TL;DR – She felt the need to contribute, to make this country a better and warmer place.
倔強的小蟹 (loosely translated to “Stubborn Little Crab”) is a Chinese YouTuber with more than 1,400 subscribers on her YouTube channel.
The videos on her channel are mostly about beauty tips and insights into her daily life. To be even more specific, she wants to share her life living as an immigrant who has decided to move to Singapore. She’d even included videos of her turning from a Work Pass holder to a Permanent Resident (PR) to a Singapore Citizen!
In a particular video posted on December 28, 2019, and has since garnered over 20,000 views, the newly minted Singapore citizen revealed some of the heartwarming stories that made her decide to stay in Singapore for good.
Came to Singapore in 2012
The YouTuber revealed that when she first came to Singapore to work in the IT sector in September 2012, her first impression of Singapore wasn’t that great.
She couldn’t quite adapt to the new environment and life was tough in the beginning. The bad experiences she had with her then-landlord didn’t help either.
Fortunately, things eventually got better for her. She found a job as a Technical Support Engineer, made new friends and experienced some very heartwarming moments with the people around her, which changed her mind about Singapore.
Low crime rate
In her video, she recalled an incident in a food court, whereby she accidentally left her wallet behind on the table.
When she was about to leave the food court, she heard someone calling after her.
It turned out to be an auntie who wanted to return the wallet to her. She was so touched and couldn’t stop thanking the kind auntie.
The YouTuber shared that wasn’t the first occasion whereby she loses her belongings. Besides her wallet, she’d also lost her identification card, her umbrella, her mobile phone – and they were all returned back to her.
All these made her feel that Singapore is an extremely safe country.
“There are no robberies in Singapore and even if you misplaced your personal belongings, chances of getting it returned to you are still very high,” she added.
Supportive and sympathetic bosses
The YouTuber shared that initially when she found out that she was pregnant, she was very troubled as she was still very new to her job. She didn’t have the courage to inform her boss about her pregnancy fearing that she would get “fired”.
Hence, she wrote him an email.
Instead of reprimanding her, her boss said this to her:
“Why would you feel that being pregnant is a bad thing? Why did you say that you feel guilty about being pregnant in your email? What is there to be guilty about? To us Malays, we feel that children are a gift from God. Why would you think that this is something bad? What have you done wrong? You are just pregnant, aren’t you?”
She was taken aback but thankful for having an understanding boss,
“What touched me the most was when he told me that as a husband and father to three children, he too hoped that his wife’s superior would watch out for her during her pregnancy. Hence, I didn’t have to feel pressurised by my pregnancy or feel bad about it at all.”
Not only did he assure her and support her during her pregnancy, he even went the extra mile to keep a lookout for her in case she needed help.
In fact, the YouTuber shared that it wasn’t just that particular boss who treated her well. Her subsequent bosses she met in the other companies here in Singapore were also very kind to her.
According to her, the culture and working environment here in Singapore is less complicated as compared to Mainland China. In contrast, there is less office politics and people are also genuinely nice.
Empathy and compassion from strangers
She brought up another incident whereby she received a sarong baby bouncer from a stranger for free.
At one point, she was having trouble putting her child to sleep and heard from her colleagues that having a sarong baby bouncer would be helpful and hence she decided to get one.
However, she had no clue where to purchase one. So, she randomly entered a provision shop to ask about it:
“The boss told me they don’t sell it. But as soon as he heard I needed one, he got his wife to retrieve an old sarong baby bouncer from the storeroom. It was an old one which their children used when they were young, so he told me that if I didn’t mind, I could just take it. I asked him how much I should pay him, he told me he’s giving it to me for free.”
“I was moved by his kind gesture. He wasn’t selling it and he didn’t have to do it at all. But when he knew that I needed it, he gave it to me.”
Friendly and helpful neighbours
Another incident that warmed her heart was when a neighbour whom she hardly spoke to, appeared at her doorstep.
To her surprise, the neighbour had brought over a huge bag of items consisting of toys and baby products. The neighbour herself had a baby and decided to pass her those items, thinking that she might need them.
On top of the toys and baby products, the neighbour also gave her a safety gate so that the YouTuber could child-proof her kitchen.
Even the other neighbours whom she met after moving away from her previous apartment were also extremely kind to her – they eventually became people whom she’d confide in whenever she had trouble. She even sought refuge at an elderly couple who were her neighbour when she was having issues with her mother-in-law.
Caring and encouraging colleagues
The YouTuber shared that the deciding factor that made her determined to stay in Singapore were her colleagues from a previous working place.
When she was going through a rough patch in her previous marriage after giving birth, her colleagues rendered her with all the help and support she needed. One of them even took her and her child in when they had no roof over their heads. Mind you, that colleague did not even have a spare room and had to make special arrangements to accommodate the poor mother-and-child (SOBSSS)
To date, the YouTuber said that she still gets that warm and fuzzy feeling every time she thought about what happened back then:
“I will remember their kindness forever.”
“These colleagues-turned-friends, they were there for me when I was in trouble. They were sincere and they genuinely wanted to help me. They were extremely thoughtful and were very protective of me. They were also the reason why I wanted to stay in Singapore – I simply couldn’t bear to leave this group of lovely people.”
An inclusive society without discrimination
In her last point, she shared that she was surprised when she received an invitation to be a friend’s bridesmaid – even though she’s a divorcee. Because back in her hometown, one of the common traditional wedding taboos is that bridesmaid is not supposed to be divorced.
She was glad that her friend didn’t see any less of her or her divorcee status and saw her as a single woman, no less.
“Later, I also realised there isn’t really any discrimination against divorcee or single mothers in Singapore. Instead, people even tend to care for you a little bit more.”
She wrapped up her video by saying,
“These are the reasons that made me decide to stay in Singapore. Because of these reasons, I have also made up my mind to strive to become a warmer person. I want to become a warmer person who will show more compassion towards others so that more people will fall in love with this country.”
“Even though this may not be my original home country, but it has become my second homeland. I, too, have the responsibility to make this country a better and warmer place, so that more people can fall in love with this small but warm country!”
You may watch the full video below:
It’s not easy, I’m sure. But it really warms my heart to see “Stubborn Little Crab” trying her best to integrate herself into the community and her new life here in Singapore.
Sure, we might not like the thought of having foreigners becoming one of us because of some bad eggs. But there ARE also a number of foreigners who are really nice and genuine, just like “Stubborn Little Crab” here.
Instead of being xenophobic, shouldn’t we also learn to be more accepting, just as much as how some of them are trying their best to integrate into our society?
Amidst the challenging external circumstances and the fact that we are such a small country, we cannot deny the fact that we are quite heavily dependent on foreigners.
And we cannot afford to be anti-foreigner.