The anti-Korean hashtag #CancelKorea is trending in the Philippines after a storm in a teacup involving a tattoo and a local "influencer."
Baby-faced online celebrity Bella Poarch, who claims to have more than 15 million followers on TikTok, drew the ire of some patriotic Koreans with a tattoo that resembled the rising-sun flag of imperial Japan, their scourge and former colonizer.
The matter got out of hand and spilled over onto Twitter, where more than 300,000 tweets related to the issue were posted in less than a day.
Poarch, who uploaded a video on Sept. 5 that showed the tattoo on her left arm, was contrite after the initial onslaught by angry Koreans.
"I apologize to Koreans because six months ago I got a tattoo of the red sun with 16 rays. At that time, I didn't know the history," she groveled. "But when I found out, I immediately had it covered and scheduled for removal. I am ashamed of myself for not doing my research."
But that and subsequent apologies failed to appease the warriors. They accused her of "being ignorant of the history," and some soon strayed into flagrant racism, attacking the Philippines as "a poor country [with] non-educated people, short people."
That in turn incensed the proud Filipino nation, who responded with the hashtag #CancelKorea and #ApologizeToFilipinos.
At least one netizen with too much time on their hands pointed out that the Philippines sent 7,420 soldiers to fight during the Korean War, while more than 100 of them died in battle. Another, a self-declared fan of K-pop and Korean dramas, claimed to feel "betrayed."
Local media have greedily embraced the kerfuffle. Online news outlet Coconuts Manila solemnly warned, "You can't badmouth an entire nation based on one person's slip-up."
