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On Sunday, January 22, IVE’s Wonyoung and Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun received massive hate from Chinese fans for celebrating the "Chinese New Year" as "Seollal," more conventionally known as "Lunar New Year."
This year, Koreans celebrated the Lunar New Year on Sunday, January 22, over a long weekend. For the occasion, they usually dress in their traditional Hanbok, visit their family, perform ancestral rites, eat delicious food and play traditional folk games.
K-pop celebrities took to their social media to wish their fans a Happy Lunar New Year or ‘Seollal,’ the Korean word for it. However, some Chinese fans terrorized IVE’s Wonyoung and Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun on their social media accounts for saying "Lunar New Year" and "Seollal" instead of "Chinese New Year."
Korean fans jumped to IVE’s Wonyoung and Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun’s defense, stating that Chinese fans are being overly sensitive.
IVE’s Wonyoung, Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun, and other Korean celebrities receive hate from Chinese fans for wishing Lunar New Year
IVE’s Wonyoung, Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun, and CL are among some of the most prominent Korean celebrities who have received hate from Chinese fans for wishing Lunar New Year.
Dressed in traditional Hanboks, the female idols wished their worldwide fans a Happy Lunar New Year or Seollal.
However, despite IVE’s Wonyoung, Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun, and CL’s noble intentions, they couldn’t escape Chinese fans’ wrath, who insisted that they call it the Chinese New Year. They even accused the idols of cultural appropriation of the Chinese New Year.
Chinese fans began criticizing Korean female idols with hateful messages and emoticons, reminding them that they should respect the Chinese New Year.
IVE member Wonyoung, Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun, and CL have not responded to the hate messages. Still, fans have taken it upon themselves to defend their favorite female idols from the unnecessary hate they have received from Chinese fans.
Fans also left positive messages and comments on the K-pop idols’ Instagram handles’ comments section.
This isn’t the first time Korean idols have received hate for wishing Happy Lunar New Year. Previously, NewJeans’ Danielle was forced to apologize to Korean fans after she used Happy Chinese New Year through a fan communication app called Phoning.
Following the backlash, she deleted her message. She issued an official statement, apologizing to Koreans and Bunnies (NewJeans’ fans) for using Chinese New Year and not Happy Lunar New Year or Seollal as Koreans would prefer to say it.
IVE’s Wonyoung receives hate for the way she eats pizza
In other news, IVE’s Wonyoung recently received hate for the way she eats pizza. Popular pizza outlet Papa John's released an advertisement and its behind-the-scenes with IVE.
IVE member Wonyoung gained attention for eating pizza in a certain way with the video going viral on the internet. IVE fans feel the LOVE DIVE singer is targeted unfairly yet again for something as basic as eating pizza.
Previously, the idol was mocked for eating strawberries in a purposely “cute” manner. Girl group ALICE’s members Yeonje and Chaejeong mocked Wonyoung’s cute style of eating strawberries with both hands, which led to them getting severe backlash from K-pop fans.
