‘I’m Singaporean, not Chinese’: TikTok video sparks debate over shunning of ‘roots’

A widely shared TikTok clip by a user claiming to show some Singaporeans’ distaste at being labelled Chinese has sparked an online debate on whether residents of the city state have shunned their ancestral roots, while others warn against conflating the two identities.

The user, who implied he came from China, said in the 36-second video he was shocked to discover that Singaporeans were cold on being considered “compatriots” with mainlanders, suggesting that citizens of the Chinese-majority nation might have “forgotten their culture”.

In the clip, TikTok user “The Singaporean Son” recounts how a Singaporean Chinese individual had reacted when called a “compatriot”: “Little did I know, the Singaporean’s face turned black. ‘Since when are we compatriots? I’m Singaporean, not Chinese.’ I was stunned after that. Thereafter, I stopped saying such stuff.”

One online user pointed out: “Singaporean Chinese admit they are Chinese. They just hate [for] people to think they are from China.”

“Chinese nationals travelling and visiting places no doubt created a bad image for themselves, such as: talking loudly, [having] no manners and bad habits,” another commented.

Others came to the user’s defence, arguing that Singaporeans who were ethnically Chinese did share the same ethnic ancestry as mainlanders.

The debate comes shortly after another TikTok video of a man, believed to be a Chinese tourist in Singapore, was widely circulated, showing the user criticising Singaporeans for not being able to speak Mandarin and complaining about the country’s lack of Chinese signs on trains.

That clip sparked an uproar on social media, with other users pointing out that English was the lingua franca in Singapore.

This conversation on nationality and