Melissa Chen
 | This article's lead section may need to be rewritten. (March 2026) |
Melissa Chen | |
|---|---|
_(54350992408).jpg) Chen in 2025 | |
| Born | 1985 (age 40–41) |
| Occupations | Journalist, activist |
| Known for | Advocating asylum for Amos Yee (initially), criticism of human rights record in China and Singapore |
| Notable work | Ideas Beyond Borders |
Melissa Chen (born 1985) is a Singaporean journalist and activist for youth, oppressed literature and secular schools in the Middle East. She is a contributing editor for Spectator USA and co-founder of Ideas Beyond Borders.
Biography
[edit]Chen was born in Singapore[1] in 1985. She immigrated to the United States at 17, living in Boston[2] and attending Boston University. She later became a journalist.[2]
Chen rose to prominence as a strong advocate for Amos Yee,[3] a Singaporean student who had been arrested and imprisoned for publishing materials (depicting Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew in a negative way, and also criticizing Christianity and Islam) that the government of Singapore considered to be insulting. Chen assisted Yee when he fled to the United States and claimed political asylum.[4]
Yee severed ties with Chen in 2017 for what he saw as her authoritarianism.[1] Chen later called for Yee to "be deported from the United States" to Singapore[1][4] for "supporting pedophilia and child porn".[1]
In 2017 Chen co-founded Ideas Beyond Borders with Faisal Saeed Al Mutar, an Iraqi advocate for free speech.[5][a] Chen serves as the organization's managing director.[7]
Views
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Chen is a critic of China's human rights record, curtailing of free speech, and foreign policy.[2] She is also a critic of her native Singapore's restrictions on free speech.[2]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chen called for the closing of Chinese wet markets.[5] An article Chen authored for The Spectator USA about the need to close Chinese wet markets was criticized in Singapore for using an image of a Singaporean wet market, though Chen later clarified the image used was chosen by an editor and not herself and her article did not criticize wet markets in Singapore.[8]
In 2021, Chen criticised the removal of The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future by Dav Pilkey from publication by HarperCollins in response to a 289-signature petition accusing the book of stereotyping harmful to Asians in depicting kung fu master Master Wong as wearing "a traditional-style Tang coat" and using "stereotypical Chinese proverbs" in training his black and non-Asian students to eventually surpass him in skill, with Chen instead praising Wong as "a prime example of a positive portrayal of an Asian character in literature, [coming] across as endearing and full of wisdom", refuting the petition creator's derision of the novel's Chinese proverbs as stereotypical and calling out their own negative views of Chinese people ignored by Pilkey, calling for the book to be unbanned.[9]
She was one of the first advisors, along with Bari Weiss, for FAIR, an organization that seeks to fight critical race theory. On The New Yorker, Emma Green wrote about Chen's involvement in FAIR and her conflicts with its other members.[10]
Chen called for the flogging of Just Stop Oil activists in 2022,[11][12] writing, "My home country Singapore got it right all along. Flogging needs to make a comeback as the penalty for vandalism."[12]
Personal life
[edit]Chen got engaged to former Mumford & Sons guitarist Winston Marshall in December 2023.[13]
Notes
[edit]- ↑ The organization focuses on translating works written in English into Arabic; most of the translated works are books that are considered controversial in the Arabic world, such as George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and works by Thomas Paine.[6]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 "Melissa Chen who advocated for Amos Yee's asylum in the US now wants him deported due to his advocacy for pedophilia". The Online Citizen. 11 December 2018. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
- 1 2 3 4 "Joe Rogan Experience #1427 - Melissa Chen". The Joe Rogan Experience. 14 February 2020.
- ↑ Romero, Anna Maria (24 March 2020). "One-time Amos Yee supporter Melissa Chen says, 'I've done more than anyone else' to show Singapore's success in managing Covid-19 crisis". The Independent. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
- 1 2 Nyi Nyi Thet (10 December 2018). "Lady who helped Amos Yee get asylum in US now wants him deported from US". mothership.sg. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
- 1 2 Chen, Melissa (18 March 2020). "Time to ban wet markets". Spectator USA. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
- ↑ "This man brings hope to Arab youth, one Wikipedia page at a time". Christian Science Monitor. 5 February 2020. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
- ↑ Myers, Fraser (23 August 2019). "Bringing 'weapons of mass instruction' to the Arab world". www.spiked-online.com.
- ↑ Lee, Joshua (19 March 2020). "S'porean activist uses photo of S'pore wet market while slamming China wildlife markets". mothership.sg. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
- ↑ Chen, Melissa (31 March 2021). "'Kung Fu Cavemen' isn't racist — just the victim of moral panic by a self-righteous few". The New York Post. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
- ↑ Green, Emma (5 June 2023). "Is It Possible to Be Both Moderate and Anti-Woke?". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 5 June 2023.
- ↑ Chen, Melissa (15 November 2022). "Flogging: the obvious solution to the JustStopOil protesters". The Spectator World.
- 1 2 "Articles". Melissa Chen. Archived from the original on 16 December 2025. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
- ↑ Lipsitz, Raina (9 May 2024). "The Anti-Woke Grifters Get Their Tithe". The New Republic.