Xiaxue

Infobox Celebrity
wane = Xiaxue
name = Wendy Cheng


image_size = 149px
caption = Wendy Cheng, also known as Xiaxue
birth_date = birth date and age|1984|4|28
birth_place = Singapore
occupation = Celebrity Blogger and television host
website = [http://www.xiaxue.blogspot.com/ xiaxue.blogspot.com]

Xiaxue (Simplified Chinese: 下雪, real name Wendy Cheng Yan Yan) is a celebrity blogger and media personality from Singapore. She started her blog in April 2003,"Blogger Xiaxue brings Girl Power to strait-laced Singapore", Guardian Unlimited, 21 July 2008] and blogs about various topics ranging from herself to her view of the world around her. She is one of the few women on Technorati's list of the 100 most linked-to blogs. [Frank Sennett, "It's no longer a man's, man's, man's world", The Spokesman-Review, 5 February 2007] In 2006-7, she was the co-host of the television show "Girls Out Loud", which was broadcast in Singapore on MediaCorp Channel 5. She has also written columns for various publications including "Maxim" and "The New Paper".

Xiaxue's popularity as a blogger has been attributed to her being offensive by Singaporean standards, being "an ideal Big Brother contestant", and her more notable entries include ones on her methods of measuring penises, dumb starfish, and her perceived MRT irritants. Her most popular post thus far has been the controversial and attention-grabbing "7 most disgusting bloggers". She is frequently featured in the Singaporean media, albeit not always favourably, for her tactics.

Her pseudonym, Xiaxue, means "snowing" in Chinese.

Career and blogging

Cheng has worked as a columnist for "The New Paper" (a Singapore tabloid), "Maxim" magazine and "Snag" magazine. She used to be part of "The Straits Times" Online STOMP's panel of Star Bloggers, but was fired due to failing in fulfilling her obligation of being available for a one-hour regular online chat every Wednesday. [cite news | url = http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/2007/07/me-ha-hey-come-see-this-baby-paris.html | title = Monday, July 02, 2007 | author = Xiaxue | date= 2 July 2007]

On July 16 2007, Xiaxue posted an article about the 7 Most Disgusting Bloggers in the Singaporean Blogosphere, which included herself. [ [http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/2007/07/top-seven-most-disgusting-bloggers-in.html Top Seven Most Disgusting Bloggers (In the Singapore blogosphere)] ] This caused a lot of controversy and drama in the local blogosphere. All of the "top seven" rebuked, and one of the victims, a Singapore Idol-reject Steven Lim, rebuked her by posting his hideous albeit hilarious response via video on [http://youtube.com/watch?v=riBS5cURFRI YouTube] .

December 2006 saw the debut of " [http://www.munkysuperstar.com/portfolio.html Girls Out Loud] ", a TV show hosted by her and radio DJ Rosalyn Lee, where the hosts "act [ed] either bitchy or vacuous while exploring different themes in every episode". [Jeanmarie Tan, "Oh, for crying out LOUD!", The New Paper, 19 December 2006] In 2007, after "Girls Out Loud" ended its run, Xiaxue appeared in a web-based show with Rosalyn Lee called [http://www.clicknetwork.tv/watch.aspx?c=1&p=3 "Road Trip"] which ran for 8 episodes.

Xiaxue currently has her own ongoing web-based show titled [http://www.clicknetwork.tv/watch.aspx?c=1&p=8 "Xiaxue's Guide To Life"] which is running on the web-based TV network [http://www.clicknetwork.tv clicknetwork.tv]

Seventy percent of her blog visitors live in Singapore or Malaysia.

Awards and recognitions

On 10 November 2005, Xiaxue was ranked as the 5th most powerful woman in the blogosphere by [http://www.jackofallblogs.com/2006/06/09/10-most-powerful-women-in-blogging/ Jack of all Blogs] , placing her amongst the ranks of Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing and Heather Armstrong of [http://dooce.com Dooce] .

Xiaxue's blog has won several online award, mostly for popularity: Best Singapore Blog 2003, Best Asian Blog 2004, and 2005 Bloggies Best Asian Weblog. [ [http://2005.bloggies.com/ Fairvue Central >> Bloggies >> Fifth Annual Weblog Awards ] ]

Controversies

Xiaxue has been criticised for her heavy use of expletives in her entries [Ephraim Loy, "Spare us these foul phrases", The Straits Times, 9 September 2005] and has been known for her extreme defensiveness towards criticism. [cite news | url = http://www.todayonline.com/articles/95394.asp | title = Avoid Sowing the seeds of Hate | author = Benjamin James Saram
publisher = Today | date= 16 January 2006] cite news | url = http://www.todayonline.com/articles/95806.asp | title = 157 seek Orchard Rd ban for Xiaxue | publisher = Today | date= 18 January 2006] She was also accused of impersonating a rival blogger on 15 January 2006.

On 20 July 2005, Xiaxue's blog was hacked into and defaced; the hacker also gained access to her e-mail account and deleted all her e-mails. She regained access to her blog and e-mail account two hours after discovering the hacking, and made a police report."Don't let attacks bog down your blog",The Straits Times, 27 March 2007] Chua Hian Hou, "Blocked out of their own blogs", The Straits Times, 22 July 2005] [ [http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/2005/07/i-can-go-down-but-i-get-up-again-youre.html Xiaxue.blogspot.com - Everyone's reading it ] ] The local Internet community condemned the hacking. [ [http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2005/07/xiaxues_email_a.html mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of Singapore: Xiaxue's email and blog has been hacked ] ] [ [http://miyagi.sg/2005/07/on-my-birthday-2/ On my birthday | My Very Own Glob {Curiosa Felicitas} ] ]

In a post she wrote on 16 October 2005, Xiaxue criticised a disabled man who scolded an able-bodied man for trying to use the handicapped toilet. [ [http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/2005/10/i-am-hungrrrrrry.html Xiaxue.blogspot.com - Everyone's reading it ] ] This entry provoked many of her readers, who saw it as insensitive and unreasonable. After receiving hundreds of complaints from angry netizens, two of her three then-sponsors terminated their endorsement deals with her. [Jeremy Au Yong, "Toilet blog whips up more stink", The Sunday Times, 6 November 2005] [Jeremy Au Yong, "All flushed over toilet blog", The Sunday Times, 30 November 2005] [Serene Luo, "Hard-hitting blogger flushed with success", The Straits Times, 31 December 2005]

In a post she wrote on 28 December 2005, Xiaxue claimed that Singaporean girls were repeatedly molested by foreign workers at Orchard Road during festivals and special celebration events, and suggested carrying aerosol foam sprays on Orchard Road should be banned. [ [http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/2005/12/not-letting-life-shortchange-you.html Xiaxue.blogspot.com - Everyone's reading it ] ] The post, which the local Internet community condemned as "racist" for its derogatory references to the local population of Bangladeshi construction workers, [Arlina Ashad, "Netizen petitions against blog", The Straits Times, 29 January 2006] http://www.todayonline.com/articles/95806.asp] prompted an angry netizen to start a petition to ban the blogger from Orchard Road.

Xiaxue's review of the iPhone was dubbed the "Worst iPhone review so far" by Daniel Lyons of Forbes Magazine, one of the top technology bloggers in the US [Liew Hanqing, "Worst iPhone review so far", The New Paper, 12 April 2008] .

In July 2008, fellow blogger Dawn Yang, who has gained much popularity due to her extensive and abhorrent plastic surgery, launched a lawsuit against her for allegedly defamatory remarks made in a blog post, titled "A revelation of feelings", on June 30 [Debbie Yong, "Xiaxue won't say sorry to Dawn", The Straits Times, 23 July 2008] . The blog post was subsequently removed from the blog, but the screen shots can still be found [http://talkback.stomp.com.sg/forums/showthread.php?t=33833&page=258 here]

Personal life

Xiaxue describes herself as "just a normal girl who got rather lucky".

On 12 December 2006, Xiaxue underwent a free-of-charge rhinoplasty performed by Dr Martin Huang, a consultant plastic surgeon. [ [http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/2006/12/spanking-new-nose.html "The Girl with a Fake Nose"] ] The whole process or most of it, was filmed in the show "Girls Out Loud" with her being the host.

She currently cohabitates with Mike, her American boyfriend.

References