Hanni, a member of NewJeans who has Vietnamese origins, is facing heavy criticism from her home country.
On February 5th, information regarding the family of NewJeans Hanni, who comes from Vietnam, started to gain attention on social media platforms.
In particular, Vietnamese netizens investigated the social media accounts of various family members of Hanni, and discovered alleged evidence that these relatives support the Republic of Vietnam.
This instantly sparked outrage among Vietnamese netizens, seeing that the Republic of Vietnam is against the current government running the country, and people involved with the Republic of Vietnam are considered “war criminals”, even in the current day and age.
On top of this, prior to these “evidence”, a fanaccount of Hanni on Twitter (handle name @nwjns_hanniphm), claimed the opposite, saying, “I saw some Vietnamese friends worried about some political issues because Hanni’s family has settle abroad but don’t worry, there’s no problem.”
Since the fan account previously released a lot of never seen before childhood photos of Hanni, it is believed to belong to an acquaintance of the NewJeans members, leading to accusations that the aforementioned claim was an “intentional ploy to gain the support of Vietnamese fans”.
Later on, a netizen accessed the Facebook page linked to the fanaccount, discovered the SNS profile of Hanni’s mother, and from here, found other accounts belonging to Hanni’s father, aunt, grandfather, and so on. It was from their profiles that the political controversy emerged.
In particular, the netizen claimed that Hanni’s grandfather opened a martial art center with the facebook page “Than Phong International Martial Art – Australia”. Here, a post mentioning Luu Kim Cuong, a public figure related to the Republic of Vietnam, can be found.
There are also various posts on the same Facebook page, where the 3-dash flag of the Republic of Vietnam can be seen. In fact, a photo of the martial arts’ opening anniversary even shows Hanni, her grandfather, mother, and younger sister standing under the flag.
On the other hand, Hanni’s aunt allegedly owns a restaurant called “Roll’d Vietnamese”. The restaurant supposedly gave discounts to soldiers in Australia to celebrate the Battle of Long Tan, while these soldiers are considered “invaders” to the current Vietnam. According to netizens, this is a blatant proof that Hanni’s family holds an opposite political stance to the current Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
In addition, Hanni’s mother is said to have published a post in celebration of ANZAC day, which honors the New Zealand and Australian forces – the enemies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam back during the war.
Against the aforementioned “evidence” and accusations, many Vietnamese netizens expressed that they will no longer support Hanni. Various fanpages of the female idol also announces indefinite hiatus, and heavy criticism is directed at Hanni, her families, as well as her remaining Vietnamese supporters.
According to the Vietnamese netizens, their ancestors fought tooth and nail for the nation’s independence, and so they cannot stand to support an idol who has a background like Hanni.
As of the moment, Hanni’s mother and father have changed their Facebook accounts to private and remain silent over the accusations.
Sources: twt, fb
