Unless they were dishonorable people who did abhorrent things in their time, defacing historical figures is generally not a great idea.
This is the first lesson they teach you at Dumb Things You Shouldn’t Do as a Company 101.
Unfortunately, it seems like Goldpaper.sg was on sick leave that day.
Local Company Modified Yusof Ishak to God of Fortune
Goldpaper.sg, an online store selling prayer offerings and supplies, has incurred the wrath of netizens after it doctored the appearance of former Singapore president Yusof Ishak on one of its vouchers.
According to AsiaOne, the store’s employees were handing out vouchers at Waterway Point on Monday (Aug 10), dressed up as different mythical figures.
The vouchers were promotional material for the store’s seventh lunar month packages, and resembled a $10 bill.
They were a few differences, though.
For one, the ‘currency’ belonged to “Xingapore” instead of Singapore.
The store also placed its own logo on the side of the note instead of the lion head symbol, as well as beside the number “10”.
But eagle-eyed netizens, or rather any netizen with eyes, noticed that Yusof Ishak looked a little different.
Yes, they had altered the image of the country’s first president to portray him as the Chinese God of Wealth.
Here’s what a God of Fortune typically looks like, just for comparison.
Yusof Ishak had a pencil-thin moustache before, but he now had a full beard as well as long sideburns.
Netizen Reaction
People, understandably, were offended.
One netizen who shared pictures of the voucher in a Facebook post called it “racially offensive”.
In response to one commenter who said that it was not a race issue, the original poster retorted:
“As a Malay person, I would like this to stop. I don’t care (about) the context because you are vandalising the face of a Malay president, period. You are allowing the Chinese-washing of a Malay person. Period.
“Unintended racism is still racism and can be implied racism. The best thing to happen was to have not let it happen in the first place.”
Many agreed with the original poster, with some calling for the store to be reported.
“Did Not Mean Any Disrespect”
Goldpaper.sg issued a statement in response to the backlash, saying they did not intend to disrespect any race or religion.
They also claimed that they did not doctor the image of the former president, but rather used a photo that resembled the God of Wealth.
The implication here is that it looks like Yusof Ishak because his face is on our currency, but it’s actually an entirely different image with a different face.
They added that they used vouchers which looked like local currency to attract the attention of the younger generation, and maintained it was evident that the voucher was not legitimate currency.
“Even though the design is very similar [to actual banknotes], we printed it ourselves, using a material that is completely different from real notes.”
“Many young people nowadays are not familiar with the many prayer rituals. Therefore, we wanted to use this modified banknote to pique their interest.”
The company has since been ordered to recall and cease the distribution of their vouchers, according to AsiaOne.
They may still be in trouble, however, as the Monetary Authority of Singapore dictates that images of the President or any national symbol should not be distorted in any way when currency notes or coins are reproduced.
The reproduced currency should also not have any risk of confusion with genuine currency and should have the word “SPECIMEN” in black and bold lettering diagonally across it.
Here’s the REAL reason why everyone is hanging plushies on their bags, simplified for you:
