Last week, the Vietnamese media outlet VnExpress reported that a Vietnamese TikTok personality could be banned from entering Cambodia for 10 years for “defaming” the temples of Angkor Wat, a potent totem of the country’s national identity.
According to the VnExpress report, Hua Quoc Anh made a video at the Angkor Wat temple complex that “had a negative impact on the image of Cambodian tourism,” in the words of Prak Chandar, a deputy secretary of state at the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism. Chandar added that the Cambodian authorities were considering imposing on Anh an entry ban of five to 10 years.
The transgression in question was contained in a video that the Ho Chi Minh City-based influencer posted to his TikTok account while visiting Cambodia last month. The video featured a young woman in a traditional Thai costume walking around Angkor Wat, interspersed with images of the Thai flag and images of past Thai kings and accompanied by the words “Hello Thailand.”
In full: https://thediplomat.com/2023/11/vietnamese-tiktoker-faces-cambodia-entry-ban-over-angkor-video/
