Cancel culture: how Asia’s ‘woke brigade’ became a political force

From Malaysian beauty queens to aspiring Singaporean politicians, few are immune to the threat of being ‘cancelled’

But what exactly is ‘cancel culture’? Some see it as a power play, others as a ‘widespread triggering of personal experiences of being bullied’

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Blogger Wendy Cheng, better known as Xiaxue, recently came under fire on social media. The hashtag #PunishXiaxue became the No 1 trending topic on Twitter in Singapore. Photo: EPA

Published: 4:00pm, 19 Jul 2020Updated: 9:32am, 24 Jul 2020

From children’s author J.K. Rowling to a Malaysian beauty queen and candidates in Singapore’s general election, it seems barely a day goes by without another high-profile person falling foul of “cancel culture”.

Indeed, establishment writers, thinkers and journalists have become so worried by the trend that 150 of them – including the Harry Potter author, who has come under fire for her comments on transgender people – wrote to Harper’s Bazaar magazine earlier this month, to warn of an “intolerant climate” emerging on the political left. This new way of thinking, they said, was marked by “an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty”.

Children’s author J.K. Rowling fell foul of ‘cancel culture’ in response to her remarks about the transgender community. Photo: AP

The act of “cancelling” someone takes place when a public figure acts or makes remarks deemed racist, sexist, bigoted or otherwise offensive. Those who have been offended, usually organised over social media, then go about withdrawing support from their target by calling them out, for example on Twitter, or boycotting their work. Online petitions, open letters and hashtags are among the go-to tools and techniques employed by the typical “canceller”.

As assistant professor Walid Jumblatt Abdullah, from Nanyang Technological University’s public policy and global affairs division, puts it: “Cancelling someone is ultimately a power play: that power can be derived from institutions and formal authority, or just popular opinion.”

Whether it works or not is a matter of some debate. The former US president Barack Obama is among those who have questioned cancel culture’s effectiveness, saying “that’s not activism”, while his successor Donald Trump has claimed it is “the very definition of totalitarianism”.

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Cancel culture: how Asia’s ‘woke brigade’ became a political force

From Malaysian beauty queens to aspiring Singaporean politicians, few are immune to the threat of being ‘cancelled’ But what exactly is ‘cancel culture’? Some see it as a power play, others as a ‘widespread triggering of personal experiences of being bullied’

From Malaysian beauty queens to aspiring Singaporean politicians, few are immune to the threat of being ‘cancelled’

But what exactly is ‘cancel culture’? Some see it as a power play, others as a ‘widespread triggering of personal experiences of being bullied’