VANK Takes on Chinese Netizens Attacking Lee Hyo-ri
There has been a VANK sighting! I have heard much from these guys since the height of the anti-US movement in South Korea over 10 years ago. Now VANK is taking on Chinese netizens; good luck with that:
The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), a civic organization working for public diplomacy for Korea, started an online petition Friday, urging Chinese netizens to stop “cyberbullying” Korean singer Lee Hyo-ri after her Instagram account was bombarded by “malicious” complaints from them.
Korea Times
VANK said it posted an online petition titled “Stop China’s cyber chauvinism which lynched a Korean celebrity!” urging people to sign it.
“We oppose the chauvinistic attitude of attacking others in the name of nationalism, which includes interpreting even the smallest part of an expression in the most vicious and offensive way,” VANK wrote, adding “If we remain silent, this incident will be repeated in the future.”
The move came after Lee received hundreds of thousands “malicious” comments on her Instagram account in Korean, English and Chinese after she said in MBC’s reality show “Hangout with Yoo” that “What about a Chinese name? We can go global with it. How about ‘Mao’?” She made the remarks while brainstorming about a faux Chinese stage name.
You can read more at the link, but VANK was basically Korea’s version of the 50 Cent Army during the peak of Anti-Americanism in the ROK. They would look for any slight to Korea made by foreigners, especially Americans and U.S. military and attack them online for it. So now we basically have two 50 Cent Armies going after each other now.
My money is on the Teracotta warriors.
Who’s bringing the popcorn?
I seem to recall seeing something in the news here in China about some Chinese questioning the idea of attacking her for using that name. I may be mistaken, though. The thing I recall hearing might have come out of Korea. That thing is “Chairman Mao does not own the name; after all, he is not the only person in the world to have that name”.