The Mirror that Speaks

Last week, I was fortunate enough to have a profile about me published on Channel NewsAsia (CNA). It’s a Singapore-based multinational news channel that primarily covers Southeast Asia. A regional equivalent to Al Jazeera, if you will, but for the part of the world where I grew up.

Forever grateful to ChannelNewsAsia for the feature

Profiles are one of my favorite things to write. I’ve written 18 so far — 13 in my book Digital Mavericks, and 5 more on my Paragraph. The joy, for me, lies less in the writing than in the process itself. There’s something about the conversation and the quiet act of listening that feels like a privilege I don’t take lightly. I currently only profile people in crypto, but it’s usually the last thing we talk about. Most of our time is spent on childhoods, heartbreaks, immigrant parents, and unexpected left turns. We talk about books, hobbies, songs, and the cities that shaped them. We talk about what they lost, what they gained, and what they’re still chasing.

My aim is always connection. To help the person I’m profiling make deeper sense of the life they’ve chosen. To offer readers a mirror, so they might recognize a part of themselves in a stranger’s story, and ultimately find the courage to step into something they didn’t think could be meant for them.

So when the tables turned, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew I was excited. My work in crypto has been featured before, but this felt different. A full-length profile in my country’s national news wasn’t just something my friends and family would read. It was something they couldn’t ignore. And maybe, just maybe, it would help justify the life decisions I still find myself questioning.

I was also nervous for that same reason. The piece mentioned a few white lies I’d told my parents years ago (though I’m pretty sure they already knew). And while I’ve got better at speaking about my accomplishments, having them spotlighted still feels deeply uncomfortable, especially when weighed against the Asian values of humility and “do more, say less” that I was raised with.

What I didn’t expect to feel was a weird cocktail of surprise and irritation. Not from anyone who mattered, but from faceless strangers on the internet: quick to take jabs, eager to miss the point. My feature wasn’t a mirror. It had become a canvas for other people’s projections instead.

Parts of the article were, as is often the case with traditional media, written to be clickbait. A push notification sent to CNA app users read: “Driven to put Singapore on the world map, ex-GIC scholar Debbie Soon co-founded a business with Mark Zuckerberg’s sister.” The headline described me as someone who “took a risk and booked a one-way ticket to the US during Covid in search of a job.”

Part of the Instagram carousel of my CNA feature

Cue the comments on CNA’s Instagram carousel, which had neatly distilled the feature into seven swipable cards:

"Sounds like a lucky, young Singaporean who… could afford to twang around and do nothing really concrete or develop any real, essential skills without worrying much about money in the meantime," said @cm10_

“Only those with privileges (can) have a ‘chance’ meeting with Mark Zuckerberg’s sister. Already got connections lor,