[xysoom]

How a tote bag sparked a debate about class



The post and those that followed have now drawn tens of millions of views and snowballed into a wider debate about class and social inequality in Singapore, a wealthy country whose government is becoming wary of increasing signs of stratification.To get more news about laptop backpacks for women, you can visit china-handbag-factory.com official website.

Charles & Keith is a Singaporean mid-range brand dubbed "Little CK" (Little Calvin Klein) in China and Taiwan, and is also popular in countries such as India and Thailand.

But in status-conscious Singapore, whose glitzy malls are packed with designer outlets, it does not count as luxury and the initial post, which has now had more than 20 million views, quickly drew contemptuous comments.

"Calling this luxury is the same as calling a fast food restaurant fine dining," said one snarky TikTokker.

Zoe, the eldest of four children, responded with an emotional video referencing a commenter who had said with a laughing emoji, "Who's gonna tell her?"

In the post, seen more than six million times, she said: "Growing up, I did not have a lot. My family didn't have a lot. To you, an $80 bag may not be a luxury, but to me and my family, it is a lot."

This time the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Zoe's TikTok following has since jumped by more than 200,000, while Charles & Keith and other brands also plied her with gifts.

Zoe, who moved to Singapore with her family from the Philippines in 2010, told the BBC that while she was heartened by the online support, she felt "overwhelmed and sad" by comments that criticised her father, a mechanical engineer (she has since deleted them).

"I also didn't understand why it was so hard for people to understand why [the bag] meant so much to me, in a sentimental and monetary sense," she said.

The debate has reached the upper echelons of Singapore's political life, with Lawrence Wong, the current deputy PM who is due to become the country's next leader, alluding to the episode in a speech urging Singaporeans not to be overly preoccupied with status and social prestige.
As a multiracial, multicultural country that has experienced racial riots, Singapore has historically been most concerned with preserving racial and religious harmony. There are stiff penalties, including jail time, for those who wound racial or religious feelings.

But in 2018, OnePeople.sg - an agency promoting racial harmony - commissioned research that identified the class divide as potentially the country's most divisive fault line. The year before, the Institute of Policy Studies, a prominent local think tank, came to the same conclusion.

The city-state, which has some of the highest-paid ministers in the world, is a place of sometimes extreme contrasts, with glittering condominiums and towering facades just a stone's throw from one-room rental apartments inhabited by elderly and blue-collar families. Despite the image projected by the film Crazy Rich Asians, not everyone can afford a Charles & Keith bag.