It’s uncommon that a meme leads to being hauled in by the police, however in Vietnam, a poorly – or perhaps pointedly – timed meme has landed a beef noodle soup vendor in scorching water. The man posted a video of himself parodying the “Salt Bae” – chef Nusret Gokce, who went massively viral in 2017 for the flamboyant means he sprinkled salt on his cooking.
The 38 year old soup vendor from Danang stated that he thought it would be enjoyable and promote his store to mimic the well-known sprinkling move, so he made a video that he posted to Facebook with the title “Green Onion Bae”. It showed him slicing his boiled beef before using Salt Bae’s signature gesture to rain down green onions onto his bowl of soup in a humorous parody.
“The video I made was for enjoyable and for promoting my beef noodle shop. More prospects have been coming since I posted it.”
The meme seems innocent enough, not offensive or insulting to anyone on the surface. But it’s the political context of latest controversy in Vietnam that appears to have police questioning if this is merely a cook copying a meme in hopes of viral advertising, or if it was a political statement, taking a jab at Vietnam’s Minister of Public Security To Lam.
See, โซล่าเซลล์คุณภาพดี owns a chain of luxury steakhouses, and the person himself had uploaded a video final week of him proudly serving the Vietnamese Minister a gold leaf encrusted steak that sells for almost US $2000 (around 60,000 baht) at his London restaurant. The video enraged many critics on-line and in the public discourse that noticed the decadence on display as extremely tone-deaf as the government has been claiming to be cracking down on corruption.
The video brought on such a stir that the hashtag #saltbae was globally blocked on Facebook for some time after the footage went viral. And whereas the soup vendor mentioned the timing was a coincidence and his video was all meant in self-promoting enjoyable, he had additionally previously criticised the federal government on Facebook and claimed to be talking out to improve society.
In Vietnam, anti-government activists who converse out online and on social media are routinely interrogated by the Communist Party. His earlier on-line antic had gotten him known as in to the police in April as properly, so it’s no shock that the Salt Bae parody proper after the government scandal in Vietnam raised red flags and obtained him summoned once once more to face police questioning, although Danang police have not commented on the case thus far.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post