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A young French woman in Singapore found herself on the receiving end of online jokes after flatly denying that her Instagram post – a photo showing her pulling the sides of her eyes back and using the term “ching chong” – is racist.
The image appeared to have been taken at Southbridge, a Boat Quay rooftop bar across from the Supreme Court building, which is in the background of the image. The woman also wears a cheongsam while doing the “slit eye” gesture that is typically used to poke fun at ethnic East Asian people. The post itself was uploaded 43 weeks ago, roughly during the Chinese New Year season.
The post recently went viral after a Singaporean Instagram user reposted the photo of the French woman, condemning the act and calling the latter a “racist jerk.”
While an apology for these things can be expected, the woman, who is said to be a student here, defended herself and insisted that there was nothing wrong with it. The young woman also pleaded with the Singaporean to have an “open mind.”
“If you had any respect for the Asian community and if you were smart enough, you would delete the post and apologize before all of this explodes,” the Singaporean replied on Instagram.
This resulted in the French woman doubling down on her decision to deny any form of racism by claiming that she has a master’s degree and a Harvard diploma in “ethnicity at work.” This, despite her friend commenting “So chong !! So coronavirus !! “in the post.
According to a subsequent Instagram post, the Singaporean has written to the French student’s school to object to the “hate crime.”
“I am very surprised that these acts of racism [are] it keeps happening to this day, especially at your school, ”he wrote. “I am sure they do not tolerate this immature, racist and xenophobic hate crime.”
The school’s Director of Academic Affairs responded by agreeing that the post was inappropriate and assured that a disciplinary committee will deal directly with the offending student.
