K-pop contest finalist clarifies her ‘I don’t feel proud to be Singaporean’ remark
YouTube personality and K-Pop Star Hunt 3 finalist, Stephanie Koh, caused a stir in cyberspace after she said that she didn’t feel proud to be a Singaporean.
In an interview with Razor TV about her bad behaviour in the competition – she initially refused to surrender her mobile phone and threatened someone – the 21-year-old was unapologetic.
“I wouldn’t actually bother about representing this country because to be honest I don’t really feel proud to be Singaporean. Yeah, because everyone here is so small-minded, everyone here is so submissive. Everyone here don’t (sic) know how to think out of the box. No one here is creative. Everyone here just thinks the same way, follows the same rules and it’s too rigid for my taste,” she said in the video.
Her remarks, which were also carried in a story in The Straits Times on Tuesday, drew mixed reactions, with some readers criticizing her attitude.
She then posted a video blog on Wednesday to clarify her remarks, apologising for using the word “everybody” and that she meant to describe “majority” of Singaporeans.
She also said she believed the city-state was not a place for artists. “Here is my problem with Singapore. There’s barely any room for an alternate successful career path other than the ideal careers that everyone has in mind,” she noted.
Her video went viral overnight, garnering close to 200,000 views as of 7:30pm on Thursday and more than 6,000 comments.
The video was soon shared by numerous supporters via Twitter and Facebook, sparking even more discussion among online citizens.
As the video quickly gained popularity, two of Singapore’s popular radio deejays, Dee Kosh and Divian Nair, expressed concern about her views.
Worried that Koh’s remarks would “warrant a reason” for her supporters to leave Singapore, the 987FM deejays posted their reaction in their own video.
“We were kind of shocked and surprised at how many people had liked the video, shared the video…and concerned at the same time,” said Dee Kosh, 25.
“You’re in a place where you don’t have to think about basic necessities like food, shelter, safety… so what are you complaining about?” asked Divian, 26, who highlighted that Koh only spoke about things that directly concerned her.
While the video received almost 600 Likes and numerous supportive comments on YouTube, it only received over 6,000 views, which is in stark contrast to Koh’s video.
On Thursday evening, Koh and Dee Kosh had a heated exchange on Twitter, which was sparked when Koh sent a tweet directing at Dee Kosh saying, “Oh my god you are so obsessed. Most of your tweets are about me. I feel so sad for you.”
See below for the full Twitter brawl.
What do you think about the different views?
