Blackpink in Vietnam, Fukushima water release, China’s demand for durian: SCMP’s 7 highlights of the week

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First it was a scribbled map in the Warner Bros’ Barbie film, now Blackpink is facing the ire of Vietnamese nationalists calling for a boycott of the K-pop girl group’s coming tour dates in Hanoi, as pop culture increasingly takes collateral damage from geopolitics.

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Hong Kong’s Japanese restaurants could suffer worse than they did during the pandemic under a potential import ban on some seafood amid controversy concerning the release of waste water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. One operator in North Point said customers had already been scared off, calling the situation “worse than when the government banned restaurant dining during the Covid pandemic”.

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Hong Kong cult icon Wan Kwong was astonished when Cantopop songs supposedly sung by him became hits with listeners recently, thanks to the use of artificial intelligence. YouTube content creators used AI to generate his voice before integrating it with two songs – “Solitude” by songwriter Terence Lam Ka-him and “My Dear Friend” by Keung To of Hong Kong boy band Mirror. “I don’t even know how to sing these songs,” said the 79-year-old Wan.

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