Source: Shrey Bhargava/Xiaxue Facebook pages

Shrey Bhargava called out Xiaxue publicly for condemning the “cancel culture” that has befallen her. He felt it was ironically what she built her career on. 

On Friday (24 Jul), Mr Bhargava said on Facebook that Xiaxue, whose real name is Wendy Cheng, tried to cancel him when he talked about casual racism at the movie “Ah Boys to Men” audition in 2017.  

Cancel culture is the ending of support for public figures in response to their objectionable behavior or opinions. This can include boycotts or refusal to promote their work. 

Mr Bhargava is an actor who is currently studying dramatic arts at the University of Southern California. 

“She dug out old clips of me doing stand up back in school and old work of me doing accents, (took) it all out of context to call me a hypocrite.” 

The post in question is “Shrey Bhargava’s newly demised acting career” written by Xiaxue on Facebook on 29 May 2017. 

When Mr Bhargava bemoaned the direction of the casting directors to put on a thick Indian accent and “make it funny”, Xiaxue compiled his past works where he donned not only different types of Indian accents, but accents of other races. 

She elaborated on why his exposé was therefore hypocritical and self-victimising

“Was that not an attempt to cancel me even before I started?” asked Mr Bhargava regarding her actions three years ago. 

The controversy surrounding Xiaxue that made the influencer cancel “toxic cancel culture”

Raeesah Khan’s past tweets on rich Chinese and Christian church leaders caused a stir during the Geneal Election campaign. Ms Khan, who is from the Workers’ Party, is elected Member of Parliament for Sengkang constituency. 

Police reports were filed against Ms Khan on 4 July and she apologised on 5 July.

In response to Ms Khan’s tweets in question, Xiaxue said on Instagram on 5 and 6 July that the “radical feminist/leftist” was stirring up “racist sentiments”. 

She added that Singapore does not need the “poison” from election candidates “infecting the nation’s politics”. 

 

In retaliation to the post, a police report was filed against Xiaxue on 6 July over her now-deleted past tweets that were “offensive and racist”. 

 

When Xiaxue started receiving backlash over her post, brands such as Clicknetwork and Fresh ended their partnership with her. 

She clapped back on 8 July saying the haters are part of a “toxic cancel culture” and they are not “going to bully (her) into silence, or force (her) to be a hypocritical woke sheep who echoes the same tired sanctimonious virtue-signaling crap every other person on social media is repeating ad nauseam”. 

“It’s like all of you are infected by the same mind virus,” she continued. 

On Tuesday (22 Jul), she offered five free instagram ads for brands who are willing to stand up against this cancel culture. 

The gripe Shrey Bhargava has with Xiaxue’s anti-cancel-culture stance

Mr Bhargava questioned her hypocrisy and double standards in chastising this culture while weaponising it against him back then. 

“Did it not matter then? Or maybe it’s easier to feel okay ‘cancelling’ minorities who raise their voice.” 

He also challenged the context that cancelling perhaps only mattered when someone is “visible”.  

Maybe it’s easier to feel okay (cancelling) when it’s not someone (whom) you think matters,” he said. 

Mr Bhargava went on to express his displeasure that “so many of us can choose the side of discrimination and hate” by defending Xiaxue “from the onslaught of public moral outrage in reaction to years of her xenophobic, transphobic, islamophobic and fatphobic comments”. 

He ends off by saying he is “really tired of all this” cancelling and ultimately hopes that society moves beyond such lowly discourse towards a culture of respect.

“Why not extrapolate to consider (whether) we could actually build a more civil society where a culture of respect and love is encouraged? It’s basic human decency to simply love and respect one another.”

TOC has reached out to both parties for comments on Friday (24 Jul). 

Update on Tuesday (28 Jul): Both did not respond to enquires. 

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