Singaporean tourist asks for help lifting his bike, gets mocked by Swiss resident with slant-eye gesture

A Singaporean livestreamer recently shared how he got a racist slant-eye gesture after asking a man in the Swiss village of Giswil for help lifting his fallen bike during his first motorcycle trip through Europe.

The rider, who goes by Sukas online, was streaming live on the platform Kick when his motorcycle toppled over on a private meadow in the central canton of Obwalden, Swiss news site 20 Minuten reported. The man asked if he had missed the no-entry sign at the start of the path.

When Sukas apologized and said he had not seen it, the man twisted his face and pulled his eyes into slits. Sukas called the gesture racist, and the man replied that he hoped the motorcycle was broken.

The man took photos of the bike and the streamer rather than helping. Once the bike was upright, Sukas told viewers the man was a racist and that he could not understand such a reaction, 20 Minuten reported, adding that it verified the footage's location using Google Maps.

Speaking later to Singaporean news site Mothership, Sukas, 37, said he was not offended "one single bit" and that the man had looked comical with his tongue sticking out.

The man, who Sukas said lived nearby, considered the area off-limits because of the sign.

Sukas has ridden in Malaysia and Thailand several times, but this is his first ride in Europe, he told Mothership. His tour has taken him through Switzerland, Austria and Germany, streamed almost nonstop to several thousand viewers a day, according to 20 Minuten.

The clip has since spread across social media, drawing a response Sukas described as polarizing. Some Swiss people apologized, while others said he should not ride a bike he cannot lift, or that he deserved it in a "country of rules and extremely hefty fines," a label Sukas, as a Singaporean, should find familiar.

Many social media users wrote that the man was a poor advertisement for Switzerland and Obwalden. Swiss comedian Ahmet Bilge called his behavior disgusting and racist in a TikTok video.

Switzerland ranked first of 100 countries in U.S. News & World Report's 2026 Best Countries rankings, released in May, leading the governance and economic development categories.

Sukas told those who apologized not to do so on behalf of an unrelated individual, and praised their country. Some Swiss residents in Singapore have offered to buy him meals and invited him to events.

He plans to return to Singapore before setting off in December on a ride to China's Yunnan Province. His dream, he told Mothership, is to ride from Singapore to Western Europe.