I have also experienced a huge spike in the traffic to my blog from Malaysia from people looking for the articles I have written about Alvivi, especially my interview with Alvin Tan. Now I am not going to reveal the contents of my email exchange with Alvin today - I just wanted to make sure that he was okay. What I want to talk about was my reaction to the episode and Alvin knows me well enough to know that I am going to talk about this episode fairly. I'm not here to defend Alvin - he is an articulate, intelligent guy and is more than capable of defending himself.
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| Bak Kut Teh... No I will not be eating this in KL with Alvin next week! |
Was it a wise move on the part of Alvin to put up that photo? Clearly not. Hindsight is 20-20 and if he knew what kind of response that photo would trigger, I am sure he would have never done this. Even if it was meant to be some attempt at dark humour, humour should press the right buttons and illicit the right kind of reaction. I am a big fan of comedians like Frankie Boyle, Hugh Dennis, Russell Howard and Andy Parsons who regularly push the limits with their dark humour and often they make me laugh, sometimes I go, "ooh I can't believe he said that" but most of the time, they do get away with their dark humour as it is genuinely funny. You'll be amazed what they get away with as long as the joke is genuinely funny. To get a taste of Frankie Boyle's humour, click here.
Is comedy one of Alvin's strengths? No, clearly not - but should humour be only attempted by professional comedians? Of course not, everyone has the right to attempt a joke whenever s/he likes and if the joke falls flat on its face, we should be able to say, "okay, that attempt at a joke misfired, I'm sorry if it caused offence," and that should be the end of it. I do also draw a clear distinction between someone who made a poor attempt at cracking a joke and someone deliberately trying to insult and offend. so in this case clearly the former, not the latter.
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| Should we just stop trying to make jokes online, just in case the jokes don't work? |
Some of the comments left by their haters are just uncalled for - their Facebook page is currently unavailable and I think that is a wise move, I really don't see any point in giving their haters a focal point for them to vent their hatred - some of those insults involved threats of physical violence to both Alvin and Vivian. Good grief. How utterly pathetic - even if you genuinely felt aggrieved by Alvin's poor attempt a joke, kindly elucidate your feelings articulately and explain to us why you feel this upset. But no, these people didn't even know how to explain why they were so offended, what came out was just threats of physical violence. If this is how they react on Facebook (hello, everyone knows exactly who you are - Facebook isn't anonymous), can you imagine how these people behave in real life? They would punch someone rather than talk things over whenever they encounter any kind of conflict.
Furthermore, on the issue of Bak Kut Teh - yes it is a dish I am very familiar with since my dad absolutely loves Bak Kut Teh. And yes, Halal versions of Bak Kut Teh do exist - they are rare but I have seen the dish prepared with chicken instead of pork to cater for Muslim diners to enjoy this dish. There are also versions of Chinese dishes which are made without pork specifically for that purpose: take the Singaporean dish Yong Tau Hoo - this dishes involves stuffing tofu and various kind of vegetables (bitter gourd, eggplant, lady's fingers, mushrooms etc) with minced meat. Now this meat could be pork, but it could be anything from chicken, fish or even prawn. I do prefer the fish meat version of Yong Tau Hoo as it does create a very different, smoother texture. Would Alvin Tan have gotten into as much trouble if he had used Yong Tau Hoo in his photo instead of Bak Kut Teh, given how Halal Yong Tau Hoo is more common?
I have enjoyed loads of quality Chinese meals in Dubai which were completely Halal - for example, a Siew Mai is a dumpling usually made with pork meat - but in Dubai, it was made with chicken meat instead. They still called it a Siew Mai because it was shaped like a Siew Mai and flavoured like a Siew Mai. I even had a halal Char Siew Bao which contained turkey meat flavoured with the same Char Siew spices. These Chinese restaurants adapted traditional Chinese recipes for their Muslims clients and after a while, I didn't even think about what meat I was eating - after all, so much of the dining experience was about the flavours that went with the food, rather than the texture of the meat itself. So I could enjoy Halal Dim Sum in Dubai and the flavours of the spices were so authentic that I forgot that it didn't contain pork. My point is that Halal Chinese food isn't a new concept at all, it has been around for ages in Muslim countries. So why are these people assuming that Alvin and Vivian were suggesting that their Malay friends eat the pork-version of Bak Kut Teh when Muslims have been eating Halal versions of Chinese dishes for many years already? Why are people jumping to the conclusion that Alvin was deliberately trying to provoke a reaction or insult Muslims? Surely, this isn't as straight forward as some people make it out to be - many people are jumping to the wrong conclusions by assuming the very worst of Alvin and his intentions.
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| Yes I have spent time in the Middle East and loved it. |
Anyway, these haters only need half a reason to jump on the anti-Alvivi bandwagon again and I'm not convinced that half of them even bothered to read what Alvin Tan wrote on that photo - but this stems back to Alvin Tan's notoriety as Malaysia's number one sex blogger and porn star. Heck, I am not half as controversial as Alvin Tan, yet I have witnessed the way Singaporean netizens have ganged up on me because they have found a reason to hate me. It was unreal the way one Singaporean blogger went out of his way to write a whole piece criticizing me - it was a terribly poorly written piece, riddled with factual errors. But I don't think that blogger cared if he was accurate or not, his intention was to embarrass me into silence with his highly critical and insulting piece about me. Like, as if that was going to happen, LOL. (Warning: plenty of adult language coming up as I address my haters.)
This is where Alvin and I are very much alike. When I see some pathetic loser try to silence me, I react by saying, "I have had over 4.1 million hits on my blog, whilst you don't even have 10% of that kind of traffic to your blog and you're trying to censor me by insulting me on your blog? Ha! Who the fuck are you to try to censor me? Who the fuck are you to try to get me to shut up? What makes you think that Limpeh is going to do what you want me to do? Limpeh will say what the fuck Limpeh wants, Limpeh will be blogging if Limpeh wants and Limpeh is going to be vlogging as well - so kindly go fuck yourself with a big durian, thank you very much. PS. Fuck you. PPS. My dick's much bigger than yours."
What the fuck is wrong with these Malaysian netizens and their stupid threats then? Did they think that Alvin is going to go away and disappear just because of their hateful statements on Facebook? I think people have to realize that this whole 'keyboard warrior' bullshit is extremely juvenile - there are so many problems in the world that need solving, so many evil people who need to be dealt with and none of these can be solved through social media. It's like some idiots who believe that they can solve world hunger by liking or sharing the picture of a starving child on Facebook - duh. If you are a Malaysian who has been offended by Alvin Tan, then sure, you have the right to respond but kindly do so eloquently and respectfully, knowing that you are not going to influence Alvin Tan regardless of what you say. You guys have got to learn to live with the fact that you have so little influence over the things in life you don't like - that's called growing up. It's a pain having to deal with these immature, childish haters online I swear.
PS. I am off to Oman on Monday the 15th July, so there will be some very short pieces from me when I am on the road, but we'll see if I find any time to write longer pieces. I suspect I won't until I arrive in Singapore much later as I am going via Malaysia and taking the slow, scenic route overland from KL to Singapore.
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| Last day at work - time for my long holidays! |
Update: here is the latest youtube video from Alvin & Vivian, pretty poor sound quality but you can read the subtitles (in any case, I struggled to follow the Malay as my Melayu is sangat rusty sekarang lah.)
Hi Limpeh, there are a couple of points that I would like you to respond to. You say that it's okay to make a flat joke, but then the person should be able to apologize and that would be the end of it. Did Alvin actually apologize? You suggest that he is regretful of what he did, but he does not seem apologetic. This joke was labeled a 'racist' joke. Actually I think it is not about race but about religion. I guess that does not matter since they are both very touchy subjects. I read that post where someone made a racist joke at you during filming, and you really took offence and even took action against them to teach them a lesson. I don't see how this differs from that. You even admit that those people who made the racist jokes did not intend to offend you and were surprised that you were offended. If you found that joke about the tin can offensive, then how come you seem to be on 'Alvin's side' in this matter? Have you considered that you like Alvin and so are more lenient towards him? While you say that he shouldn't have posted the joke and it was in poor taste, instead of being critical of him, your post sounds like you are supportive of him overall. Are you more forgiving because he is more likeable and more intelligent and eloquent than the other two people? I see the principle of the matter being the same but feel free to explain where I am wrong with the way I am viewing this matter.
ReplyDeleteYou mention that halal versions of Bak Kut Teh are very rare, so it is really an exception and most people don't even realize it exists. Dubai is a place that is in many ways much more developed and smaller/contained. It is very much less likely that Malaysia has those special stores around that sell common chinese pork dishes made with chicken or prawn instead of pork. So it should not be shocking that Malaysians would not even realize that. You also stated that Alvin was trying to make a joke so it sounds like you also think that he knew what he was doing. I also noted that what he has in his chopsticks does not look like chicken.
Your are 100% right... if he want to make joke.. can he put cik kut teh... instead... and the product is diffinately is not chicken...! I am sad but lets them learn from that mistake... and from there on.. they will know what RESPECT are...!!
DeleteHi there - I think you are confusing two things here. There was the interview Alvin did with the Star in which he expressed regret and then there was the original statement of apology which was put up on his Facebook page in which he apologized unreservedly for any offence caused. Could he have used the interview with the Star to express his remorse and apologize again? Sure - was it a missed opportunity? Yes it was - but he did apologize officially on his Facebook page already.
ReplyDeleteAs for the tin can joke about the way Mandarin sounds, the two people who made the joke were not apologetic for the offence caused and I had to involve a third party (ie. the management) to resolve the issue, so that the matter could be resolved swiftly and with as little pain as possible. I don't see hat as 'teach them a lesson' per se, i am well within my rights to demand that I work in an environment where I do not experience anything that may make me feel uncomfortable about my ethnicity or my language or cultural heritage or anything that pertains to me being Chinese/Asian - if those two clowns had apologized and admitted that they had caused offence and assured me that they wouldn't do so again, then that would've been fine, but they clearly did not even realize that they had crossed the line. Left with a tricky situation, I had no choice but to involve the management and turn to them for help (which to their credit, they were very forthcoming, supportive and helpful). I could've demanded some form of punishment (such as getting them sacked) but I was merciful and didn't - all i asked for was an acknowledgement that they had crossed the line and a solemn promise that they will never speak like that to me ever again and I did get what I wanted.
The fact is, I knew what i wanted from my negotiations - what I asked for was very reasonable and thus it made the negotiations very easy for all involved. But in Alvin's case, his haters want him to disappear forever and he wasn't prepared to do that - if they had merely asked for an apology, then they would've gotten what they wanted and we could've all moved on.
As for what Alvin had in his chopsticks, frankly, I can't tell what it is - a piece of chicken breast? tofu? Pork? It isn't clear, but I will raise that question with him when I see him in KL soon.
PS. On the topic of Halal Chinese food - my favourite Chinese restaurant in London Young Cheng has 3 branches, 1 of which is certified Halal, the same dishes are made with chicken, fish, pork etc and the flavours are 100% authentic Chinese.
I used to watch MTW too. frankie boyle is damn funny. of course some of his jokes in the cut episodes are not to everyone's taste. but still a good comedian.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to ask you about race or ethnic relations in SG. I see you mentioned in previous posts about racism in SG.
But your examples usually involved chinese being racist towards foreigners(ang moh, china etc). And one NS example of chinese dun like one indian but okay with another.
Do you mean chinese sinkies are more racist towards foreingers? Or that in your experience you only got see those examples? or is it just locals are all racist?