![]() ![]() He recently deleted a collaboration video with another popular Chinese YouTuber, Mike Chen, due to his being a critic of China, which prompted backlash in itself. Of course, being a famous YouTuber isn’t without its difficulties: Ng has faced controversies and backlash despite his relatively short YouTube career thus far. Nevertheless, Uncle Roger’s unabashed and confident support for the seasoning on his platform, along with his publicized sponsorship with MSG brand Sasa, has started to chip away at the infamous reputation surrounding the additive by promoting it across a global audience. But, honestly, that’s only one example of many in the long-standing racism against Chinese establishments. What’s more is that even as Chinese restaurants across the nation began putting up signs stating that they didn’t use MSG in order to avoid being associated with the negative views on the additive, those popular American products didn’t even need to state that their products contained MSG because it had been classified as safe by the FDA. Moreover, this stigma persisted even as MSG was commonly used in popular American fast-food restaurants and products, such as Doritos and Cheetos. Robert Ho Man Kwok wrote a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine complaining of side effects, such as migraines and numbness, after eating Chinese food that included MSG, coining the term “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.” This created a stigma that plagued Chinese restaurants, which were then negatively associated with the use of MSG even though the additive was proven safe by the FDA. However, MSG started gaining a bad rap in 1968 when Dr. Invented in 1908 by Japanese biochemist Kikunae Ikeda when he was trying to isolate the flavor of kombu, the origin of the now famed and highly sought-after “umami” flavor, it soon became highly popular and was subsequently mass produced and distributed as a food additive. ![]() On the topic of outing cultural appropriation, Uncle Roger has used his newfound influence to change the reputation of the infamous seasoning, MSG, overnight. From the first highly anticipated meet-up between Uncle Roger and Patel to their series where Uncle Roger shows Patel around Chinatown, their collaboration shows hope for the future in the days of cancel culture, suggesting that one can go above and beyond the cycle of internet hate and produce something inherently good and heart-warming. Though his channel has afforded him fame and attention, Ng has shown that he’s more than the typical internet roaster, especially through his subsequent collaborations with Hersha Patel, the presenter who demonstrated the BBC Food egg fried rice recipe and who received internet backlash following the first viral Uncle Roger video. Since then, Ng has made a career of roasting recipes of culturally misappropriated egg fried rice recipes from famed chefs to home cooks. Thus began the egg fried rice saga that has propelled Ng’s channel to a larger audience, upwards of 3 million subscribers as of today. It all started with the now infamous BBC video recipe on egg fried rice that had so many glaring wrongs - straining rice with a colander, among several others - followed by Uncle Roger’s reaction video which became an overnight sensation, garnering millions of views on YouTube within days. In a time of increasing violence and hatred toward Asian Americans, the influence of Ng’s character in the YouTube world has been a source of comfort.ĭespite recent backlash and controversy, his work in destigmatizing the use of MSG and outing cultural misappropriation has proven that Ng, through his character Uncle Roger, is both funny and good-natured. Recently, Uncle Roger, a comedic character who represents a middle-aged Asian man with a thick accent played by British-based and Malaysian comedian Nigel Ng, has shot to fame with his scathing review of BBC Food’s appallingly bad recipe of egg fried rice. In the midst of the whirlwind of YouTube trends that come and go, sometimes these trends are able to impact the world for the better.
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