Ten lessons from the Diner en Blanc episode

Okay, so the Diner en Blanc Singapore even in Singapore came and went and Limpeh enjoyed a lot of traffic to my blog because of it. Whoopee. I love a story like that. Now that this event is over, let me do a quick summary and go over ten of the important lessons we have learnt from this episode.

1. Do not disrespect Singaporeans and their food

This whole episode erupted because the DEBS organizers insulted Singaporeans when they insinuated that local food was neither posh nor elegant for the event. That went down very, very badly with the Singaporeans on social media. Why are Singaporeans so sensitive about this issue?

This is because Singaporean food is one of the defining elements of Singaporean identity. As the guy from Ang Mo Kio who has spent 41.67% of my life outside Singapore (15 out of 36 years) in Europe and the Middle East, I have found myself constantly having to explain to my friends what it means to be Singaporean. They asked questions like, "what language do you speak in Singapore? What is Singaporean culture like? What makes you different from someone from China or Malaysia?"

Do you know what makes Singapore unique?

Such is the nature of the culture in a country of immigrants - you take all the various cultural influences, put it in a cauldron: blend it, cook it and create something that is the sum of all parts yet unique in its flavours. This elusive soul of what it means to be 'Singaporean' is so hard to find in Singapore because it is the kind of country where standard English is used in business, we're taught standard Mandarin (instead of Singdarin) at school, for a long time, Singlish/Singdarin was banned from TV despite Singlish being the local lingua franca. Likewise, whilst we dine at hawker centres and food courts enjoying local cuisine all the time, when it comes to a special occasion - a wedding anniversary or a birthday celebration: Singaporeans always either end up in a more 'atas' place serving non-Singaporean food. I remember all the traditional Chinese wedding dinners I have attended in Singapore - they have always served a more refined form of Chinese cuisine from China or Hong Kong rather than something very local and quintessentially Singaporean.

It is this love-hate relationship with their own Singaporean identity that has come to a flashpoint recently because Singapore has been inundated with migrants - mostly from China but also from other places like India and the Philippines. There has been a clash of cultures between the local Singaporeans and these new arrivals, best epitomized by the curry incident.

In this context, Singaporeans have been forced to examine their culture identity and pick out what defines them as Singaporeans. Two obvious things come to mind: Singlish and Singaporean food. So in a time when they feel their very identity under threat and being diluted when faced with this influx of migrants (who are not interested in assimilation), Singaporeans react by being very defensive about their cultural roots. Hence in that context, it takes a very foolish man to dare to look down on chicken rice, popiah, tau huay and soon kueh in Singapore!

You can disrespect me, but don't disrespect my culture. 

2. Do not disrespect us bloggers.

Singaporeans bloggers punch above their weight because of a tightly controlled, highly censored local press. Practically all opinions expressed by any of SPH's publications are either pro-government or carefully steering clear of anything political (by focussing topics like food, fashion and shopping). That was the way things were as I was growing up in Singapore - then came the internet and Singaporeans soon realized, aha, the government cannot censor the internet and bloggers soon began to push the boundaries of free speech in Singapore. You would've thought that SPH might evolve with the times and embrace this new freedom of speech - but no, they didn't. Guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Hence in this context, bloggers in Singapore have become the alternative source of news, with the rise of some bloggers being celebrities in their own right, attracting more readers than some local publications. Singaporean blogs have become an important and respected part of the media landscape in Singapore - so when DEBSOC used bloggers to promote DEB and then unceremoniously invited them all - oh dear. Not only did they incur the wrath of the bloggers, they also offended the millions of readers who love and support these Singaporean blogs. I've heard the phrase "media savvy" - well how about being "media goondu"?

It is necessary to move with the times and in Singapore, the lines have blurred between bloggers and journalists - there is this new grey area of "citizen journalism" where bloggers attract a huge following and even earn some money from their blogs through a Google Adsense partnership as well as sponsorships. It is even possible to make a living from blogging - such as Xiaxue in Singapore and Eatyourkimchi in South Korea. Sure there are still people who have crap blogs that nobody reads, but one should be aware of the power of the super bloggers in Singapore. Offend them at your peril.

3. DEBI is headquartered in Canada lah, not France! Aiyoh, salah lah!

Either Singaporeans are very salah in geography or they do not bother to check the facts before jumping to the wrong conclusion. It all began when blogger Daniel Ang coined the phrase "the French organizers" and everyone assumed that Diner en Blanc was organized by a bunch of French people. Let's get a few facts straight here: the event originated in Paris 24 years ago but currently, Diner en Blanc International is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. In any case, there is a local organizing committee (run by Clemen Chiang and Nicole Yee) who were responsible for everything in the run up to the event.

DEBI's HQ is in Montreal, Canada!

Think about it - the time difference between Montreal and Singapore is 12 hours. 10 am in Singapore = 10 pm in Montreal. 2 pm in Singapore = 2 am in Montreal. How were the people in Montreal supposed to organize anything in Singapore with such a time difference? That was why the whole thing was treated like a franchise and organized locally by a local team.

Whilst there were French people who attended the event as participants and the event was given a French flavour (with a French name no less), the organizers were local. Think about it. When you go to KFC in Toa Payoh, the food is American, the recipe is American, the image of KFC is American - but are there any American people actually working in your KFC Toa Payoh Lorong 6 branch? No, there aren't any. So if something went desperately wrong during your visit to KFC Toa Payoh Lorong 6, should you be directing your grievances at Angmohs or the locals working at KFC Toa Payoh Lorong 6?

Can Singaporeans understand the concept of a franchise?

4. Some Singaporeans are really racist and are too quick to jump to the wrong conclusions.

But before anyone had verified the facts, goodness me - the tirade of anti-white racist abuse that flooded social media was disgraceful. Personally, I see any kind of racism as unacceptable and ugly. Shame on those of you who have used abusive racist language!

Even if a white person did say something racist and offensive, then by all means, attack that person for his racism and criticize him, berate him, attack him for all I care. But have you seen the kind of anti-French racist tirades in social media? What, you're gonna attack a whole nation, a whole country because one or two persons insulted your culture? WTF? For crying out aloud. When you react like that, you only come across as low-class, crass and crude. No Singaporeans, you are better than that.

There is a right way to respond and a wrong way. 

Note that I am not saying that Singaporeans should turn the other cheek - when someone attacks your culture, by all means stand up, speak up and defend yourself. But you must think before you react - who are you attacking? Why are you reacting? How will your attack be perceived by others? What are you criticizing?

5. French people are not racist.

I've already spoken up so many times as the guy from Ang Mo Kio who has studied in France, lived in France and worked 8 years for a French company. French people are not racist. No no no. Far from it. There are so many Singaporeans who have never ever set foot in France or know any French people - yet these Singaporeans are all too willing to default to a stance of mutual hostility: they hate us and we hate them. Good grief. That's highly disturbing to say the least. Even if you do hate French people, newsflash Singapore: they don't hate you.

Why are you guys assuming a stance of mutual hostility?

6. There is a gap for high end Singaporean cuisine.

Some Singaporeans have pointed out that the dishes that Daniel Ang has suggested - chicken rice, tau huay, chee cheong fun, popiah, chwee kueh etc - well, these are dishes associated with hawker centres rather than fine dining. Many people have echoed the same sentiment - that Singaporeans would kick up a big fuss if their local mee pok seller raised his price by as much as 20 cents from $3 to $3.20 but would be more than happy to pay $12 for a bowl of Ramen just because it is Japanese.

I was challenged to find an equivalent of Singaporean fine dining - where you can spend a lot of money on what is essentially Singaporean food. I struggled a bit and could think of Soup Restaurant. I don't like the name - unfortunately it conjures up the image of a 'soup kitchen', a phrase used in the west to describe a place where they distribute free food to the homeless. However, having dined there with Singaporean, American, Swiss and British friends - the food there is excellent and does have a very local flavour. Not the kind of hawker centre fare we're used to in Singapore, but what my late grandmother would make on special occasions like Chinese New Year when the table would be full of 大鱼大肉 (literally, "big fish big meat" - ie. grand dishes).

Is there a fine-dining version of Singaporean food?

If anyone knows of any other restaurants who would elevate that kind of 大鱼大肉 Singaporean dishes to the status of fine dining, please let me know, leave a comment. I'd love to check it out.

7. Singaporeans are not a forgiving lot and would bear a grudge if you get on the wrong side of them.

DEBI and DEBSOC apologized over and over again. But the public were not satisfied and still called for a boyott of the event and it turned rather ugly really. Despite the fact that Daniel Ang made a public statement on his blog that he has accepted their apology and it was 'case closed' for him - the public anger on social media (Facebook, HWZ, Twitter etc) was unrelenting. What would have satisfied them? A cancellation of the event? Come on, we all know that was not going to happen.

I would've liked to have seen Aymeric Pasquier and Sandy Safi publicly name and shame Clemen Chiang as the idiot who fucked things up so badly for them - but then again, that was not going to happen either. Why? As much as they can deflect the blame onto the local organizers, the question remains - why on earth did DEBI choose to work with a dodgy character like Clemen Chiang in the first place? How could they have made such a bad choice? Good grief. Hindsight is 2020 and I'm not sure how much good a public castigation of Chiang and Yee would have achieved as much as they were the ones at fault.

8. Singaporeans have a real issue with the concept of being atas - why is this so?

This is such a paradox! Singapore is a country where parents are obsessed with tuition, crossing the line into slave drivers when they make their children study so freaking hard. Given their obsession with academic achievements, one wonders: what is the point of all this education? Surely it is closely linked to climbing the social ladder, earning more money to become more high class, more 'atas', right?

So why is there such a public backlash against people who are trying to be atas? Well, I think I can explain it. This obsession with academic achievement and materialism has got be balanced with an Asian culture which frowns upon people showing off. Hence by that token, it is good to score straight As for your exams, it is bad to brag about it and boast. Taking part in such a high profile public event is perceived 'boasting' or 'showing off', whilst Singaporeans will have no problem with individuals who visit an expensive restaurant as long as they don't boast about how much they have spent on that meal.

Furthermore, if you want to be atas and classy by taking part in a posh French-themed event, I still believe that is a poor substitute for actually studying French and learning about French culture. The bottom line is that you cannot buy class or sophistication, you can only buy expensive stuff. Let me give you an example. Peter Andre is a British-Australian singer and reality TV star - whilst his music career started very early, he has not had much of a formal education. He is essentially uneducated and barely literate.  Nonetheless, he is very rich and whilst he doing reality TV shows like "Katie & Peter" and "Peter Andre: The Next Chapter" - Peter Andre has constantly embarrassed himself by displaying shocking ignorance about everything from classical music to history to French to basic general knowledge. Such is the nature of reality TV - it can be extremely unforgiving as everything you say is captured on camera.

Whilst this did not bother Peter Andre's fans who were as ignorant as he is, there were many of us who laughed at him and mocked him for his ignorance. Are we just being cruel? Not really, the irony of course is that Peter Andre was blissfully oblivious of just what a fool he was making of himself by making such ignorant remarks on camera - and it is the irony that we find funny, rather than Peter Andre's stupidity per se. There was this scene where Peter Andre picks up a French DVD and attempts to read the French title - only to hopeless mispronounce every single word. He then smile at the camera and makes a remark like, "Do I sound posh when I speak French?", whilst being blissfully unaware of the fact that he has just exposed himself as an idiot who can't speak French. And that's when we slap our foreheads and go, OMFG he doesn't even realize how bloody stupid he is.

Now in the case of DEBS, we can only compare two individuals (the hosts Clemen Chiang and Nicole Yee) to Peter Andre in the way they were ironically oblivious to their cultural gaffes in looking down on local cuisine. What about the rest of the participants of the event? Isn't it somewhat unfair to judge all of them without knowing all that much about them? Maybe some of them are really atas, or maybe they just wanted to have some fun.

9. Think twice before you write anything on Facebook or social media for your mistakes will not go away even if you delete your Facebook page.

There is a button on your keyboard with a print screen function - "PRTSC" or "PRT SC". It would usually have the letters SYSRQ  or SYS RQ below it. If you don't know how to use it, try this. Press that button now and then open a programme to edit images - such as Paint or Photoshop. Then simply open a new file and press Control+V to paste. Et voila, the image on your screen when you pressed PRTSC would be then instantly copied into the image file. If you've not done this before, try it. Very easy, right?

The people at DEBSOC thought that all the bad publicity related to their gaffes made on Facebook would be erased the moment they pulled the plug on their Facebook page and they could pretend as if nothing has ever happened as there would be no evidence, right? Wrong! Thanks to the simple PRTSC function, evidence was collected by netizens in time and hve been circulated in social media. So the moral of the story is this: if you wanna use social media, think twice before posting something you may regret because somebody is going to hit the PRTSC button before you have the chance to delete that comment.

10. Some Singaporeans are very witty: 超级白!!

Lastly, I am glad that some Singaporeans did organize rival and spoof events on the same day as Diner en Blanc Singapore - that is a far more eloquent and inspired response to the situation than just anti-French racism. Events included Makan Day, Diner en noir as well as Super White - which translates to 超级白 in Mandarin. When I first read the name in Chinese, I did a double take and nearly fell off my chair with laughter.

For those of you who are not from Singapore, allow me to explain. 超级白 is pronounced chao ji bai - which sounds just like "chao chee by" in Hokkien (the most widely spoken Chinese dialect in Singapore). Whilst chao ji bai does mean "Super White" - chao chee by means "stinking cunt". It works on many levels - and since Super White was a spoof of French-themed event, well. I'll let you work the rest out for yourself. Certainly, "Super White" gets Limpeh' award for the best Singaporean pun of the year.

So there you go, that's ten lessons we can all learn from this episode and I certainly hope that we'll all emerge from this a bit wiser and more internet and PR savvy from this episode. Do you agree with Limpeh's ten points? Have I missed anything out? Leave a comment below and let's talk about it, kum siah!