Xiao Mei has finally landed in the UK, the famed land for tea, crumpets, hot British boys, and accents. It seems like her dreams to study overseas have finally been realised. However, after settling there for a few months, Xiao Mei begins to become hyper aware of her identity as a Chinese Malaysian, a part of herself she had paid much attention to back in Malaysia. With the violent, unexpected strike of the Coronavirus pandemic now better known as Covid-19 threatening the world, Xiao Mei finds that she has become an easy target for racial abuse in a country where Asians are a minority. After a video call to catch up with her friend Rando, Xiao Mei’s previous casual racist remarks that were passed off as jokes in Malaysia are brought to light, leading to a discussion race with Jomanda. 

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In this episode, our host Yee Ting had the opportunity to have an enlightening conversation on racism with Jomanda from the @lovebeyondcolours podcast. Jomanda is a mixed race Malaysian student that has studied in the UK for a year. She generously shared her own personal experiences on being prejudiced based on her physical appearance in both local and international settings. Furthermore, both Yee Ting and Jomanda strongly agree that it is important to put in the effort to stop the casual racist remarks being written off as humour, especially with Malaysia being a mutli-ethnic country by speaking up.