Vietnam’s entertainment industry has been buzzing with excitement and pride following Ke Huy Quan’s recent Oscar win for his role in “Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings.” However, this celebration was short-lived as online propagandists began to attack the Vietnamese-American actor over some of his past comments on social media. The incident has sparked an important conversation about the growing influence of online propaganda and how it impacts the media landscape in Vietnam. In this article, we will examine the events that led up to Ke Huy Quan’s Oscar win, the subsequent backlash from online propagandists, and the larger implications for Vietnam’s media industry.
Ke Huy Quan’s recent Oscar win has sparked a backlash in Vietnam, with online nationalists panning him for taking pride in his journey to America and the Oscars stage. The state’s reactions, including censorship and media coverage adjustments, may undermine national reconciliation efforts, especially with the diaspora. The controversy highlights the sensitivity around war memories in Vietnam, where nationalistic sentiments can easily be stirred up. The exodus of refugees, known as the “boat people”, triggered a major international humanitarian crisis in the 1970s and 1980s, and strained US-Vietnam bilateral ties. Vietnam’s propaganda apparatus has also cast the US-backed South Vietnam regime in an unsavory light. Terms like “puppet regime” or “puppet servicemen” have remained entrenched in Vietnam’s political discourse. While leaving the past behind and looking forward to the future does not mean history should be forgotten or whitewashed, it’s clear that Vietnam should not allow history to undermine its national reconciliation efforts.
