will do better by my family, friends, colleagues and most importantly, all of you.

A post shared by Dennis Chew （周崇庆） (@denniszhouchongqing) on Aug 7, 2019 at 4:01am PDT

Readers write in to defend Crazy Rich Asians: 'Cut it some slack'

So I received two e-mails regarding my last column about Crazy Rich Asians:

SM

I take it that you have written the article tongue-in-cheek and I should better take it with a pinch of salt.

Crazy Rich Asians, the movie and novel, is not a documentary, but based on the author's observations of the super rich Chinese in East Asia. So let it be. Minority inclusion in this instance and context is not necessary. Personally, I would also hate to see it turn out like a Mediacorp drama with minority races artificially inserted. But it is understandable for Mediacorp as they represent the government.

However, Crazy Rich Asians the movie has no such national obligations and objectives. Neither should it set out to sterilise and pontificate to the audience. It is fiction. It is satire.

Cut it some slack. It is not worth a battle fighting. Otherwise there will be a tonne of other Hollywood movies that too are not representative of the real world. Audience don't want to watch real life. They want drama. I am saying this as a screenwriter, director and actor. You could do to accept them as art with the creative licence to entertain.

Michael Chua
Screenwriter-Director-Actor

This next one may have taken part of my column too seriously:

Dear Mr Ong,

Crazy Rich Asians is a movie, based on fiction. Must we take everything so personally?

Isn’t it a story of one girl meeting rich boyfriend’s rich family? Like Cinderella. It’s not autobiographical even if its based on the writer’s experience.

It is not a story of Singapore and it’s multi racial people. The movie is set in Singapore based on a particular family who happens to be a Chinese family.

This story of being looked down upon by a rich family can happen to a Rich Malay in Brunei, Rich Indonesian, Rich American (Paris Hilton), Rich English (Royal Family), etc.

Movies are to escape into. Some can be a political or social statement but generally its entertainment isn’t it? I had fun. I laughed. I cried. I'm easy to pleased.

I know its just a fluff article but it is not often that Asians are represented for the world to see, especially for Singapore Asian, this round the Chinese, next time maybe the Malays or Peranakan. Can’t we support the Singaporean actors who got this opportunity for work and exposure. They don’t get it from Mediacorp, who should engage, encourage and support local talents. To suggest Scarlett Johansson is to ignore the story of this Chinese settings and to fall back on Hollywood’s usual casting of big names for ticket sales. I’m glad it is not the usual Mark Lee’s bunch from Mediacorp by the way, where talents from tv swop with radio and channel 5 with channel 8.It was fun identifying the local actors used and encouraging. I liked that the cast was international asians too.

Writing to you coz I’ve nothing better to do. :)
F Kee

I know I won't be changing anyone's mind, but I just want to make a few points.

Yes, Crazy Rich Asians is a movie, but it has also been marketed as a milestone for diversity and representation, setting a standard for itself that it fails to meet.



The movie is not called Crazy Rich Asians Of Chinese Descent but Crazy Rich Asians, and "Asians" means more than just East Asians. If the movie were set not in Singapore but in Hong Kong, Taipei, Beijing or Shanghai, no one would question the characters being all Chinese. But being multi-racial is a defining trait of Singapore and leaving the other races out of the movie is a failure in representation.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sylvia Toh Paik Choo (@paikchoo) on Aug 21, 2018 at 9:44pm PDT

Others have written more about this. Here are a few links:

The New York Times: For Some Viewers, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Is Not Asian Enough

The Atlantic: One Way That Crazy Rich Asians Is a Step Backward

The Guardian: Where are the brown people? Crazy Rich Asians draws tepid response in Singapore

Medium: Why You Shouldn’t Watch the Crazy Rich Asians Movie

I also note that the two readers who wrote in to defend the lack of non-Chinese in the movie happen to be Chinese. Should we check our majority privilege?

But all this doesn't mean you can't enjoy the movie, so there's no need to be defensive about it.

You can love Crazy Rich Asians and still acknowledge that the movie could've done a better job at representation that its marketing is crowing about.

I mean, I kinda enjoyed Ghost In The Shell even with Scarlett Johansson.


EARLIER: Crazy Rich Asians should have been called High SES Chinese & starred Scarlett Johansson

Fight racism, ageism and discrimination against gay not-rainbow cakes

Read any good books lately?

Uh… does Facebook count?

Well, it should. Last week, because of Facebook, I learned about issues of racism, ageism and foodism.

No, I didn’t make up that last word.

Unlike "covfefe", "foodism" is a legit word in the Oxford English Dictionary along with "aiyah" and "aiyoh".

As in, aiyoh, did you read what happened to that Indian actor who complained on Facebook about being asked to speak like "a full-blown Indian man" during an audition for the Ah Boys To Men movie sequel (yes, another one)?



Mr Shrey Bhargava’s Facebook post went viral and many people supported him, but many also whacked him worse than critics whacking the Ah Boys To Men movies.

Things escalated quickly when he was questioned by the police at Tanglin Police Division on Wednesday because someone made a police report.

Yes, someone actually made a police report over this because, you know, Singaporeans.

But the police said they have "assessed that no criminal offence was disclosed" and they "will not be conducting further investigations in relation to the case".

Yah lor, the police have better things to do.

Like investigating unattended bags at the MRT station left by two dudes who had to go answer the call of nature.

At least Mr Bhargava wasn’t called "sick in the head", "self-centred" and "smug" by Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam because of his Facebook post.

That was what happened to a Mr Thomas Chua who wrote a "gloating post" about the death of a Traffic Police officer and angered Mr Shanmugam so much that the minister identified Mr Chua by name and posted his picture on the minister’s official Facebook page.



I’m not sure which is worse — being questioned by the police or being shamed by the Minister of Home Affairs and Law on social media.

At least Mr Bhargava is still on Facebook whereas Mr Chua isn’t. The latter is too busy getting arrested for shoplifting.

Also, Mr Bhargava, 22, is still young and has a whole career ahead of him unlike, say, 70-year-old TV actress Jin Yinji.



In a newspaper interview, she said she was shown no respect during contract talks with Mediacorp last year and has since left the company.

I wonder if she was asked to speak like a full-blown Chinese woman.

Probably not. Nowadays, it seems only Jack Neo is asked to do that.

When he’s not busy perpetuating racial stereotypes, the director of the Ah Boys To Men movies also cross-dresses as Liang Ximei in Happy Can Already!, a Hokkien TV series promoted by the Government.



Speaking of questionable sexuality, I also read on Facebook that multi-coloured cake is gay.

On Tuesday, someone posted on the "We are against Pinkdot in Singapore" Facebook group:

"Went to another of those ‘young punk’ cafes that are sprouting all over our island, and again saw all these so-called ‘rainbow cakes’.

"I always protest to my ignorant young cousins, these are not rainbow cakes. Rainbow has seven colours.

"These are gay cakes. Nothing wrong with a gay cake, sure, but please call a spade a spade.

"Stop covering up gay agenda. Now."

The post went viral last week too. Before long, there will be erections of barricades around these baked goods and only Singaporeans and permanent residents will be allowed to enjoy them.

In Taiwan, the law would be changed to allow these cakes to marry each other.

After all, they didn’t choose to be gay. They were baked that way.

Hey, isn’t that a Lady Agar Agar song?



If you want to be outraged by food, it should be cheese tea. I mean, what the hell is it? Do you drink it or dip nachos in it?

For just as we should guard against racism and ageism, we should also not discriminate against so-called "rainbow cake" with colours in numbers other than seven because that’s homophobia.

Or is it foodism?

If I post that on Facebook, please don’t make a police report, okay?

- Published in The New Paper, 5 June 2017

Shane Pow! Mediacorp's Toggle gets black eye over blackface

At least now I know what not to wear for Halloween this year.

Blackface.

Instead, maybe I’ll go as Shane Pow.

Except nobody will know I’m Shane Pow unless I go in blackface.

But I can’t go in black face because I would then have to apologise like Toggle did — twice.

And also, you know, because it’s racist.

Admittedly, I had never heard of Shane Pow before I read about his controversial make-up choice in an episode of the Mandarin comedy series I Want To Be A Star produced by Mediacorp.



I have never seen the show. It’s not on Channel 8 or U, but on video streaming service Toggle, which is sort of like Mediacorp’s version of Netflix.

And like Netflix, Toggle also produces its own original content. I guess you can say I Want To Be A Star is Toggle’s Orange Is The New Blackface.

In the episode in question, Pow played an actor who put on blackface make-up and an Afro wig after a casting director failed to find an African man for the role, reported The Straits Times.

So at least the blackface wasn’t gratuitous. It was plot-motivated, not that that made it any less racist.

On Wednesday, Toggle apologised on Twitter, saying:

“Ep 6 of I Want To Be A Star on Toggle Originals featured a brief scene on the portrayal of an Afro-American, played by actor Shane Pow.

“The scene has been perceived as being racially insensitive by some viewers, although that was never our intention in the production.

“We appreciate the feedback and truly apologise to viewers who have been affected by this portrayal. The relevant scenes have also been removed from the programme.”

pic.twitter.com/RfUQ8ig5dv

— Toggle (@ToggleSG) October 25, 2016

Toggle’s apology was more poorly received than my column.

You go to Twitter to say sorry, Twitter will make you really sorry.

Here are some of the replies:

• “This isn’t an apology. Admit someone made a mistake during the production process instead of blaming the viewers’ ‘perception’.”
• “So I take it that @ToggleSG and @mediacorp still don’t have an issue with blackface? Only the viewers’ reactions?”
• “Remove yourselves from existence please.”

The backlash got so bad that the next day, Mediacorp’s head of connected media Anil Nihalani had to apologise for the apology:

“Our apology yesterday came out wrong. We’re sorry for the blackface portrayal and for the poor apology.

“We take race-related issues very seriously and that portrayal should not have happened.”

To show how serious he is about his apology, he also apologised on Facebook, not Twitter.

Last year, another Mediacorp artist, Desmond Tan, was also criticised for posting on Instagram a photo of himself in blackface and a turban.



I can see how this happens.

In a local entertainment culture where male comedians have made a career out of pretending to be another sex (see Liang Xi Mei, Liang Po Po, Aunty Lucy and maybe Kumar?), why not another race?

Look at Gurmit Singh.



If a Singh can play Phua Chu Kang, why can’t Desmond Tan play a Singh?

I’m old enough to remember watching on Channel 5 a BBC programme called The Black And White Minstrel Show, where the male performers were all in blackface and everyone seemed fine with it. The popular series lasted from 1958 to 1978.



But this is 2016.

You can still find the show on YouTube if you want to be horrified by casual racism packaged as lavish song-and-dance numbers.

Nowadays, you can no longer get away with Mickey Rooney playing a Japanese man in Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961) or James Bond going undercover as a Japanese man by getting Vulcan eyebrows in You Only Live Twice (1967).





Or can you?

Last week, I saw Doctor Strange, where the character of The Ancient One, who appears Asian in the comics, is played by the very Caucasian Tilda Swinton.



Well, at least they didn’t give her Vulcan eyebrows.

I’m also old enough to remember when Darlie toothpaste used to be Darkie toothpaste and the logo was a black man (or possibly a white man in blackface from The Black And White Minstrel Show) wearing a top hat.

The name was finally changed in 1989 and the logo became a man of indeterminate race wearing a top hat.





Unfortunately, in Chinese, the product is still called “Black Person Toothpaste”.

Because of these mixed signals, perhaps it’s understandable if not excusable that Toggle thought that blackface was acceptable comedy fodder.

One can only wish that Singaporeans could be at least less racist than a toothpaste.

For Halloween, I think I’ll just go as 200 eggs.

- Published in The New Paper, 30 October 2016


UPDATE: IMDA fines Mediacorp $5,500 for racially insensitive content

Black face to red-faced: Toggle, The Smart Local say sorry for racist videos

Wow, two Facebook apologies within two hours of each other for racially insensitive online videos.

First, Mediacorp's Toggle said sorry for this:





Then The Smart Local for this:





This must be some sort of new record.

#Thisis2016


COLUMN: Shane Pow! Mediacorp's Toggle gets black eye over blackface

Why is Sharon Au's mock accent 'racist' but Dim Sum Dollies' is not?

So I went to see The History Of Singapore Part 1 by the Dim Sum Dollies a couple of nights ago.

In the show, the Dollies - Selena Tan, Pam Oei and Denise Tan - and Hossan Leong (whom I believe are all Chinese) play characters of different races - Malay, Indian, Ang Mo and... uh... Chinese.



Leong played an Indian character at least twice.

His first Indian character reminded me of the Indian character in this controversial New York Times cartoon drawn by a Singaporean last year.



Later, Leong put on a bald cap and an Indian accent to play Mahatma Gandhi. It was just one can of shoe polish short of black face.



Judging by the laughter I heard, the Chinese-dominated multi-racial audience thought it was hilarious.

But I was a bit discomforted by the Indian impersonations because days before, Sharon Au was just called "racist" for putting on an Indian accent at the SEA Games opening ceremony.

Was Leong's act racist?

By that measure, was the Dollies impersonating other races racist too?

Or is it because the context is different, the mock accents are acceptable?

What are the rationalistions?

You can say it's just part of the show.

You can say the Dollies are not racist because they're just trying to entertain and not offend. But you can say the same thing about Au.

Well, Au was also talking to an Indian girl when she did her Indian act.

More importantly, Au's interaction with the girl was witnessed by an AFP journalist named Bhavan Jaipragas who was offended enough to demand on Facebook that Au and the SEA Games organisers apologise. And Au has.

'Insensitive remark' at SEA Games pre-opening ceremony activity: EDIT: Sharon Au has apologised for what she described...
Posted by Bhavan Jaipragas on Friday, June 5, 2015

Hi everyone, it was truly a magnificent SEA Games Opening Ceremony and I was really honoured to be part of it. Some of...
Posted by Sharon Au on Friday, June 5, 2015

So is it another case of if no one had complained online and the complaint hadn't gone viral, then it wouldn't have been racist?

After all, entertainers impersonating other races for laughs has been going for a long time in Singapore and elsewhere. We have Gurmit Singh playing Phua Chu Kang, Michelle Chong playing Leticia Bongnino and so on.

I know! It's not racist because it's satire.

So far, I haven't read about anyone accusing the Dim Sum Dollies of being racist. Yet.

But the show runs until June 21. So there's still time.

Mr Bhavan Jaipragas should go.