Dien Nguyen An Luong

Opinion | Why Vietnam’s online propagandists are disowning Ke Huy Quan’s Oscar win

Ke Huy Quan’s mention of his journey ‘on a boat’ in his acceptance speech likely singled him out for a backlash and media censorship in Vietnam

Vietnam’s state-sponsored cyber troops are unlikely to stop any time soon, as the ruling Communist Party expands its defence-security ideology wings

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Ke Huy Quan accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” at the 95th Academy Awards. Photo: dpa

Dien Nguyen An Luong

Published: 10:00am, 25 Mar 2023Updated: 10:44am, 25 Mar 2023

Ke Huy Quan’s Oscar win at the 95th Academy Awards on March 12 for his supporting role in Everything Everywhere All At Once set Vietnamese media abuzz. News headlines effusively highlighted this unprecedented triumph for a Vietnamese-American actor.

But before long, Vietnam’s online nationalists and censorship machine seemed to also go into overdrive. A vocal pro-government Facebook page apparently ignited the firestorm by disputing any reference to Quan as a “Vietnamese-American”.

The March 13 post argued that, since Quan had a father of Chinese descent and a Hongkonger mother, his only connection with Vietnam was his 1971 birth in Saigon, the former name of Ho Chi Minh City that is now Vietnam’s economic hub.

The post then zeroed in on Quan’s acceptance speech, panning him for taking pride in his odyssey to America and the Oscars stage. He particularly raised nationalist hackles in Vietnamese cyberspace with these lines: “My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp. And somehow, I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage. They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe it’s happening to me.”

The post concluded by urging Vietnam’s “revolutionary press”, the official designation of the mainstream media, to be more selective in its coverage and avoid misleading readers into believing that people like Quan are of Vietnamese descent.