Can you imagine getting in trouble for cuddling a cute panda? I mean, who can resist them right? Well, certainly not the Korean girl group Blackpink. Unless you have been sleeping under a rock, we all know that Blackpink is one of the hottest Kpop girl groups in the world. The group has always enjoyed the admiration of fans all over the world, their Chinese fans were not amused when they were filmed last November 5 cuddling a panda for an upcoming episode of 24/365 with Blackpink.
Soon after the teaser video was published, a flood of criticisms on the Internet greeted the group which led to the postponing of their next episode.The said teaser video featuring the adorable panda was even pulled out of their official Youtube channel. The cute panda is a three-month-old panda named Fu Bao which means Lucky Treasure in Chinese. Fu Bao is sent to Korea as part of a panda diplomacy gift from the Chinese government to South Korea.
YG Entertainment will not release the last episode of ’24/365 with BLACKPINK’ after recent baby panda controversyhttps://t.co/Qrvpx9jpIr pic.twitter.com/pEYKohajI3
— allkpop (@allkpop) November 7, 2020
The girl group received backlash by Chinese Internet users over Weibo, which is the equivalent of Twitter in China. Fans were accusing the girl group of harming the baby panda after neglecting safety protocols in handling or cuddling it. The hashtag “Korean artists wrongly handled panda cubs” even trended because of the incident. It’s not the first time that Kpop artists received backlash from internet users from China.
Blackpink was not the only victim of this cancel culture trend among the Chinese. Kpop boy band BTS were also recently on the hot seat from Chinese internet users over the memory of the Korean War.
POP! Creator Community / Nicole Valdez
