FabioW Song Sparks Reckoning on Anti-Asian Racism in Belgium

When Antwerp rapper FabioW released his song ‘Praat Nederlands’ (‘Speak Dutch’) about a trip to Vietnam, he likely didn’t anticipate igniting a national conversation about racism against Asian Belgians. The song, in which he mocks a Vietnamese girl’s language with the slur “ching chang chong,” has prompted Belgians of Asian descent to speak out about lifelong experiences of racial taunts and discrimination, as VRT NWS reported.

The Controversy Unfolds

FabioW, the stage name of 28-year-old Sebastiaan Van Thilborgh, initially defended the song on Instagram, saying he “only wanted to create a fun atmosphere.” But mounting criticism and multiple reports filed with Unia, Belgium’s inter-federal equal opportunities center, forced a reckoning. On Sunday, September 6, the rapper took the song offline after meeting a young fan with Asian roots on the street, explaining that he didn’t want his “superhero” to use a term the boy might be bullied with.

“My apologies to the people who feel hurt, I’ve taken the song offline,” FabioW wrote on Instagram, as PZC reported. “It was never my intention to hurt Asian people. I underestimated how much impact that can have.”

Yet less than a day later, the rapper reversed course, reposting the song under the provocative title ‘Ching Chang Chong’ — a clear jab at his critics. In Instagram Stories, he claimed that “if you’re allowed to say ‘all white men to the back’ but not ‘ching chang chong,’ then the rules apparently apply differently when you’re woke,” as VRT NWS documented. By Monday night, he had again pulled the promotional videos, changing the title back to ‘Praat Nederlands’ and writing, “Otherwise I can lose everything I’ve built up.”

Voices from the Asian Belgian Community

The whiplash of apologies and retractions struck a nerve. Julia Zhu, a 27-year-old Belgian-Chinese woman from Antwerp, posted a viral Instagram video explaining why the term is so deeply hurtful — a video shared thousands of times that sparked the broader discussion.

“While I was growing up, the words ‘ching chang chong’ were constantly shouted at me on the street. By complete strangers,” Zhu told VRT NWS. “Can you imagine what that does to your nervous system? Your body creates a kind of panic reaction every time you hear that. Why does my face give someone the right to shout at me, making me feel unsafe?”

Zhu personally contacted FabioW about the issue but described the conversation as “very useless.” “He clearly doesn’t understand what I mean and seems mainly concerned with the consequences of his statements for himself,” she said. “He mainly defended himself, but didn’t offer his apologies to me.”

Yet Zhu is careful not to demonize the rapper. “I’m not saying FabioW is a racist,” she emphasized. “But people can unintentionally do or say racist things. If people point that out to you, then you can still change and learn.”

Beyond One Song: A Lifetime of Microaggressions

For many in the Asian Belgian community, the song is not an isolated incident but a painful reminder of persistent patterns of racism. Asher Serrana, a 31-year-old Belgian of Filipino descent living in Ukkel, described the song as “hallucinatory,” noting that it perpetuates the harmful idea that “all Asian people look the same or speak Chinese.”

Serrana, who moved to Belgium 14 years ago, said he is regularly addressed in Chinese by strangers despite being Filipino. He also highlighted the “model minority” stereotype that casts Asians as inherently hardworking and disciplined. “It’s often thought: you’re doing well, you have less trouble integrating than other ethnicities,” he said. “Those prejudices are passed down from one generation to the next. We need to break that pattern.”

Sophia Honggokoesoemo, a 47-year-old Belgian with Chinese-Indonesian roots and co-founder of the organization Untold Asian Stories, emphasized that these experiences are generational. “Asian Belgians have been dealing with bullying and racist comments for generations,” she told VRT NWS. “It breaks my heart that our children now hear the same things as we did.”

A Legacy of Anti-Asian Prejudice

The organization Untold Asian Stories was founded in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when hostility toward people with Asian roots increased dramatically. As Knack reported, racism against people of Asian descent in Belgium predates the pandemic but became more visible during it. “Apparently a scapegoat was needed,” Honggokoesoemo said, recalling how frustrations about the virus’s origin in China were directed at the Asian population. “Unfortunately, people even died and were injured worldwide as a result. In Belgium too, verbal and physical violence was used against people of Asian descent at the time.”

The broader context is well-documented. As BRUZZ reported, Asian Belgians face a range of microaggressions — from being addressed with “ni hao” regardless of their actual ethnicity to being asked “where are you really from?” or told “you speak Dutch so well.” The “model minority” stereotype, which suggests Asians are successful and well-integrated, minimizes the racism they experience and creates false divisions between minority groups.

The Impact of Normalized Racism

Honggokoesoemo warns that dismissing such comments as jokes underestimates their impact. “By packaging racist comments as jokes, we underestimate their impact,” she said. “It’s about an accumulation of prejudices, stereotypes, exoticization, eroticization and even criminalization.”

Zhu echoed this concern, explaining how seemingly small comments create a dangerous environment. “It starts with small comments like ‘ching chang chong,’ ‘dirty Chinese,’ ‘go back to your own country,’” she said. “But by normalizing this, you create an environment where people think they have the right to treat an entire group of people differently, based on how they look or their ethnicity. The next step is discrimination, exclusion — for example when looking for a home or a job — or even violence.”

Untold Asian Stories, which was profiled by MO* Magazine at its founding, aims to make the Flemish-Asian community more visible and connected. The organization focuses on culture, recognition, and representation, organizing events, panel discussions, and exhibitions.

What’s Next

As the controversy around FabioW’s song continues to evolve, members of the Asian Belgian community hope it will spark genuine awareness rather than simply fade away. “We ask for empathy and to take the consequences of these experiences seriously,” Honggokoesoemo said. “For many, it’s not about one isolated comment, but about a lifelong accumulation of facts. With Untold Asian Stories, we want to change that discourse in a positive way. Because we can do better as a society.”

The question now is whether FabioW’s erratic handling of the controversy — apology, retraction, and renewed backlash — will lead to meaningful dialogue or simply reinforce the patterns the community is trying to break. For Zhu, the path forward is clear: “If people point out that you’ve done something racist, then you can still change and learn.”