[theqoo] "LET'S STOP LISTENING TO K-POP", "NO PRODUCTS FROM K-COMPANIES"... SEA 'BOYCOTTING KOREA MOVEMENT'

On the 22nd, a netizen believed to be Indonesian posted on the social networking service (SNS) Threads. They declared, “I will no longer consume Korean pop culture,” and even shared a video showing them cutting up a K-pop singer's album CD and photo cards with scissors. The user stated, “Korean netizens may mock and insult us,” but added, “We will never be ashamed of our religion or roots.” This clearly expressed strong hostility toward Korea.

Anti-Korean sentiment is spreading across Southeast Asia, primarily through social media. It has gone beyond calls to “not travel to Korea,” spreading to boycott movements against Korean products like “don't buy Samsung or Olive Young products.” The verbal clash among K-pop fans that started in Malaysia is spreading to neighboring countries, forming solidarity groups, and even showing signs of solidifying into collective conflict. The counter-reaction from Korean netizens also appears to be significant.

The problem is that the level of mutual recrimination is unusually severe. On social media, photos depicting Southeast Asian women as monkeys and photos insulting Korean independence activists are proliferating. Essentially, netizens from Korea and Southeast Asia are flooding each other with hateful posts. Netizens from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and other countries have united under the hashtag ‘#SEAbling’ to launch a campaign calling for the ‘rejection of Korea’. ‘SEAbling’ is a neologism combining ‘SouthEast Asia’ and ‘sibling’. Korean netizens are mocking the economic status, physical appearance, and culture of Southeast Asian countries. In response, Southeast Asian netizens are criticizing Korean superiority and plastic surgery-enhanced looks.

Concerns are being raised in some Korean travel communities that “we should be careful when traveling to Malaysia” amid the spread of anti-Korean sentiment in Southeast Asia. However, there are also opinions cautioning against overinterpretation, stating that “it's difficult to view online talk as representative of local social sentiment.” In fact, voices are reportedly emerging in Southeast Asian countries urging restraint, saying “Koreans aren't particularly interested in boycotts anyway.”

https://n.news.naver.com/article/469/0000915845?sid=104

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