Wednesday

7 APRIL
2010

R.AGE

thestar.com.my/lifestyle

R.AGE

All for freedom

of speech >4

SHARM ON THE SCENE

Daddy-daughter
connections >8

Pillow
Fight Day >10

e
m
a
f
r
o
f
e
m
Ga
n blogger
a
e
r
o
p
a
g
in
S
e to top
na. > 2-3
o
s
r
e
There is mor
p
e
u
q
s
e
her bimbon
a
h
t
e
u
x
ia
X

T2

R.AGE

n
o
i
t
i
b
m
a
e
d
Blon

STARTWO, WEDNESDAY 7 APRIL 2010

LIFESTYLE

Bigger feast
Food portion sizes have soared
69% in paintings of Jesuss
last meal with his disciples. >13

MIND OUR ENGLISH

Leaving us baffled
A look at some confusing
words. >16

CHILDWISE

One thing at
a time
Break down tasks into
manageable portions for
young children. >19

MUSIC

Retro cool
charmer
He didnt cut it as a hockey
player, so Michael Buble
became a pop star. >23

MOVIES

Singaporean blogger Xiaxue is in

Kuala Lumpur today for the launch
party of Project Alpha Season
2. R.AGE caught up with her in
an exclusive interview in London
recently.

By NIKI CHEONG
niki@thestar.com.my

sensational Xiaxue
during our trip.

Popular

IAHN Pessoa was just walking along

Oxford Street in London on a random
Friday night when she sees a young
woman with platinum blonde hair.
Are you Xiaxue? Liahn asked the
woman.
The person in question, Singaporean
Wendy Cheng, simply replied, Yes, I am.
Lianh couldnt believe it. For over a year,
she has been religiously logging on to
xiaxue.sg, to see if there were any new blog
posts by Wendy, 27, one of Asias most
popular bloggers.
I really like her blog and hers is the only
personal one I read all the time, Liahn said.
I had read on her blog that she was going to
be in London but I never thought Id bump
into her!
Wendy was thrilled, and said that the
meeting had made her day. It was Wendys
first ever trip to London, and, like me, she
was there to shoot a segment for the
second season of Project Alpha, a reality
show that aims to uncover Malaysias top
bloggers.
I took the opportunity to interview the

While that was the

first time Wendy had
ever been recognisedoutside of Singapore,
fame is not new to her.
In 2005, just a couple
of years after she started blogging, Wendy
noticed that she was
getting recognised in
public, particularly
among the younger
crowd.
It was weird. It was
ndy Cheng camwhoring
Singaporean blogger We for Project Alpha, a reality
like, Oh my god, I am
during a shoot in London
getting famous but the
show on bloggers.
first thing I asked myself
was whether it was a
currently averages 40,000 unique visits a day
good or bad kind of
on her blog, and has won a string of awards
famous, she said.
including Best Singapore Blog in the 2003
Then I thought to myself that its kind of
Asiablog Awards, Best Asian Blog in the 2005
bad at first because a lot of people didnt like
Weblog Awards and the Most Influential
me but then it started to translate into good
Blog and Regions Best Blog awards at the
things.
Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards last year.
Good is perhaps an understatement. She
The term influential is perhaps more
appropriate. Besides being a full-time
blogger, Wendy also hosts a popular online
show called Xiaxues Guide To Life on
www.clicknetwork.tv. The show has recorded over 70 episodes, some of which have
garnered over 100,000 views.

Bring in the clown

Courting controversy

Julian Cheah gets his camp

horror film Killer Clown out for
the masses to enjoy. >25

StarTwo

EDITOR: LIM CHENG HOE

CONTACT
e-mail: startwo@thestar.com.my
tel: 03-7967 1388
fax: 03-7955 4039
ADVERTISING:
Peter Hoe
peterhoe@thestar.com.my
(03) 7966-8236
Pearly Tan
pearly.tan@thestar.com.my
(03) 7966-8272

EDITOR: IVY SOON

CONTACT
e-mail: alltherage@thestar.com.my
tel: 03-7967 1693
fax: 03-7955 4039
ADVERTISING:
James Lam
jameslam@thestar.com.my
(03) 7966-8226

Wendy was
stopped on
Oxford Street by
a fan, Lianh
Pessoa.

Wendy was not always the blogger that

she currently is. Like most others, she was
just another teenager blogging about her
personal life. However, her life was fascinating enough to catch the attention of The
Straits Times in Singapore in 2005, and the
article they did on her was a turning point.
Of course, it was also around this time that
Wendy became Xiaxue, the controversial
blogger. She had written a blog post criticising a disabled person for berating a psychically-abled man who was about to use the
toilet cubicle designated for the disabled.
I felt very indignant for the physicallyabled person because I didnt feel that he did
anything wrong, he was just trying to open
the door to use the toilet, Wendy shared.
In 2006, The Straits Times reported that a
petition was being circulated against Wendy
after she had allegedly made racist remarks
against foreign workers (the post is no longer on her blog).
Then, there was also the very public feud
between her and another popular
Singaporean blogger, Dawn Yang, which
ended up with the latter threatening Wendy
with a defamation lawsuit.
I dont feel that I am (intentionally
controversial). Sometimes, when I am writing something, warning bells go off in my
head and I think, maybe I shouldnt write
that. Then I think *#&$ it lah, I should just
write it anyway, she opined.
To Wendy, she was just speaking her
mind. With her influence and propularity,

STARTWO, WEDNESDAY 7 APRIL 2010

R.AGE

T3

Wendy and her husband Michael

posing at their Mafia-themed
registration of marriage ceremony.
Picture courtesy of Wendy Cheng
these days Wendy is a bit more careful about
what she writes about.
Initially I just wrote whatever I felt. And
then sometimes when, like, the backlash
comes, its just very surprising to me, like,
Hah? Is that offensive?, she explained.
Addressing the disabled toilet issue,
Wendy said: You would think that
something like that is not really that
offensive, because girls use the toilet for
the disabled. When youre in a shopping mall
and there are six toilets in a row and the last
one is a toilet for the disabled, people just
queue at the front and go into the next free
toilet.
I dont know about guys, okay, (but) girls
use the toilet for the disabled, thats for sure.
Everybody uses it but when I say I use it, so
many people got angry.
There was backlash, of course, and she had
even lost a couple of her endorsement deals
as a result of the post, according to Wikipedia.

Just a bimbo
Perhaps it is her less-than-politicallycorrect opinions and the long, dyed blonde
tresses that have led many people to think of
her as just a bimbo. However, the blonde
locks are a relatively new look.
According to her, she has been a victim of
attacks on her intelligence since she started
blogging.
That said, she doesnt take offence to being
called a bimbo and even sometimes refers to
herself as one.
I guess it just reflects how I feel inside,
because I feel like Im blonde. Not, like, ditzy
blonde ... just that looks and appearance are
more my priority than proving myself intellectually or anything like that, she explained.
Wendy said that shes come to realise that
no matter how smart a person is, there will
always be detractors.
I used to get very offended when people
say Im stupid because, you know I was in a
good school and when I was a kid, people
always said Im smart. And then when I was a
bit older and I started my blog, the first attack
on me was always that I was stupid, she
shared.

To prove these people wrong, Wendy even

took Mensas IQ test, of which she got
through with flying colours.
My IQ is more than 148, she said matterof-factly.
Despite making that fact public, people
were still calling her stupid and it was then
that she decided to stop caring about what
others thought.
Theyre too dumb to realise Im smart, so
why give a s*** about them. Whether they
think I am smart or not, I dont care, as long
as Im earning money.

Married life
Well, Wendy really is making good money.
Currently, she is living off her earnings via
blogging, on top of all the perks she gets,
including free meals and trips for reviews.
In fact, almost everything was sponsored
during her recent wedding to her beau of four
years, Michael Sayre.
Michael and Wendy met online several
years ago when he came across her blog, and
dropped her an e-mail.
I think he was Googling something really
naughty because he doesnt want to tell me
what he Googled, she said in jest, only to
have Michael reply with a quick, I dont
remember!
Michael shared that the thing that he liked
most about Wendy was that shes honest
about herself, who she is and what she thinks.
She doesnt pull punches.
There is definitely more to the blogger than
meets the eye, but perhaps Michael is the one
who sums her up quite aptly.
Shes one of a kind.
Project Alpha Season 2 features Niki
Cheong (www.nikicheong.com/blog),
ShaolinTiger (www.shaolintiger.com),
KYspeaks (www.kyspeaks.com), Cheesie
(cheeserland.com), Azwan Ali
(silaserazwanali.blogspot.com), Ninie
Ahmad (ninieahmad.com) and Joe Lee
(www.klubbkidd.com). The show premieres
online on April 19.
For more information, go to
www.projectalpha.com.my.

Hanging out with Wendy

WHEN I was first approached to interview popular Singaporean blogger
Xiaxue, I was quite excited. While I had
never been a fan of hers, having only
dropped by her blog a few times, I was
curious about the person behind the
persona.
As I started to do my research, however, the excitement soon turned into
apprehension. Some people warned me
about her being difficult (although they
had never met her), and she obviously
does not suffer fools (from what I read
on her blogposts).
I was even nervous about how to
address her Wendy or Xiaxue, never
mind that I didnt know how to
pronounce Xiaxue. I wondered if she
would call me stupid for not having
done my research. Well, she did utter
that word to me, but the venom was not
directed at me ... phew!
Its so stupid, I really hate that name.
I chose it when I was 14, so it kind of got
stuck, she replied with a scowl.
Great way to start. The interview with
Xiaxue was exclusive to R.AGE, and was
captured on video as part of my segment
in Project Alpha, a reality TV show on
Malaysian bloggers.
The producers had arranged for me to
fly to London to meet Wendy and her
then-fiance Michael Sayre, who were
both visiting the city for the first time.
The five-day trip would be shown on
Project Alpha, which premieres online on
April 19.

While I was right Wendy does speak

her mind and rarely holds back I was
quite taken aback by her relatively laid
back manner. My initial impression was
that she was a bit of a princess; she had
elaborate nail art on, a bling-ed out cellphone and camera, and had gone shopping for clothes specifically for the trip.
Yet, Wendy is not a diva throughout
the five days, she was accommodating,
punctual and professional.
I thought she was going to be a very
girly-girl because of the way she dresses
and her blog was all pink, but she has a bit
of a tomboy in her, said Project Alpha host
Jojo Struys, who was also on the trip.
When we were in Chelsea to interview
fans during a Chelsea-Arsenal fottball
match, Wendy did everything she needed
to do for the camera and then just sat
quietly in a corner on a pavement, even
though she was bored silly.
It was very fascinating to spend those
few days with her because she was full of
contradictions.
While she looks the part of her bimboish persona, she is obviously very smart.
And while she loved dressing up, she was
also a practical dresser. Most significantly
was that while she and Michael would at
times snap at each other and argue over
petty things, there is also a lot of love and
mutual respect in their relationship (okay,
maybe she is a little bit bossier than him).
There really is more to Wendy, but
perhaps that is what makes her so intriguing. Niki Cheong