Unlucky train passengers became the captive audience of a woman infamous for harassing non-Chinese people in Singapore with racist vitriol, and her message was simple: She’s better than all of you.
Catherine Beow Tan recently gave a speech on a train heading toward Changi Airport about her racial bias in a video that surfaced yesterday in which she held up her phone while showing photos of her family and discussed their elite education backgrounds.
Tan, who the police said late last month they were investigating, explained to commuters aboard the crowded public transport that she’s not racist just classist: She doesn’t speak to working-class Chinese Singaporeans either.
“I even told the police, OK, I don’t even talk to Chinese rank-and-file like you so I can’t be racist. If I don’t talk to them, don’t expect me to talk to you,” she was heard saying in a video posted by TikTok user Lee Sin Yee. Tan was seen standing in the middle of commuters – surprisingly steady in the moving vehicle – as she went on about her millionaire brother-in-law and two nephews who were studying law.
@sxnyee_saw her in the flesh❤️ she said she cannot be r*cist bc “we are different” OK MA’AM LOLLLL
Tan became the talk of the town after appearing in a viral video last month showing her belittling strangers she assumed were Malay while telling them that she was from the elite Hwa Chong Institution.
It did not take long to find her YouTube channel, which was filled with videos of her harassing train passengers since 2016 but presenting her as the victim. The channel has since been taken down and she was fired from her real estate job. Tan has not responded to Coconuts’ messages and calls for comment. The police have said nothing about the matter since April 27.
Several videos of Tan harassing strangers continued to surface online after the police said they had gotten involved. Twitter user @H0neybix posted saying Tan had filmed her father last week after he boarded a train at Lakeside station. He got off at Jurong East to alert train control officers of the woman, the user said.
“She was blasting the news really loudly on her phone? But she was slowly moving her phone around, like she’s recording people, and she kept filming in his direction and another Indian girl,” she wrote.
Other stories you should check out:
Racist ‘Hwa Chong’ lady fired by realtor; deplatformed by YouTube
Singapore’s racist ‘Hwa Chong’ lady has insulted enough people to fill a YouTube channel with her hate (Videos)
Singaporean man documents encounter with racist ‘Hwa Chong’ lady (Video)
Reader Interactions