Cheng Yan Yan Wendy (born Cheng Yan Yan; 28 April 1984), better known by her pseudonym Xiaxue, is a Singaporean blogger and online television personality who writes about her life, fashion and local issues in a provocative style. Her main blog, which attracts about 50,000 readers daily, has won prestigious

blog awards A blog award is an award for the best blog in a given category. Some blog awards are based on a public vote and others are based on a fixed set of criteria applied by a panel of judges. Blog awards are a descendant phenomenon from awards given b ...

and earned her sponsorship deals, as well as stints as a columnist and

TV show host A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for people who garner ...

, but some of her posts have sparked national controversies. She is married to American engineer Mike Sayre and they have one child.

Personal life

Born in Singapore on 28 April 1984,FAQs
, xiaxue.blogspot.com, Retrieved 9 July 2012. Wendy Cheng studied at River Valley High School and graduated from

Singapore Polytechnic Singapore Polytechnic (SP) is a post-secondary education institution and statutory board under the purview of the Ministry of Education in Singapore. Established in 1954, the institution is the first and oldest polytechnic in Singapore and is ...

with a diploma in mass media,Serene Luo, "Hard-hitting blogger flushed with success", ''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establish ...

'', 31 December 2005. then briefly worked as a project coordinator.Wong Kim Hoh, "Who says I have a foul mouth?", ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

'', 15 August 2004. Her father, an antique dealer, and her mother, a property agent, are divorced; she also has a younger brother. For a year, she maintained a paper diary, which her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend threw away during a Chinese New Year spring cleaning. Wanting to air her thoughts in a space that nobody could throw away,"The life of Wendy", ''Go Digital'', August–September 2005 she started blogging in April 2003.Jack Schofield,
Blogger Xiaxue brings Girl Power to strait-laced Singapore
, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 21 July 2008. She underwent plastic surgery, sponsored by

MediaCorp TV Mediacorp Pte. Ltd., doing business as Mediacorp and stylised as mediacorp, is a media conglomerate in Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the holding company of the Government of Singapore—it owns television, radio, and digital media prope ...

, to "correct her bulbous nose" in 2006.Grace Yap, "Smells like team spirit", ''

TODAY Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...

'', 23 December 2006. In 2010, she married American engineer Mike Sayre, whom she met online and had dated for three years, and in March 2013, she gave birth to a boy named Dashiel.Cheow Sue Ann, "People even curse me with miscarriage", ''The New Paper'', 31 March 2013.

Blogging

Wendy Cheng has several blogs, including her untitled main blog (usually known as xiaxue.blogspot.com), and several private blogs. Although she writes in the English language, she selected her pseudonym Xiaxue (下雪, pronounced something like ), which means "

snowing Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

" in

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

, because it "had that tinge of mysterious, beautiful girl thing about it". On her main blog, which attracts about 50,000 readers daily,"157 seek Orchard Road ban for Xiaxue", ''

'', 18 January 2006.Debbie Yong, "Xiaxue won't say sorry to Dawn", ''

'', 23 July 2008. she provides updates about her personal life, posts photographs, writes about topics such as fashion, discusses local issues such as "nasty taxi drivers", and posts paid

advertorial An advertorial is an advertisement in the form of editorial content. The term "advertorial" is a blend (see portmanteau) of the words "advertisement" and "editorial." Merriam-Webster dates the origin of the word to 1946. In printed publications, t ...

s. She often uses

profanity Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, rud ...

in her posts and her success has been attributed to her provocative writing style. According to a survey she conducted, which attracted 6000 responses, her readers are mainly Singaporean, female, young adults interested in fashion and "looking for an alternative voice". Awards that her main blog has won include the 2004 and 2005 Wizbang Weblog Awards Best Asian Blog and the 2005

Bloggies The Weblog Awards, nicknamed the Bloggies, was an annual non-profit blog awards that began in 2001. Until its end in 2015, it was the longest running and one of the largest blog awards, with winners determined through internet voting by the pub ...

Best Asian Weblog.Wendy Cheng
", Munky Superstar Pictures. Retrieved 17 June 2012. In July 2005, a hacker defaced the blog, but she managed to restore its contents. Her main blog, the first from Singapore to enter the Technorati Global Top 100 Blogs List, was selected for the National Library Board archive in 2008.

Other media

Due to the popularity of her main blog, Xiaxue has earned jobs in mainstream media, notably as a columnist for national newspapers ''

'' and ''

The New Paper ''The New Paper'' is a Singaporean newspaper in tabloid form. It was originally published as a "noon paper", but since 2016 has been published daily as a freesheet in the morning from 7 a.m. onwards. History First launched on 26 July 1988, ...

'', ''

Maxim Maxim or Maksim may refer to: Entertainment * ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine ** ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition ** ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition *Maxim Radio, ''Maxim'' magazine's radio channel on Sir ...

'' magazine and ''Snag'' magazine. In addition, she has served as an editor for blog aggregator Tomorrow.sg, a Star Blogger for the

STOMP Stomp may refer to: *Stomp (strike), a downwards kick using the heel Music and dance * ''Stomp'' (album), by Big D and the Kids Table, 2013 * Stomp (jazz), a type of rhythmic jazz tune popular in the 1920s *Stomp (theatrical show), a percussive p ...

portal and a presenter at the 2005 Singapore Writer's Festival. She has struck sponsorship deals with many companies, including online eyewear store HoneyColor, childcare merchandise retailer

Mothercare Mothercare plc is a British retailer which specialises in products for expectant mothers and in general merchandise for children up to eight years of age. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap In ...

, T-shirt maker LocalBrand, hair salon Kimage and nail studio Voxy. In 2006, she and DJ

Rosalyn Lee Rosalyn may refer to: * "Rosalyn" (song), song by Pretty Things People * Rosalyn Borden (1932–2003), American actress *Rosalynn Carter, wife of former President of the United States Jimmy Carter * Rosalyn Gold-Onwude (born 1987), American basket ...

co-hosted ''Girls Out Loud'', a reality TV series on MediaCorp Channel 5, where they engage in "outrageous antics and no-holds-barred banter". She has a fortnightly series, called ''Xiaxue's Guide to Life'', on the

web television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air ae ...

channel clicknetwork.tv; its highest-rated episode had more than a million views. The

Health Promotion Board The Health Promotion Board (HPB) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Health of the Government of Singapore. It was established in 2001 to act as the main driver for national health promotion and disease prevention programmes. School ...

selected her as an ambassador for their Get Fresh campaign to discourage women from smoking and help female smokers quit.

Controversy

In October 2005, Xiaxue wrote an entry condemning a

disabled Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, ...

man, who scolded a non-disabled man for using the toilet for the disabled, leading to an online backlash that prompted two sponsors to cancel their deals. Two months later, she suggested that

foreign worker Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest worke ...

s be banned from

Orchard Road Orchard Road, often known colloquially as simply Orchard, is a major –long road in the Central Area of Singapore. Known as a famous tourist attraction, it is an upscale shopping area of Singapore, with numerous internationally renowned depa ...

, as they were molesting Singaporean girls; many

netizen The term netizen is a portmanteau of the English words ''internet'' and ''citizen'', as in a "citizen of the net" or "net citizen". It describes a person actively involved in online communities or the Internet in general.

s condemned her posts as "racist rants" and signed an

online petition An online petition (or Internet petition, or e-petition) is a form of petition which is signed online, usually through a form on a website. Visitors to the online petition sign the petition by adding their details such as name and email address. T ...

to ban her from Orchard Road. She was accused of impersonating another blogger and abusing her position as a ''Tomorrow.sg'' editor to remove comments critical of her in January 2006. In July 2007, she made a post about the "seven most disgusting bloggers" in Singapore, sparking

flame war Flaming or roasting is the act of posting insults, often including profanity or other offensive language, on the internet. This term should not be confused with the term trolling, which is the act of someone going online, or in person, and causing ...

s that were extensively covered by local media. In April 2008, she made a video about the iPhone, which she insists "was meant to be funny", but was dubbed "the worst iPhone review" by American technology writer

Daniel Lyons Daniel Lyons (born 1960) is an American writer. He was a senior editor at ''Forbes'' magazine and a writer at ''Newsweek'' before becoming editor of ReadWrite. In March 2013 he left ''ReadWrite'' to accept a position at HubSpot. Lyons is the aut ...

and ridiculed on other technology websites, including Gizmodo. Xiaxue also has a heated rivalry with blogger Dawn Yang, who threatened to sue her for an allegedly defamatory post in June 2008. In February 2020, Xiaxue was accused of “ fatphobia” on social media after she called morbidly obese people “disgusting” and that they “don’t live past” the age of 40. Xiaxue claimed in an Instagram story that “they gorge themselves with 30 burgers a day and when they inevitably get a clogged artery or diabetes, taxpayers have to help foot their medical bills when their health conditions are entirely caused by their irresponsible behaviour”. Xiaxue's posts were deleted by Instagram after users reported her for harassment. In July 2020, Xiaxue lost brand sponsorships following police reports over racist tweets, including tweets that were targeted at foreign workers, alleging “they molest people and f*** our maids and leer at girls and flood Little India” and the attempt to use the

N-word In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...

in certain context. Beauty brand Fresh and Swedish timepiece company

Daniel Wellington Daniel Wellington is a Swedish brand founded in 2011 by Filip Tysander. Since its inception, Daniel Wellington has sold over 6 million watches; the company has gained this success through its digital strategy in social networks like Instagram. ...

have publicly confirmed that they have ended their partnerships with Xiaxue following this incident. Reality and lifestyle channel Clicknetwork, with whom Xiaxue has worked with since 2011, dropped Xiaxue as a host.

References

{{reflist

External links

Xiaxue's main blog
Singaporean people of Chinese descent Singaporean bloggers Singaporean columnists Singaporean women columnists Singaporean television presenters Singaporean women television presenters Singapore Polytechnic alumni Living people 1984 births Singaporean women bloggers