{"id":155754,"date":"2026-01-02T12:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T20:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/?p=155754"},"modified":"2026-01-02T12:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T20:13:10","slug":"ives-wonyoung-is-in-the-middle-of-controversy-after-mistaking-hong-kong-for-a-country-at-a-recent-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/ives-wonyoung-is-in-the-middle-of-controversy-after-mistaking-hong-kong-for-a-country-at-a-recent-event\/","title":{"rendered":"IVE\u2019s Wonyoung is in the middle of controversy after mistaking Hong Kong for a country at a recent event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>IVE member Wonyoung<\/strong> is facing intense controversy from Chinese Internet users after a comment made in a behind-the-scenes clip. The issue started when IVE uploaded a video titled MAMA 2025 Behind the Scenes to their official YouTube channel, showing the group\u2019s visit to <strong>Hong Kong<\/strong> for the awards ceremony. During a casual moment, Wonyoung said she enjoyed Hong Kong\u2019s food and added that it was \u201c<strong>one of my favorite countries<\/strong>,\u201d a remark that immediately drew attention.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n        <blockquote hcb-fetch-image-from=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AniEMPIRE\/status\/2007051288727650691?s=20\" class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">IVE singer Jang Won-young receives backlash from Chinese netizens after calling Hong Kong a country. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VYQEed5F8Y\">pic.twitter.com\/VYQEed5F8Y<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; EMPIRE (@EmpireIX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EmpireIX\/status\/2007051288727650691?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">January 2, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n        <\/figure>\n        \n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Following the upload, criticism spread rapidly across Chinese social media, especially on Weibo. Many users took issue with the use of the word \u201ccountry,\u201d emphasizing that China defines Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region under the One China principle. Comments flooded the platform, accusing the IVE member of political ignorance with hashtags like<strong> #JangWonyoungHongKongCountry<\/strong> and <strong>#IVEGetOutofChina<\/strong>. In addition, some users called for an IVE boycott in the country.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" hcb-fetch-image-from=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/-xSwHSRfiLs\" title=\"\uc911\uad6d\uc778\ub4e4 \ub54c\ubb38\uc5d0 \uc0ac\ub77c\uc9c4 \uc544\uc774\ube0c \uc601\uc0c1? #\uc7a5\uc6d0\uc601\" width=\"1240\" height=\"698\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-xSwHSRfiLs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Chinese media outlets also joined the discussion. Sina Weibo described the remark as a challenge to China\u2019s sovereignty, while Global Times criticized Korean idols for benefiting from the Chinese market without understanding its political context. As the controversy continues to unfold online, public attention remains focused on whether Wonyoung or her agency will issue a response and how this situation may affect IVE\u2019s future in China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IVE member Wonyoung is facing intense controversy from Chinese Internet users after a comment made in a behind-the-scenes clip. The issue started when IVE uploaded a video titled MAMA 2025 Behind the Scenes to their official YouTube channel, showing the group\u2019s visit to Hong Kong for the awards ceremony. During a casual moment, Wonyoung said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3104,"featured_media":155755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2264,16,7],"tags":[1558],"class_list":{"0":"post-155754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-kpop","9":"category-news","10":"tag-ive"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}