| Hanni, a Vietnamese-Australian member of K-pop girl group NewJeans / Captured from Twitter |
Some internet users claim Hanni's grandparents were 'boat people'
By Dong Sun-hwa
The dual nationality of Hanni, a Vietnamese-Australian member of K-pop girl group NewJeans, has stirred a debate in Vietnam. Some people insist that her grandparents were “boat people” ― a term referring to the thousands of refugees who fled Vietnam in small boats after the Communist North Vietnam defeated the South in 1975 and took control of the country.
Hanni, whose real name is Pham Ngoc Han, was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 2004. Her parents and grandparents, who all hail from Vietnam, currently live in Australia ― one of the countries where the boat people headed to. Many of these refugees are known to have settled in countries like the U.S. and France to escape political and ethnic persecution.
Given these facts, some online users in Vietnam claim that Hanni's family members were the boat people who “abandoned their country for their own sake.” While many of her fans say she is not the one to be blamed, others do not agree. They have been criticizing Hanni since her debut last year, with some extremists even demanding she gives up her Vietnamese nationality.
“I love Vietnam, not you,” reads one Twitter post with the photo of Hanni. The person who shared it also wrote that non-Vietnamese people do not understand that sentiment.
Hanni's supporters believe she should not be held accountable.
“Hanni does not necessarily agree with the political views of her relatives and she is very unlikely to ever confirm a political stance,” reads one comment. “This drama can only go on until people give up. She can't be responsible for the political ideology of other individuals in her family for the rest of eternity.”
Nevertheless, NewJeans is still going strong in the Southeast Asian country. Its three tunes released in 2022 ― “Attention,” “Hype Boy” and “Cookie” ― secured spots on Spotify's daily top song chart in Vietnam. Its album frequently reign atop iTunes chart in the country as well.
NewJeans, consisting of Hanni, Minji, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein, has become one of the household names in the K-pop scene immediately after its debut. The quintet made it onto Billboard's main singles chart with its 2023 release “Ditto” only about six months after its debut, becoming the fastest K-pop act to achieve that feat. It is the first girl group launched by Min Hee-jin, CEO of ADOR and the former creative director at K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment. ADOR is a sub-label of HYBE, home to K-pop titan BTS.