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Singapore’s biggest social media stories of 2023: from Jocelyn Chia’s MH370 joke to ‘girl math’

arifnsn December 29, 2023

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While Singapore may be a small country, its capacity for online drama is surprisingly huge. From a comedian cancelled over an offensive joke to TikTok’s Singaporean CEO getting crowned a ‘zaddy’, here are some of the most hotly discussed topics to have swept Singaporean social media in 2023.

Comedian Jocelyn Chia enrages Malaysians

After a notorious 89-second clip of a joke about MH370, the Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 239 people that went missing in 2014, went viral, Singapore-raised comic Jocelyn Chia found herself thoroughly cancelled – and even hit with vague threats of being tracked down by Interpol.

Jocelyn Chia in a still from a TikTok video of her performance at a New York comedy club. Photo: TikTok/@ComedyCellarUSA

Not only that, but her bad-taste joke in a New York comedy club prompted Singapore’s foreign affairs minister Vivian Balakrishnan to issue an apology to Malaysians, in which he said “she certainly does not speak for Singaporeans”.

Malaysia’s then-foreign minister Zambry Abdul Kadir, meanwhile, condemned Chia’s “lack of sensitivity and empathy” towards the families of victims and Malaysians in general.

Yet on the other side of the world, the controversy catapulted Chia to a new level of fame in the United States, from where she told This Week in Asia that she had scored her own television special.

Her joke was aimed at the hypersensitivities surrounding politics, nationalism and identity in Singapore and neighbouring Malaysia – two nations bound by history and culture, but where jokes can sometimes turn into stereotypes and discrimination.

‘Crossing the line’: Jocelyn Chia saga shows limits of Asia’s sense of humour

TikTok CEO crowned Gen Z’s ‘zaddy’

Other well-known faces to have been crowned ‘zaddies’ include Pedro Pascal, the 48-year-old star of US television series The Last of Us.

Chew, who turns 41 on January 1, took questions from US lawmakers at the hearing on a range of topics such as safety for young users on the app, data privacy and US national security.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testifies before a committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 23. Photo: EPA-EFE

He soon reached his first million followers on TikTok, taking to the platform to thank his fans. “I’ve been reading the comments and I want to thank you for the support,” he said in a video clip.

The social-media adulation for Chew reflects a wider embrace of TikTok across Asia, where there has been far less of the angst emanating from Washington and its allies over claims the China-linked app poses a national security threat due to the volume of user data it collects and its alleged ties to Beijing.

Big ‘zaddy’: how TikTok’s CEO became a star among Singapore’s Gen Z

Bondee’s brief moment in the sun

Bondee, an avatar-based app from Singapore-based tech firm Metadream, was downloaded some 2 million times within two weeks of its launch this year on Apple’s App Store – and was thought to hold great promise for metaverse converts.

Many of the app’s early adopters were drawn in by the cute avatars, personalised rooms and picnic spaces, which were reminiscent of games such as Habbo Hotel and Animal Crossing.

However, the novelty quickly wore off, with users telling This Week in Asia that they felt the app had limited functionality.

Just a month after topping charts across Asia, the app had fallen to the 19th spot for downloads in Singapore’s Apple Store. Experts said Bondee’s brief moment in the sun reflected the hard-earned loyalty of digital natives, most of whom have already been captured by larger platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

Is it already ‘game over’ for Singapore’s Bondee in the metaverse?

Shoppers browse merchandise in a shopping centre on Orchard Road in Singapore on December 23. Photo: Reuters

‘Girl math’ to cope with a cost of living crisis

Some in Singapore and across the region have adopted the logic of ‘girl math’, a financial calculation system that justifies spending thousands of dollars on frivolous but mood-boosting purchases, from Taylor Swift concert tickets to luxury Van Cleef necklaces, amid rising costs.

One Singapore-based content creator used ‘girl math’ to justify spending S$140,889 (US$106,600) on a permit to buy a large car, otherwise known as a certificate of entitlement, which hit record highs earlier this year.

Does ‘Girl Math’ help Singapore’s Gen Z ‘find joy’ – or spend recklessly?

While a lot of the trend was rooted in humour and “delusion”, the creator – Darshen Kunaseharan – said that it was also a “coping mechanism” for many young people grappling with rising cost-of-living pressures in the city state.

Some critics say it has encouraged reckless spending and poor saving-habits, while others claim that it perpetuates the notion that women are bad at managing their finances. Many also came out to defend it as satire, saying that it should not be taken too seriously.

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