Xiaxue
Encyclopedia
Wendy Cheng, better known by her pseudonym Xiaxue, is a Singapore
an celebrity blog
ger who posts about her life, fashion and local issues. Her blog
, which attracts about 20,000 readers per day, has won prestigious blog awards and earned her sponsorship deals, as well as stints as a columnist
and TV show host. However, she is a contentious figure in the Singaporean blogosphere
, with some of her offensive posts sparking national controversies.
for a year, however her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend threw the diary away during a Chinese New Year
"spring clean". Wanting to air her thoughts in a space that nobody can throw away, she started blogging in April 2003. She selected her pseudonym, "Xiaxue", which means "snowing" in Mandarin Chinese, because it "had that tinge of mysterious, beautiful girl thing about it".
Xiaxue has ten blogs, including her main blog, a geeky blog, her media centre and several private blogs. On her main blog she provides updates about her personal life, posts photographs, writes about topics such as fashion, rants about issues such as "nasty taxi drivers", and posts paid advertorial
s about various products. She often swears in her posts and her success has been attributed to her bitchy, provocative writing style. According to a survey she conducted, which attracted 6000 responses, her readers are mainly Singaporean, female, young adults, into fashion and looking for alternative voices.
ads, and deals to write advertorials, she has a sponsorship deal with LocalBrand and was also previously sponsored by Kimage and Voxy. She has won several blog awards, including the 2005 Bloggies Best Asian Weblog, as well as the 2004 and 2005 Wizbang Weblog Awards Best Asian Blog. In 2008 her blog was selected for the National Library Board
archive.
Beyond blogging, Xiaxue has worked as a columnist for The New Paper
, Maxim
and the "STOMP" Star Blog
. She co-hosted a reality TV series, Girls Out Loud, on MediaCorp Channel 5 and has her own show on clicknetwork.tv, called Xiaxue's Guide to Life. In addition, she was an ambassador for the Fresh Air for Women Campaign, an anti-smoking campaign organised by the Health Promotion Board
.
and some of her posts have sparked national controversies. In an entry dated 16 October 2005, she condemned a disabled man, who scolded another man for using the toilet for the disabled, leading to an online backlash which prompted two of her then-sponsors to cancel their deals. On 28 December 2005 she wrote that foreign worker
s should be banned from Orchard Road
, Singapore's main retail and entertainment centre, as they were repeatedly molesting Singaporean girls; hundreds of netizen
s condemned her posts as "racist rants" and signed an online petition to ban her from Orchard Road. On 30 June 2008 she allegedly made defamatory remarks about rival blogger Dawn Yang, who responded by threatening to sue her.
On 20 July 2005 a hacker
broke into her Blogger
and Gmail
accounts, defaced her blog and deleted all of her e-mails, but she quickly regained access to her accounts. In January 2006 she was accused of impersonating another blogger and abusing her position as a Tomorrow.sg editor to remove comments critical of her. Her responses to criticism include "I think people basically love to hate things they feel are unworthy of attention," and, "if you do not like my blog, do not read it".
with a diploma in mass media. Her father is an antique dealer and her mother is a property agent; she also has a younger brother. She is married to American engineer Mike Sayre.
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
an celebrity blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger who posts about her life, fashion and local issues. Her blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, which attracts about 20,000 readers per day, has won prestigious blog awards and earned her sponsorship deals, as well as stints as a columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
and TV show host. However, she is a contentious figure in the Singaporean blogosphere
Blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...
, with some of her offensive posts sparking national controversies.
Blog
When Xiaxue was younger, she maintained a paper diaryDiary
A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...
for a year, however her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend threw the diary away during a Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...
"spring clean". Wanting to air her thoughts in a space that nobody can throw away, she started blogging in April 2003. She selected her pseudonym, "Xiaxue", which means "snowing" in Mandarin Chinese, because it "had that tinge of mysterious, beautiful girl thing about it".
Xiaxue has ten blogs, including her main blog, a geeky blog, her media centre and several private blogs. On her main blog she provides updates about her personal life, posts photographs, writes about topics such as fashion, rants about issues such as "nasty taxi drivers", and posts paid advertorial
Advertorial
An advertorial is an advertisement in the form of an editorial. The term "advertorial" is a portmanteau of "advertisement" and "editorial." Merriam-Webster dates the origin of the word to 1946....
s about various products. She often swears in her posts and her success has been attributed to her bitchy, provocative writing style. According to a survey she conducted, which attracted 6000 responses, her readers are mainly Singaporean, female, young adults, into fashion and looking for alternative voices.
Achievements
Xiaxue makes a living through her main blog, which attracts about 20,000 readers per day. Besides NuffnangNuffnang
Nuffnang is an online blog advertising community, claiming the lives of 118,817 bloggers spanning Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Australia.In conjunction with Nuffnang's 2nd anniversary, Nuffnang hosted the region's first blog awards in Singapore...
ads, and deals to write advertorials, she has a sponsorship deal with LocalBrand and was also previously sponsored by Kimage and Voxy. She has won several blog awards, including the 2005 Bloggies Best Asian Weblog, as well as the 2004 and 2005 Wizbang Weblog Awards Best Asian Blog. In 2008 her blog was selected for the National Library Board
National Library Board
The National Library Board is a statutory board of the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, Singapore...
archive.
Beyond blogging, Xiaxue has worked as a columnist for The New Paper
The New Paper
The New Paper is Singapore's second-highest circulating paid English-language newspaper, first launched on July 26, 1988, by Singapore Press Holdings . According to SPH, its average daily circulation for August 2010 was 101600....
, Maxim
Maxim (magazine)
Maxim is an international men's magazine based in the United Kingdom and known for its pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, sometimes pictured dressed, often pictured scantily dressed but not fully nude....
and the "STOMP" Star Blog
Straits Times Online Mobile Print
Straits Times Online Mobile Print is a Singapore-based web portal by Singapore Press Holdings. Its Singapore Seen section is locally a well known platform for expressions that are frequently frivolous, prejudiced, malignant and at time slanderous....
. She co-hosted a reality TV series, Girls Out Loud, on MediaCorp Channel 5 and has her own show on clicknetwork.tv, called Xiaxue's Guide to Life. In addition, she was an ambassador for the Fresh Air for Women Campaign, an anti-smoking campaign organised by the Health Promotion Board
Health Promotion Board
The Health Promotion Board is a statutory board under the Ministry of Health of Singapore. It was established in 2001 to act as the main driver for national health promotion and disease prevention programmes, "with a vision to build a nation of healthy and happy people".HPB undertakes the...
.
Controversy
Xiaxue has been criticised for her liberal use of profanityProfanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
and some of her posts have sparked national controversies. In an entry dated 16 October 2005, she condemned a disabled man, who scolded another man for using the toilet for the disabled, leading to an online backlash which prompted two of her then-sponsors to cancel their deals. On 28 December 2005 she wrote that foreign worker
Foreign worker
A foreign worker is a person who works in a country other than the one of which he or she is a citizen. The term migrant worker as discussed in the migrant worker page is used in a particular UN resolution as a synonym for "foreign worker"...
s should be banned from Orchard Road
Orchard Road
Orchard Road is a road in Singapore that is the retail and entertainment hub of the city-state. It is regularly frequented by the local population as well as being a major tourist attraction...
, Singapore's main retail and entertainment centre, as they were repeatedly molesting Singaporean girls; hundreds of netizen
Netizen
The term Netizen is a portmanteau of the English words internet and citizen. It is defined as an entity or person actively involved in online communities and a user of the internet, especially an avid one. The term can also imply an interest in improving the internet, especially in regard to open...
s condemned her posts as "racist rants" and signed an online petition to ban her from Orchard Road. On 30 June 2008 she allegedly made defamatory remarks about rival blogger Dawn Yang, who responded by threatening to sue her.
On 20 July 2005 a hacker
Hacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
broke into her Blogger
Blogger (service)
Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows private or multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. It was created by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003. Generally, the blogs are hosted by Google at a subdomain of blogspot.com. Up until May 1, 2010 Blogger allowed users to publish...
and Gmail
Gmail
Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
accounts, defaced her blog and deleted all of her e-mails, but she quickly regained access to her accounts. In January 2006 she was accused of impersonating another blogger and abusing her position as a Tomorrow.sg editor to remove comments critical of her. Her responses to criticism include "I think people basically love to hate things they feel are unworthy of attention," and, "if you do not like my blog, do not read it".
Personal life
Xiaxue graduated from Singapore PolytechnicSingapore Polytechnic
Singapore Polytechnic , the first polytechnic established in Singapore, was founded in 1954. The former campus was originally located at Prince Edward Road...
with a diploma in mass media. Her father is an antique dealer and her mother is a property agent; she also has a younger brother. She is married to American engineer Mike Sayre.