On September 10, trending topics containing keywords related to Chinese actress Liu Yifei and Vietnamese singer Ho Ngoc Ha climbed to the top of the entertainment chart on the social network Weibo (China).
Bvlgari Vietnam's PR team responds to Liu Yifei cutting Ho Ngoc Ha from a group photo", "Vietnamese actress speaks out about Liu Yifei cutting her from a group photo" are the most concerned topics.
The incident originated from a controversial move on social media by Liu Yifei.
At the party of the high-end jewelry brand Bvlgari in Shanghai (China) recently, Liu Yifei took photos with the brand's new CEO and female singer Hu Yuxia.
On the same evening, Ho Ngoc Ha actively posted a full photo on her personal page, along with compliments for Liu Yifei. She commented that the actress "looks like she's only 20 years old, both elegant and lovely".
However, the next day, when Liu Yifei posted a series of photos at the party on her personal Instagram, the photo of 3 people was only left with her and the brand CEO, while Ho Ngoc Ha was completely cut off from the frame.
The difference between the two versions was quickly discovered by netizens. Many Vietnamese fans questioned this handling, saying that cutting a guest off a group photo could create a feeling of disrespect.
Faced with increasing arguments, Liu Yifei then secretly deleted the controversial post. She and her crew did not give an official response to the incident.
On Ho Ngoc Ha's side, the female singer also responded to the incident. Answering a Vietnamese audience member, Ho Ngoc Ha said that she and Luu Diec Phi have only met a few times, know but are not close, so they are not too concerned about Luu Diec Phi not posting photos with her.
Under a comment from Chinese netizens, Ho Ngoc Ha replied briefly in Chinese: "I will try harder".
According to Chinese media, this statement partly helped cool down the situation, and at the same time showed the female singer's quite calm attitude before the debate.
From here, public attention also gradually shifted from the question "who is right, who is wrong" to how each person chooses to behave in a sensitive situation.
A part of the audience believes that artists have the right to decide how to express content on personal accounts. Cutting photos into frames of two people may just be the image choice of the crew, in order to highlight the relationship between artists and brand representatives, and does not necessarily mean that there is a conflict between the people appearing in the photos.
Meanwhile, some other opinions suggest that after attending an event together and taking photos together, the fact that a guest actively posts the original photo but is then cut off from the version because the other person posts it easily creates a feeling of being pushed out.
Although this action may not have a negative meaning, the publicity of social networks makes even small details easily noticed and interpreted in many ways.
In the entertainment environment, where all interactions of celebrities can become topics of discussion, seemingly very small actions are sometimes exaggerated.
