Article: New Jeans Hanni, 'hated' in the Vietnamese Communist Party..."impossible to perform"
Source: Sports Kyunghyang
Although New Jeans is gaining global popularity, controversy is brewing about the group in Vietnam, one of the major Asian markets. This is an unexpected result of member Hanni, who's a dual citizen of Vietnam and Australia.
It's been pointed out that Hanni's family has become target of mocking and ridicule from local fans for failing to get rid of the 'Fresh of the Boat' refugee tag for leaving Vietnam after the Vietnam War. In fact, from the beginning of New Jeans debut last year, Hanni has been a target of strong criticism from Vietnamese netizens who continued to criticize her on Twitter. They wrote, "I hope Hanni is kicked from New Jeans.." "She needs to throw out her Vietnamese nationality."
The reason why Vietnamese netizens are pouring out these criticisms is because Hanni's family is from Vietnam and are currently living in Australia. Hanni (Vietnamese name: Pham Ngoc Han) was born a dual-citizen in Melbourne in 2004. Both parents are from Vietnam, her father is from Hanoi and her mother from Ho Chi Minh City. Her family, including her grandparents, all live in Australia.
While growing up in Australia, Hanni dreamt of becoming an idol herself while watching K-pop singers and is fluent in Vietnamese, English, and Korean.
Regarding this, netizens continue to criticize her raising suspicions about her family's refugee roots as people who abandoned their Vietnam and fled to Australia in a boat. When the Vietnam War ended with withdrawal of U.S forces and the defeat of the Vietnamese Republic (South Vietnam), anti-communists, Chinese, Koreans who cooperated with the U.S and Catholics residing in South Vietnam stowed away abroad or were forced to enter present-day Vietnam. This includes all those who fled present-day Vietnam from the late 1970s through the 1990s. Mostly, they fled or emigrated to Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the U.S, and Australia, which were British territories at the time.
Looking at Hanni and her family's residence and nationality, some netizens in Vietnam are claiming they were one of the people in the 'boat' that fled their homeland.
Netizens accusations about Hanni are currently ongoing. On the 'K-Crush' page, one of Vietnam's largest K-pop communities, any posts related to New Jeans are mocked and ridiculed. Some are even raising suspicions Vietnamese media and Communist Party are censoring content related to New Jeans.
While New Jeans appears to have some popularity in Vietnam, due to the atmosphere in the country, local fans are being cautious about liking Hanni publicly.
A K-pop official working in Vietnam stated, "There are fans that support New Jeans regardless of the political controversy but it's burdensome to openly support them. Although New Jeans and Hanni are well-known in Vietnam, it's true they have a lot of opposition. It seems like it's going to be difficult to obtain permissions from the Vietnamese government for the event."
