Chinese Netizens Angry At Blackpink For Calling Their Macau Fans ‘Macanese’ Instead Of ‘Chinese’

K-pop girl group Blackpink has been travelling the world for their Born Pink tour since last September.

Following their massively successful two-night concert in Singapore earlier this month, the girls were in Macau on May 20 & 21 for the next leg of their tour.

The group will always posts pictures of their gig on social media to thank their fans for showing up and for waiting in line for hours.

It was business as usual after their Macau gig, with Blackpink’s appreciation post going up on May 23. 

But somehow it took a week for Chinese netizens to find fault with what they wrote. 

The post, which addressed Blackpink’s Macau fans, read: “We were deeply touched by our Macanese BLINKs (Blackpink’s fans) this week. Thank you for all the heartfelt support. We are truly blessed to have you guys. 520 forever BLINKs.”

Here’s why Chinese netizens were angry: They believe that Blackpink should have used called their fans ‘Chinese’ instead ‘Macanese’.

Though the original post has since been edited to say ‘Macau BLINKs’ instead of ‘Macanese BLINKs’, those Chinese netizens were still not appeased.

Why? Because the post still did not include the word ‘Chinese’.

What ensued was a whole lot of vitriol directed at the group.

“[I hope] the K-wave never comes to the Mainland. Let’s ban the K-wave forever,” read one comment.

Other nationalistic comments included: “Would it kill them to type ‘Chinese’?” and “Does saying the word ‘Chinese’ burn their mouths?”

Macanese refers to the native ethnic group of people in Macau, who predominantly speak Portuguese dialect as their first language.

However, as Macau is a special administrative region of China, many Mainland Chinese believe that people from Macau should simply be known as ‘Chinese’.

Photos: Blackpink/ Instagram, ET Today