PETALING JAYA, Feb 20 — The friendly rivalry between Malaysians and Singaporeans reared its ugly head once again online as an American website added fuel to the fire.
This comes a day after the BBC claimed that ‘yee sang’ originated from the island republic.
Before the dust had settled on fuming Malaysians who lambasted the article on BBC’s Travel that hailed “Singapore’s salad” — American website thezoereport.com listed Singapore as in Malaysia and referred it as “the Malaysian island city-state”.
Both Malaysians and Singaporeans alike roasted the site for its error.
The Malaysians won’t be happy. Singaporeans will roll eyes.@thezoereport - u need to check ur facts before you hit “Publish”. Singapore & Malaysia are neighbours, not the same country. https://t.co/QRt4m9TyhQ
— weeteck (@weeteck) 20 February 2019
HORRIFYING. Singapore =/=MALAYSIA https://t.co/vfcvGFvWNo
— Alicia 陈力行 (@rockscellschan) 20 February 2019
Welcome back to the federation of Malaysia, Singapore...courtesy of some really brilliant journalists from the Western continents https://t.co/rA1iIkRmkG
Advertisement— Kucing Hitam (@techboy_88) 20 February 2019
Well the writer probably missed the part where Singapore dropped out of the formation of Malaysia and became a country on its own 🤷♀️ https://t.co/jsY63qe4RI
— 🌸 𝒯𝓎𝓇𝒶 𝑀𝒾𝓏𝒶𝓇 🌸 (@athyrhkhmzr) 20 February 2019
The faux pas was spotted in the list titled The Most Expensive Cities In The World To Live In, According To Experts.
Yesterday, an article in BBC’s Travel segment online that read Singapore’s Salad That Makes You Rich, the ‘yee sang’ was “brought to Singapore by Chinese immigrants in the 1930s” and before “four Singaporean chefs then created their own recipe of the “salad” in 1964, which has now become the “focal point of every Singaporean Chinese New Year celebration”.
The origin of the seasonal favourite, has been attributed in the book, A Toss Of Yee Sang as cited by website Cilisos, to Loke Ching Fatt, a Chinese immigrant who settled down in Seremban in the 1920s, before introducing his own take of the dish since the 1950s.
Malaysians were less than amused with BBC’s version and vented online.
https://t.co/N8FDZpLk9B via @BBC_Travel
— Giri Dev Nair (@GirizNair) 20 February 2019
Have they not any shame?
Yee Sang was invented in a restaurant called Loke Ching Kee, run by a man called Loke Ching Fatt in Seremban.
Malaysia has full claim and full rights to this! #bbc #yeesang
Dear BBC, yee sang or salad tossing during Chinese New Year was not created in Singapore. It was malaysia specifically seremban tho I didn't know that. Pls in future just assume any good food originated from Malaysia but western world lets Singapore take credit. pic.twitter.com/QRHR4Wcnmx
— funnlim (@funnlim) 20 February 2019