Why are some Singaporeans so afraid of criticizing white people?

Hi guys, this is my draft for my latest podcast which you can always listen to if you click on this link. So for my podcast today, I want to address something I have observed something strange about Singaporeans on social media. For those of you not familiar with me, hello my name is Alex, I was born in Singapore and I grew up there, but I have spent the last 29 years of my life living in Europe. So let me give you the context: on a social media platform like Youtube or Instagram, a white travel vlogger will go to Singapore and do a post about an aspect of the local experience and this white person would inevitably butcher some of the local names which are often in Mandarin, Hokkien or Malay. This could be the name of a local neighbourhood like Bukit Timah or Ang Mo Kio or even the name of a local dish like nasi padang or chai tau kway. If the mispronunciation is really bad and this white person keeps doing it, then I would leave a comment to point it out to them because often, these social influencers would spend a lot of time, money and effort to put these videos together whether it may be going all the way to Singapore or spending a lot of time putting together some amazing graphics in post-production but it seems odd that they have this lack of attention to detail when it comes to pronouncing local names. Take the neighbourhood of Bedok, that's two syllables and just five letters - just ask a local how it is pronounced or look it up on the internet. It's not rocket science. So it's not like these people really don't care and have made no effort with these videos, but they do care and they still made that mistake and so I'm just trying to be helpful when I point out in a respectful and polite way that these are the kinds of mistakes they ought to avoid in the future. 

Whilst this has happened quite a few times, allow me focus on one specific instance when this happened - there was a British food influencer who traveled to Singapore to track down hawker food with Michelin stars and of course, he really struggled pronouncing anything that wasn't in English. And I left him a polite comment about verifying the pronunciations and the kind of response I got him was very typical - these social influencers would always be like, "oh I am so sorry I got that wrong, thanks for letting me know, I'll be mindful in the future." But I have also received a lot of hate from Singaporeans - yeah, the local Singaporeans got really angry with me and most said that they really didn't have a problem with a foreigner struggling with some of the local names, in fact they didn't expect non-Singaporeans to know how to pronounce names like Bukit Gombak, Yishun and Bedok. But it often went beyond simply expressing the opinion that as local Singaporeans, they weren't that fussed when foreigners mispronounced certain local names of neighbourhoods or dishes. These insults were loaded with venom, they reacted so angrily as if I had just punched their mother or kicked their new born baby - all because I dared to politely correct the white guy on a mistake he made. The extent of their anger shocked me, after all, I didn't attack or insult any Singaporean; yet they had sharpened their knives and attacked me with such rage for what I had done and the biggest irony of it all is that the white guy in question - this white British influencer - was both very apologetic and grateful when I had corrected him. So what is going on here? 

After all, from my perspective, I don't feel like skin colour should have anything to do with it. I post a lot of travel content on my Instagram and I would be worried about coming across as ignorant, disrespectful and stupid if I couldn't even pronounce the name of the place I was visiting. I'm off to Poland later this month and often in Polish, nothing is pronounced the way it is spelt - like you simply cannot read Polish as if you're reading English, they have a completely different set of rules. I would apply these high standards to myself when I am posting content on social media, so at least I can say I'm not a hypocrite. But why are these Singaporeans so angry with me for daring to point out these mistakes to social influencers who want to make content about Singapore? Is it because I am Asian or is there some other factor at play? So, I have a few theories about why I am experiencing all this rage and anger from those Singaporeans online. 

Theory 1: it's normal to get things wrong with foreign languages, so why are you criticizing?

I watched a video of Malaysian food blogger review a French restaurant in Penang, she was served French dishes with French names and of course, this food blogger doesn't speak any French and so she butchered every single word in French. It was so bad it was funny, but I hesitated - the video is already out there, it was not like I was being shown a draft that she could still edit and correct. She clearly had no idea just how bad her pronunciation was. I had a look at the comments and nobody seemed to have noticed her mistakes, clearly her audience were mostly local Malaysians who also didn't speak French. For the record, I speak French fluently, I have lived in France when I've studied at a top French university, I've also worked in Paris for Google. So I decided not to post a comment as I didn't want to embarrass her, it was not my intention to try to insult or offend her for her mistake, though I did think that it was a mistake on her part. One that she could have dealt with by at least acknowledging the problem. Allow me to compare this to a news report I saw on Canadian news where they got presenter Andrew Chang to do a piece of news about China which involved him reading out a few names in Chinese. Despite having a Chinese surname and obviously being of Chinese descent, Andrew doesn't speak any Chinese and he struggled with the pronunciation of the names in Mandarin. But he doesn't avoid the elephant in the room, he apologized to his viewers and took ownership, admitting that he doesn't speak Chinese and his pronunciation is going to make Mandarin speakers feel uncomfortable. In criticizing himself before anyone else could have the chance to do so, there was something refreshing honest about his approach, he wasn't trying to wing it and hoped that no one would notice his mistakes the way that Malaysian food blogger reviewing the French restaurant did. He pointed out the elephant in the room and dealt with it. Yet somehow, I seemed to be the only one who noticed the problem and I did fear a backlash if I spoke up as none of her other viewers had a problem with it. So let me ask you this question: is it simply normal and acceptable for Singaporeans and Malaysians to struggle pronouncing anything in a foreign language like French or German? So is the logic, if the people allow themselves and their peers to make mistakes like that, then they will allow foreigners to make the same kind of mistakes when they are in town? 

Theory 2: it is a bit too personal to criticize someone like that. 

This was quite a few years ago but I remember it well, I was in a meeting with a woman and she must have had a terrible day because she didn't even check her own appearance in the mirror. You see, this woman had a mustache - yup, some women do have facial hair and have to go through great lengths everyday to remove it before it grows back. It is just genetics. If they don't do anything about it, that facial hair will become more and more prominent. So this lady must have missed a spot shaving or waxing her mustache as there was clearly quite a significant chunk of facial hair still on her face. What do you do in this situation? Pointing it out to her would embarrass her and cause a lot of awkwardness, I felt like it ought to be a close friend who mentioned it to her, not me. I barely knew this woman and it wasn't my place to do it even if I believe she would be mortified if she had realized what was going on. And so if anyone did ask me about it later, I would just pretend that I didn't notice it at all even if I clearly did. So yes, there are times when you would want to pretend not to notice someone else's mistake out of kindness, because you don't want them to feel bad about the situation. After all, pointing out the mistake isn't going to make the situation any better in this case and simply pretending that nothing is wrong was the best course of action open to me. Thus in this case, was it simply a case of these Singaporeans feeling like I had been too critical, too personal when it came to attacking these Youtubers for their poor pronunciation of certain words, have I overlooked all the other merits of the video and simply focused on the mistakes in order to make the Youtuber feel bad? Perhaps in some cultures, the social norm is to avoid overtly criticizing others the way I did in order to minimize social conflict and that this kind of harsh criticism should be left to close friends and family rather than complete strangers on the internet. And so these Singaporeans were merely telling me, you're not a close friend of this Youtuber, you are a stranger - it is not your place to criticize him in this manner, so you should back off. 

Theory 3: a good host will never criticize the guest

Many Singaporeans want to give visitors a really good impression of Singapore. This is just part of the local culture where we have always been very welcoming, since tourism is is an important part of the economy and Singaporeans are genuinely keen to show foreign visitors just how amazing their country is. So this is a natural reaction when you are proud of your country, so imagine if an American tourist was asking for directions to Bay-dock instead of Buh-dohk, the Singaporean will probably be too polite to react to that mistake in order to avoid making the American guest feel awkward about that mistake. So if a Singaporean were to witness me correcting a foreigner by finding fault with their pronunciation, they would probably step in and say, oh don't worry it's no big deal. Thus it is in that spirit that these Singaporeans might have felt that I have ruined the welcome they wanted to offer all foreigners visiting Singapore including anyone interested enough to watch a video about Singapore on Youtube. This is where I would like to make a distinction though - there is quite a big difference between a tourist visiting Singapore and mispronouncing a place name and a social media influencer trying to create content about Singapore. I would hold the latter to much higher standards than the former, if you want to create content for social media, then you need to know what you're talking about in order to have some credibility. The internet is already full of content by some of these influencers who create misleading content littered with lies and half-truths, thus I would like to think that any serious Youtuber would react positively to someone with useful information about the subject matter making a constructive criticism. Yet in the eyes of the local Singaporeans, a good host should never criticize the guest, even if this guest is a Youtuber or a social media influencer. 

Theory 4: this is a very autistic response. 

The funny thing about social media is that you get to participate in it no matter how poor your social skills are. I postulate that it is possible that some of these people who attacked me did so because I had a different response from them. They are so autistic that they fail to realize that someone else can watch the same video and come up with a totally different response to them - that somehow, their response is the only valid one and anyone else who dares to respond differently is wrong. Allow me to give you a rather extreme example of this to illustrate my point. I once watched a Youtube video comparing two versions of the song 'Higher Love' - the original was by Steve Winwood way back in 1986 and there was a 2019 remix of the Whitney Houston cover version of the same song which introduced this to a whole new generation so many years later. The two versions are remarkably different, the original is a 1980s classic whereas the 2019 remix made it fresh, contemporary and turned a rock classic into a modern dance anthem. In fact the 2019 version was so popular it reached no. 2 in the UK charts, much to the delight of Whitney Houston fans like me. So you could express a preference as to which version you preferred but to put a value judgment as to say which version was definitely better? No, you can't do that. But you should have seen the comments section of that video, this guy clearly felt that the original Steve Winwood version was better and he would go through the comments section and pick a fight with every single person who expressed a liking for the 2019 Whitney Houston remix. What was wrong with this guy? He genuinely believed that only his opinion was correct and anyone who disagreed with him was wrong so he was literally picking fights in the comments section that way. If this is the way he behaves on social media, I can only imagine he is some kind of loner with no friends in real life as nobody would want to put up with that kind of behaviour in real life. So yes, I may have encountered the equivalent in Singapore in this case. This is not racism we're dealing with but it is actually just autism. 

Theory 5: it is a type of internalized racism, a post-colonial hangover

You might be shocked at this suggestion but it is very true that some Singaporeans have this notion, this perception, that white people will always look down on Asian people, that this is just the way things are, that white people will always be the colonial master long after the era of colonial rule. These Singaporeans will be the first to judge an Asian tourist in New York or London struggling with English, yet if a white tourist comes to Singapore and struggles with place names - that's perfectly okay with them. Thus in their eyes, I don't have the right to criticize the white person because I'm Asian, I should just shut up and not say a word when a white person does this because they wouldn't dare to criticize a white person. I have this memory from around 1990, when I was in a car park with my father when a white American person asked us for directions. My father panicked as he couldn't understand the American and he looked as if he was going to just run out of the car park to get out of that situation; my father's reaction in that moment reminded me of a student being asked a question by the teacher and guiltily admitting with shame, "sorry I don't know the answer." Whereas I had grown up with American English, like the guy just wanted to know how to get to the nearby tennis courts. So I gave him the directions he needed and that was when my father gave me that look of, "how did you manage to do that?" I would associate that kind of mentality with people from my parents' generation but it seems that old habits die hard - many of these younger Singaporeans still have this mentality that they are racially inferior to white people, that even on social media, an Asian person doesn't have the right to challenge a white person like that. I can see something similar at work in another facet of the Singaporean mindset, it is this unwillingness, this reluctance to challenge or criticize anyone in authority. I remember an incident from 2010 when Singapore held the Youth Olympics and I criticized the two commentators selected for the live streaming of the gymnastics event as neither of them knew much about gymnastics. In fact one of them was merely selected because he was an  American who spoke with a strong American accent.

My criticism was that Singapore had a thriving gymnastics community, our gymnasts have been achieving so much in recent years. Why not pick someone from the local Singapore gymnastics community who is an expert on the subject instead of a random American guy who has an American accent? So are we prioritizing having an American accent over having real technical knowledge of the sport? What is the rationale behind justifying the choice of hiring this useful American idiot? And let me be clear: this American guy was an idiot who knew nothing about gymnastics, he mostly talked rubbish. It can only be a deep-seated sense of internalized racism that made the Singaporean organizers pick a white, American idiot over a local who is a lot more qualified but doesn't have the right skin colour or accent. Oh I got so much hate from Singaporeans as a result of what I had said - why? Because these Singaporeans were genuinely proud of how Singapore had hosted such a major international sports event, so if anyone were to respond with anything but praise for the organization of the event, then that's ruining the illusion, the rather simple message that Singapore was successful as a host. Most of the people who attacked me and gave me so much grief online didn't even watch the gymnastics event - in fact they probably didn't even have a clue what particular aspect of the event I had been critical of; no, they attacked me for daring to criticize the organization. When I look at this kind of herd mentality, this brand of blind loyalty, I wonder if we're dealing with North Korea or Singapore. Thus whether we're talking about what happened at the Youth Olympics or even when I leave a critical comment on Youtube, I do think the people who attack me when I dare to challenge another white person on a topic relating to Singapore are experiencing this kind of internalized racism and it is easier for them to attack me because I'm Asian, rather than for them to take a long hard look in the mirror and question why they still have this mentality that we don't have the right as Asian people to challenge or criticize white people. 

That's it from me. So what do you guys think about this rather controversial theories then? Many thanks for reading.