July 21, 2023

Photo: iStock/Yoke Fong Moey

Since 1997, Racial Harmony Day has been held annually on 21 July in Singapore to commemorate the 1964 race riots, pay homage to today’s peaceful ethnic relations, and celebrate cultural diversity. Many Singaporeans would opine that Singapore has achieved harmony at the national level, but there remain questions of more insidious racial tensions that are most evident in interpersonal encounters. For ethnic minority groups, one form of racial tension that has far-reaching implications on individual psychology is racial teasing – the experiences of being made fun of based on physical characteristics such as facial features and skin colour that differ from the majority group.

In ‘Racial Teasing and Body Dysmorphic Disorder Symptoms – A Cross-Sectional Study of Asian Ethnic Groups in Singapore’ (Asia Pacific Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 2020), Ms V Thivya Pillai and Adjunct Assistant Professor Oliver Sündermann (both from NUS Psychology) investigate the frequency of racial teasing across different ethnic groups and examine whether racial teasing predicts body dysmorphic disorder symptoms.

Firstly, the researchers situate racial teasing in the multiracial Asian context of Singapore. Here, the mainstream notions of beauty, which are influenced by Chinese and Korean beauty ideals, can inadvertently highlight how ethnic minorities’ features distinguish them from the ethnic majority. Overall, the inherent diversity in realities of appearance may manifest in racial teasing. In internalising these discouraging remarks, members of ethnic minority groups may experience appearance concerns that could eventually spiral into body dysmorphic disorder concerns, which are indicative of a distorted body image that causes severe preoccupation with one’s perceived flaws, distress, and impairment.

As hypothesised, the Malay and Indian ethnic minorities reported higher frequency of and distress caused by racial teasing than the Chinese ethnic majority who faced minimal racial teasing, if any. Furthermore, the types of racial teasing experienced may differ across ethnic minority groups. Singaporean Indians reported relatively higher frequency and distress from appearance-related racial teasing (in terms of skin colour), while the researchers suggest that Singaporean Malays are often teased for non-appearance-related reasons (such as religion and education) instead.

In Singapore, skin colour is also the main target of racial teasing, as opposed to facial features, hair, and body hair. Due to constant teasing about their often darker skin tones, Malays and Indians may become self-conscious, shaping later skin colour dissatisfaction and causing distress.

Lastly, racial teasing distress was a stronger predictor of body dysmorphic symptoms, compared to gender and depressive symptoms, even among those without an official diagnosis of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). In particular, the link between racial teasing distress and body dysmorphic symptoms was the strongest for Malay participants, perhaps due to Malays ascribing greater importance to their appearance and therefore feeling more threatened by appearance-related racial teasing.

In summary, the ways in which ethnicity-related experiences impact non-clinical populations are worthy of attention and warrant further research. Racial teasing in particular is shown to have detrimental impacts on ethnic minorities’ body image and mental health, making it a pertinent issue in our ongoing discussions of racial harmony and equity in Singapore.

Read the article here.