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XiaXue – Model for Singapore Girls

下雪 – 新加坡女孩们的榜样
Xiaxue

Xiaxue - model for many Singaporean girls

XiaXue (which in Chinese means “snowing”) is the pseudonym of Wendy Cheng – the most popular blogger in Singapore. The 26 years old girl has a status of celebrity in her small country and her website has been added to the National Library Board’s list of blogs for archival. In 2005 it was awarded the title of the “Best Asian Blog” and today it drives an envious traffic of (more than) 20,000 daily visitors.

Xiaxue’s web world

Started in 2003, at the beginning her blog was just an online diary where Xiaxue described her personal life and thoughts on random topics. Due to inarguable literary skills and witty writing style she quickly gained popularity among readers. One might think that – since the author is an attractive young girl – most of her fans are guys. But no. A quick check on Alexa (website which analyzes the traffic statistics on internet) reveals that Xiaxue’s blog is visited more frequently by females who are in the age range 18-24.

It’s worth to mention that Xiaxue’s online presence is not limited to her blog, another notable example being the web video-series “Guide to Life”. And indeed it IS a definitive guide for Singapore girls (and to Chinese girls born in 80’s and 90’s in general). Here her fans can find useful information on: how to get a tattoo or tongue piercing, how to shop for clothes or sex toys, how to use fake eyelashes, as well as cooking, doing housework and so on. Readers of her posts are initiated with the knowledge that the most beautiful thing in the world is orgasm and can also learn a revolutionary system of measuring penises which is supposed to create a common language between girls who want to compare their boyfriends.

Who is Xiaxue’s model?

And while many girls love Xiaxue and listen to her advice, the interesting question is – who is the model for Xiaxue herself? Well… there is no need to make guesses. In her blogspot profile she acknowledges that her favourite book is “Confessions of a Heiress” by Paris Hilton. I haven’t read this book… but from publisher’s review on Amazon I learn that the description of Paris Hilton’s book can be easily reapplied to Xiaxue and her blog:

… loves her life, knows how to get what she wants and matter-of-factly explains how anyone can be glamorous… just like her.

… indulgent and sometimes reckless lifestyle might not be sensible for everyone, but her advice to “channel your own inner heiress, create your own image, and project an extreme sense of confidence” is an empowering message for young women.

But let’s give the word to Xiaxue herself regarding the things that she is standing for. Here is what she writes in her blog following one very controversial post which cost her two of three sponsors she had at that moment:

I am also an ambassador for non-smoking in Singapore.
I love Singapore, and I am strongly against drugs.
I have influenced innumerous teens/females to learn to stand up for themselves.
I have inspired many to start blogging and opening themselves to the world bravely.
Many tell me thank you, daily, for being the voice they never had…

What kind of person is Xiaxue

Remember the poll in which I asked what kind of adjectives foreigners use to describe Chinese girls? It would be interesting to see which of these descriptors would apply to Xiaxue whose personality and lifestyle inspire so many peers.

Xiaxue_2

Xiaxue in the past

Beautiful… While most of netizens rank her looks somewhere between cute and gorgeous, Xiaxue herself admits that she is ugly without make-up. Though this statement is more playful than true, one can’t help but admire her straight-forward approach when it comes to self-description: Xiaxue has never pretended to be prettier than she is. It doesn’t mean, however, that she is a proponent of “natural beauty”. Quite on the contrary: she advocates any means that can help girls to look more beautiful (from make-up to plastic surgery) and slanders the men who feel “cheated” by artificial beauty.

Throughout her blog – and she never hides this fact – Xiaxue is heavily using Photoshop to edit her own pictures and in one of the most popular videos from the aforementioned “Guide to Life” she shows her photo-shopping skills in action. Curiously enough – many of modifications demonstrated in that clip Xiaxue later implemented on herself by the means of plastic surgery, including nose job and eyelid lift surgery.

Loyal… Xiaxue is very vocal in her opposition to school authorities who “abuse their position of authority to punish students for something personal”. Also she hates preaching and doesn’t accept the way in which official institutions of religion invade into personal matters (actually, in one of her interviews Xiaxue said that smoking and religion are two topics which she would never praise on her blog no matter what kind of incentives she would be offered).

On the other hand – she is a very loyal daughter showing deep respect to her mother, a good-hearted sister caring about her younger brother and a faithful girlfriend (wife already – since about a year ago she married her American boyfriend).

[Not] Small-minded… One of the hits on Xiaxue’s blog is her post about the expectations that local men have from their girlfriends.

Someone told me that he thinks that he wouldn’t mind having Mo Jing Jing as a gf. For those of you who dun watch Holland Village on Channel 8, Mo Jingjing is a semi retarded girl.

I almost died. She speaks 3 words a minute. The said fren claimed that she is good what, very pure and innocent, unlike many girls in our society now, so slutty and bitchy. (Somehow I suspect this is how paedophiles think too.) The above sentence makes sense as well… But should be girls succumb to these guys expectations and from now on be quiet and unopinionated too? No. I won’t change myself just to fit these selfish guys…

So, she doesn’t want to be like some cute but silly girl from TV drama and I applaud to such attitude. However – since Xiaxue has a big influence on Singapore teen girls – I hope that she is going to broaden her literature tastes beyond Harry Potter’s adventures and Paris Hilton’s bestseller.

Insecure… Taking in account the number of transformations that Xiaxue went through, in order to change the image of a girl with typical Asian looks to the one that she has today (Paris Hilton? Hannah Montana?), one can wonder if this is the sign of high confidence or extreme insecurity. In any case, I would have hard time in looking for a better illustration of Asian girls’ desire to be whiter.

Strong… Maybe the feature that is most readily visible to her blog’s readers. And again Xiaxue is loudly calling for girls to be stronger and resist the men’s chauvinism who prefer them to be weak and submissive.

Controversies around Xiaxue

It’s not wonder that Xiaxue’s blog which one of her fellow bloggers called the “poetry of angst and narcissism” has produced a number of controversies during the 7 years of its existence. The most notable of them were:

Regarding the latter, it’s quite curious that Xiaxue might be more close to truth than many are willing to accept. However, reading her post I was dismayed with the lack of integrity when she wrote that the victim was literally asking for rape by dancing with four Caucasian guys – “probably in slutty clothes”! Compare this to the description of Xiaxue’s own experiences:

Well some very cynical ppl may be thinking this in their heads now:
I dress up like a slut, so i deserved the molest?

To such ppl i say: If one day ur daugther/sister gets raped, will u say the same thing? Well, I would like to stress that everytime i get molest cases i was in school uniform. And besides this, even if women dress scantily, it is NO excuse to touch them. If this logic applies soon all women will be dressed like those in Pakistan. Not only it is unaesthetic, many will die of heatstroke in Singapore.

It is natural that besides loyal fans, the Queen of Singaporean blogosphere (as Xiaxue is sometimes referred on internet) has her share of haters – especially among other bloggers (…envy?) who either think that being like her is wrong or call her stupid bitch or threaten to sue her in court for defamation.

It doesn’t seem to bother the popular blogger too much. As one commenter noted – she “eats flames for breakfast”. And as Xiaxue acknowledged herself, she’d “rather be surrounded by haters than a bunch of indifferent people”.

You can love her, you can hate her but one thing is sure – Xiaxue is a model of many Singapore girls…

Yet another blogger, Crystal Tao

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  • asian paris hilton

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  • SexyShopGirlCanada

    20,000 Visitors a day…That’s pretty good for any website…never mind a blog… and so she stirs controversy… that can be good for business too!

    • http://www.lovelovechina.com Crystal

      It’s true – she is, actually, a full-time blogger.
      But to be a No.1 blogger in Singapore for five years – it takes a little bit more than just stirring controversy.

  • Nick

    I think it is sad that she felt it necessary to alter her natural beauty. The “before” picture was quite attractive, and in my opinion much more attractive than the “after” picture.

    I’ll stick with lovelovechina for my insight into Chinese ladies. :-)

  • http://www.magnoliaarts.com TLB

    I can easily see why, in an area of the world where women are experiencing a kind of revolution of freedom, this young lady’s blog would be popular, and also controversial.

    I agree with Nick though, she was better looking before :grin:

    The blogs you link to (orgasm, penis length) are interesting in that they address what have been taboo subjects for discussion in the past. She does show her immaturity with regard to these subjects though IMO: orgasms are “rare in women” — really? Not in my experience, and I’m no stud (though I understand this might be true in China). Also, she obviously thinks penis length is directly related to a woman’s sexual satisfaction, and though that is a long-held myth in many places, it is a myth nonetheless… :???: There are many men out there who wish satisfying a woman were that simple! :lol:

    Oh well, at least her getting folks to think about these things might have good long-term consequences for an area of the world where women’s sexual needs have long been ignored.

    • Ai

      ”
      orgasms are “rare in women” — really? Not in my experience, and I’m no stud ”

      Don’t discredit women’s comments on how women feel if you’re not even a woman. You’ll never be able to know, so just accept it instead of implying we’re incorrect.

    • Ai

      ”
      orgasms are “rare in women” — really? Not in my experience, and I’m no stud ”

      Don’t discredit women’s comments on how women feel if you’re not even a woman. You’ll never be able to know, so just accept it instead of implying we’re incorrect.

    • Ai

      ”
      orgasms are “rare in women” — really? Not in my experience, and I’m no stud ”

      Don’t discredit women’s comments on how women feel if you’re not even a woman. You’ll never be able to know, so just accept it instead of implying we’re incorrect.

  • korean_guy

    What a horrendous change! She looks like an albino with fake blond hair. Talk about white envy…

    • http://www.lovelovechina.com Crystal

      Remember I told you that Singapore is a hot contender in the competition of plastic surgeries per capita?
      I hope you believe me now ;-)

      • korean_guy

        Oh I believe you for sure.

  • Bill

    This lady is really a model for young Singapore girls? And I thought I had it bad here in the US with parentless “i-Carly”, and vapid Hannah Montana showing my little girls (FOUR and EIGHT years old) how they should behave (and sing). Countering all the schlock is a battle I underestimated.

  • Meng

    Of course she idolizes Paris Hilton. 当然。 I wonder if she’s under the assumption that Paris actually wrote her own book. Ms. Hilton gets what she wants simply by the fact that she is a filthy rich celebrity. She’s not glamorous at all. Most Americans think of her as rich white trash. The real author of her book might know how to empower young women (I wouldn’t know since I haven’t read it) but Paris herself certainly does not, and I get the feeling that Xiaxue holds the same cards.

    It’s a shame that Xiaxue suffers from polydismorphic syndrome–the same mental illness that plagued Michael Jackson. She can never be satisfied with her natural beauty so she will keep covering it up, hoping that nobody sees the ugliness she feels inside. No, Xiaxue, you will never completely resemble Paris.

    She’s not glamorous, smart, or strong. She seems gaudy, cheap, plastic, feeble-minded, and weak-willed. I don’t know her personally, but her blog screams such. 20,000 hits a day? I fear for those 14-year old girls that are chanting her praises. You, Crystal, seem a much better role model for young Asian women, from what I’ve read of your blogs, though you don’t have the arrogance to declare it like Xiaxue does.

    • http://www.lovelovechina.com Crystal

      Meng, thanks for your compliment. I definitely need more time to deserve it. :smile:

      Back to Paris Hilton and Xiaxue:
      From what I read about Paris Hilton I learned that her name is often associated with the expression “famous for being famous” and she would never be famous if from the very beginning she wouldn’t be a daughter of her father.

      Xiaxue, however, created herself on her own and for that she must be given some credit.

      • http://www.joecool.dk/blog Peter

        Agree on the Paris Hilton note. She really haven’t got any talent except she’s a good salesman.

        Her popularity tells more about her followers than herself I’m afraid. But then again, can 100.000 flies be wrong when they want to sit on the same poop? ;-)

    • Neil

      I agree that Crystal is a better role model. I think Crystal is a lot prettier too. Even as a brunette, I don’t find Xiaxue attractive at all.

      I haven’t read Xiaxue’s blog, but I’m sure it has merit. 20,000 people can’t be wrong. She’s obviously a good salesman.

  • http://www.joecool.dk/blog Peter

    Hope this girl has a nice personality. Her looks are pretty scary unless you’re into manga maybe.

    • http://www.joecool.dk/blog Peter

      And by that I mean her many plastic surgeries have made her look almost cartoonish. Doesn’t help that she photoshops herself all the time of course.

      I now read some of her posts, and even though her looks and appearance ideals may not be down my alley, she does write about interesting issues. She even comes off clever at times. I have to give her that.

      • http://www.lovelovechina.com Crystal

        Agree. Actually I think that there are things to learn from Xiaxue – I just hope that her fans will be selective in what they decide to imitate.

  • http://www.magnoliaarts.com TLB

    Crystal, we need a new post — I’m tired of looking at that plastic blonde every time I log on! :roll:

  • Meng

    Okay, Crystal, you’re right. I do give Xiaxue credit for marketing herself. She writes her own material, Paris doesn’t do that (if guys like Stephen King and Michael Crichton use ghost writers occasionally, does anybody really think Miss Hilton could script a paragraph?). I don’t think it’s particularly clever, though. Like many trash writers, when she can’t come up with something witty she defers to saying fuck this and shit that. It’s not that I have a problem with profanity. The word “fuck” is fantastically versatile and can be used almost poetically. I just find that she backs up her ridiculous (and often bigoted) ideas by resorting to base shock value. I don’t think that 20,000 people are necessarily all wrong. I just don’t believe that her popularity is necessarily deserved. She appeals to a certain impressionable juvenile crowd that can identify with her angst.

    As far as creating herself, well that’s not entirely true. Some plastic surgeons did that. ;-)

    I’ll have to agree with most of the above posters, I really find her quite unattractive. I wonder how her husband feels. I wonder if the cosmetic horrors were performed before their relationship or during. If I married a girl I found beautiful and she came home one day altered… I’d be a bit disturbed. To be honest, the “before” photograph is fairly nice. In the “after” shots, she looks like a Barbie doll. I don’t have a problem with cosmetics outright, I’m just attracted to women who are comfortable with what nature gave them.

    • http://www.lovelovechina.com Crystal

      You made an interesting comment about the “fuck” word.
      Though Xiaxue uses it too often – I always wondered how some people (writers) succeed to use it in a very adequate way. In their mouths it is more like spice which only adds the flavor.
      More often, however, this word is misused – just like exclamation marks or all-capitalized words. Here I will refer to an interesting quote which I found recently on internet:
      Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.

  • Stephen Tan

    Xiaxue is ugly, but not on the outside, on the inside. She wrote so much garbage, it’s amazing how stupid some people must be to read and follow her, even adore her. She’s just plain nasty and vicious and always attacks people. That means she’s really insecure about herself. And all the fakeness on the outside proves that she has issues with herself. She even photoshops all her photos. So who is she really? And let’s not forget how she attacks another popular Singaporean blogger all the time just to make herself look better. She appears like a young teenager, I can’t believe that she’s heading towards 30. Unfortunately, Singapore is so small and boring and all the media is censored, so people don’t have much to do. They make or read blogs. A lot. And usually Singaporeans are the loudest on the internet, always “defend” their country from criticism. They’re not used to free debates and sharing opinions. Why do I know that? Because I’m Singaporean. But I’m living in Europe now and see things with different eyes. I never understood, why my fellows liked Xiaxue. If she’s a role model for young girls, then I have fears my small country has a very bleak future.

    You on the other side are delight and so is your blog. Thank you for being so open and talking about so many issues. I admire you. All the best in the future.

    Stephen Tan

  • http://www.lovelovechina.com Crystal

    WOW!
    Accidentally I stumbled upon this site and at first thought that I discovered another Xiaxue’s blog :lol:

  • Yeow-Tong Chia

    Hi Crystal,
    I stumbled upon your blog, and your article on Xiaxue caught my eye. There’s a Malaysian Chinese blogger that goes by the name Cheesie (or Ringo) who is a good friend of Xiaxue. You should check out Ringo’s blog too (http://cheeserland.com/)

    • http://www.lovelovechina.com Crystal

      Thanks for the link.
      I checked Ringo’s blog – it is indeed very similar to Xiaxue’s. And it is quite popular as well.
      It seems that there is a certain demand for sites of such kind in blogosphere.

  • Miranda

    ITALIAN BOYFRIEND? I didn’t know texas is in italy. Put both words in bold some more. Creditability of this website hello? Can trust? I wonder wonder.

    • http://www.lovelovechina.com Crystal

      Actually, I am not Xiaxue’s reader – so if it was the only factual mistake in my post, I regard it as compliment ;-)
      Anyway, thanks for noticing the error – I have fixed it.

  • China Shark Mike

    I do agree with everything she stands for or blogs yet have to give her credit for writing what she feels reguardless of what others say. Asiactic cultures generally are followers hence the high blog hits per day. Also, want to comment on the Michael Jackson comment. MJ might have had that mental disorder yet he also had a physical illness that took pigment out of his natural brown skin. Hence in order to not look like a freak {he he like that could happen} he bleached his skin so it wasn’t noticable. I’m a fan of Asian persuasion so I think she was prettier as a natural brunette and the cosmetic alterations. The usage of vulgarity however I do find childish and immature on a public blog or a forum. Pm or private correspondent is quite another story. Profanity just reducing oneself’s to ignorance for lack of a better word. It’s ironic I used to be really good about using little profanity but have found myself cursing like the proverbial sailor as of late around my girl, felt kind of embarassed yet explained that I let down my guard with her so I feel like anythings game. Guess I need her around to set me straight. I think love or hate them these type of blogs serve an overall purpose. People need to speak in order to change things whether for good or bad. If she helps some people in life that’s a good thing. However with that being said she needs to be more responsible when she flames or takes on taboo subject matter. I have not read her blog yet will check it out later after class.

  • Sammi

    Hi there! I would like to clarify that Xiaxue is not a model for many Singaporean girls… in fact majority of my friends don’t like her.

    While she has many fans visiting her site, MANY MORE people are not even bothered with her blog. To my knowledge, none of my friends visit her blog. They only read/known of her thru’ newspapers and clubbing parties.

    All my life, she only came up in conversations once or twice. Unfortunately, nothing good (or nothing much) about her is discussed.

  • sarongpartygirl

    no news is bad news. but xiaxue is pathetic.

    she is the first singaporean
    - begging for wedding sponsors in a blog.
    - proud to blog as a bummer without a job.
    - who is a plastic flop that corrects everything but her fat trotters
    - other than jolin tsai who believes that having squint eyes is at all pretty
    - to dress like mickey mouse club at age 27

  • http://www.shiikwaasaababy.blogspot.com Eimi

    Even though this post was made quite long ago, I still find it necessary to comment, as I have made a few observations in the years I have known of this girl.

    Truthfully, I wish I had never stumbled upon her blog.

    While at first, I found her interesting, amusing, and blatantly honest, I began to realize that behind much of her posts was a rather crude, vapid, and ignorant young woman. Being that she’s almost 30, I’m awfully flabbergasted at the fact that she still dresses like twelve-year-old lolita (albeit a rather scandalous looking one). As Meng stated, “She’s not glamorous, smart, or strong. She seems gaudy, cheap, plastic, feeble-minded, and weak-willed,” and I admit that I agree with him.

    Over the course of the last few years, her blog posts are fairly vacant of anything even remotely interesting. The majority of them (if not all of them) are Advertorials, where she then goes on to include an awful amount of [heavily] edited photos of herself in pretty much the same positions with the same expressions. She has relatively no intellectual knowledge of economics or politics, and speaks of neither on her blog, unless it is to demonize a certain person. Even with such demonization, she resorts to childish name-calling, with next to no intelligent reasoning, whatsoever. With that realization, I’ve noticed that she basically lives inside a small bubble that includes nothing more than shopping and make-up, which she apparently believes is high above everyone else. As one commenter put it, she “believes the world owes her something.”

    Even more interesting, I’ve begun to notice that she does not take kindly or even maturely to constructive criticism or intellectual conversation. At the exact moment that a single person asks her something she perhaps does not agree with, she jumps into the defensive. Her replies are then relatively vulgar and infantile. Any intent to counter her response is then blocked. And the criticism is very logical; she can be horridly vicious, racist, and hypocritical, yet call her out on it and she immediately lashes out at you. I’ve concluded that unless you are one of her gaggle of impressionable prepubescent ankle-biters (I have a reason for calling them that) who dote and fawn and congratulate her on every paltry, superfluous movement she makes, then she automatically considers you a lesser being and unworthy of even an intelligent response.

    I remark that her followers at “ankle-biters” because when they come to her defense for said paltriness, they’re justification is that anyone who does not agree and make the effort to kiss ass is obviously jealous (of what, I have no idea). Such an juvenile response warrants a juvenile moniker.

    I guess as I have grown older and wiser, I have begun to realize that she has gained neither wisdom or maturity in her years. Above all else, I pity the generation of followers who think of her as some holier-than-thou role-model.