About a week ago, a Singaporean influencer rocked Singaporean and Malaysian social media after she pleaded for people, particularly Singaporean Chinese people, to shower in the morning before leaving their homes.
This started a whole debate online, leaving netizens divided. While some supported the influencer, others disagreed with her opinion. Alternatively, there were also those who were unsure of how to feel.
Now, another Singaporean influencer, lielnicole, is sharing her belief as to why some Chinese people do not shower in the morning and it has to do with colourism. This also comes after she confessed to being among those who did not shower in the morning but has since changed her ways.
She wrote, “Chinese privilege is not showering in the morning.”
Let’s dig deep!
She started by explaining that there is a deeper conversation that needs to happen in regards to why minorities in Singapore, which includes Singaporean Indians, tend to shower in the morning as compared to Singaporean Chinese people.
She attributes the broadening of her horizons to the fact that she’s in a friend group that has “every other race except Chinese”.
This image is for illustration purposes only.
“I realise some things that, me with my more Chinese-dominated friend group, we don’t actively think about how we smell to other people or whether we look clean. For example, we don’t do things like moisturise our kneecaps or calves because we don’t feel the need to make our knees not look ashy,”
“Or, we don’t actively feel like, ‘Oh we need to shave‘, to make ourselves look more presentable. Or we don’t actively think that we need to use deodorant because ‘oh I don’t smell bad what‘, you know? Or at least, it’s not even ‘I don’t smell bad‘, it’s ‘I don’t feel the need to smell good for YOU, for other people‘,” she explained.
But, this is a completely different issue for her Indian friends
lielnicole shared how her Indian friends DO feel the need to be clean, look presentable and smell good in public because of the microaggressions they’ve experienced throughout their lives.
This image is for illustration purposes only.
“If you think about it on a deeper level, it’s literally because of the microaggressions that they experienced growing up,”
“For example, in my friend’s experience growing up, her Chinese friend would ask to drink from the water cooler before she drank from the water cooler because she would ‘dirty’ the water cooler because she’s Indian and stuff like that,” she added.
Subtle Chinese privilege
She ultimately believes that Singaporean Chinese people choosing not to shower in the morning before leaving their homes is considered a ‘Chinese privilege’ and it stems from the lack of experience with being on the receiving end of colourism.
“I feel like not showering in the morning, right, this is the subtle Chinese privilege that we, sometimes, are in denial that we have. But, we have it because the whole point of Chinese privilege is that you can live your life without having to even think about like ‘oh people will think I’m dirty, people will think I’m disgusting‘,”
“Like, you are the ones that make people feel that way, you know? Which is crazy! And then now, when the tables are turned online, every Chinese person is like ‘Oh my god, what do you mean?‘ and get all defensive. Like eh, people have been experiencing (racism) for years lah, okay?” she said.
You can check out lielnicole’s video here:
Watch on TikTok
What do you think about this? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
Also read: Someone Allegedly Died from Showering Head First After Being Out in the Heat
