Malaysian comedian and YouTube star Nigel Ng has been accused of pandering to China, after he decided to apologise to his mainland viewers for his previous video featuring another YouTuber Mike Chen.
The comedian, known to many by his alter-ego "Uncle Roger", had a collaboration with Chen earlier but decided to remove the video after finding out that the latter was very critical of the Chinese government.
"On January 10th, I posted a collab video called "Uncle Roger Review UGLIEST DUMPLING EVER" on YouTube. It has come to my understanding that this video has made a bad social impact. My staff and I would like to express our sincerest apologies to everyone. Considering the seriousness of this issue and the negative impact of the video itself, we discussed internally and decided to take it down from all platforms. At the same time, I urge everyone to please stop reposting content related to it."
Ng stated that he didn't know beforehand that Chen was very critical of China, and that as an ethnic Chinese growing up in Malaysia, Ng himself loves the Chinese culture very much.
"I hope you can give Uncle Roger, who has just entered China, a chance to improve!" he added.
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| Mike Chen held no animosity against Uncle Roger |
In response to the situation, Mike Chen posted a message on Instagram on 14 January, writing, "I think that what happened here is the result of the CCP’s censorship, even if it wasn’t direct censorship. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses many tactics to silence those who disagree with them or challenge them. They will use online mobs to bully or intimidate people. They will use their soft power to get people to self-censor because they are afraid of losing business in China or offending Chinese people. And I think that’s what’s happening here."
"Unfortunately, as the CCP gains more influence in the world, this has become a widespread problem in society. It affects everyone from governments, to corporations, to even YouTubers," he said, adding that he has no animosity against Ng for what had happened.
However, the same courtesy was not given by some netizens, who were unhappy by the way Ng dealt with the issue.
One netizen posted, "Can't believe you kowtowed on Weibo. I am so disappointed", while another wrote, "What a shame Uncle Roger is a Tian’anmen Square Massacre denier when he wants to earn heaps of RMB."
On the other hand, there were also those who were confused by what had happened, with one writing, "Uncle Roger's political sensitivity is so high, we still don't know what happened."
It is noted that this is not the first time that a celebrity backtracked and issued apology to China, with several fashion brands including Versace saying sorry for not specifying Hong Kong and Taiwan as part of China on one of their T-shirts.
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| Nigel Ng is known for his YouTube alter-ego Uncle Roger |