Xiaxue On Her New Reality TV Show

Will it be more "Jershey Shore" or "Keeping Up with the Kardashians"?

Photos: Pamela Chow, Courtesy of NBC Universal

e-160901-wendy-vs-the-world-landscape-keyart-no-tx

Thanks to her notoriously fierce online persona, Xiaxue - aka Wendy Cheng - is often regarded by many as intimidating. But strolling into the room with a bubble tea in one hand and a pastel-pink jacket in another, Wendy looks like a mini-Barbie. I pick up my camera for our shoot; she casually digs into her bag.

"Wait ah, give me a moment to check my make-up."

But beneath her baby-pink clothing and bubbly smile, Wendy hides many talents. She soon makes her television debut with "Wendy vs the World", a one-off reality show that follows her daily life as a mother, a daughter and one of Singapore's most controversial social media stars.

Weekender catches Wendy for a chat about her new venture and life as she sees it.

Prev2 of 3Next

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Wendy Cheng 👑 Xiaxue (@xiaxue)

The show’s called “Wendy vs the World”. As a straightforward person, how do you deal with “the world”?

I feel like I’m not deliberately trying to be controversial. I just say whatever I think, and sometimes it comes as a surprise to me that people find it very controversial. It’s very shocking to me as well.

Can you share with us a difficult period, and how you overcame it?

I had post-natal blues after having my baby, and that was an entirely new experience for me. I’ve always been a very happy and positive person, and for the first time in my life I was experiencing how depression feels like.

I came to the realisation that you cannot control it. It’s hormones and your brain’s chemistry. It lasted two weeks and I was very panicky, wondering, “What’s happening to me? Why am I crying uncontrollably and thinking the most negative and ridiculous thoughts?”

But people were very encouraging because I’d just given birth. That was very nice.

How about coping with criticism from the public?

I’m already so used to it; it’s a part and parcel of my life that I just don’t give a sh*t anymore! The haters generally say almost the same thing all the time. You just have to keep living your life and proving them wrong by becoming better and better.

Social media is changing so quickly. How do you adapt and stay ahead?

Sometimes for my YouTube videos, I’m more stressed out to make it short and snappy. It cannot be a 14-minute relaxing video – nobody wants to watch that. Content needs to move very fast and be engaging… It needs to be loud and out there.

Prev2 of 3Next