Actor Ha Young gains 200,000 followers amid pro-Japanese ancestry controversy

Actor Ha Young speaks at a press conference for the new Netflix series "Ireon Yeotgateun Sarang" (This Awful Love) held at Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on Aug. 5. [Yonhap/Netflix]

Actor Ha Young, who sparked controversy over her great-grandfather's pro-Japanese colonial-era activities after boasting about her family's four-generation medical lineage, has seen her social media following surge by more than 200,000 in just over a week.

As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, Ha Young's Instagram account had about 1.246 million followers — up from just over 1 million a week earlier, a gain of more than 200,000 even as the country was roiled by revelations about her great-grandfather's collaboration with Japanese colonial authorities.

Poster for the Netflix drama series "Ireon Yeotgateun Sarang" (This Awful Love). [Netflix]

Several factors appear to have driven the follower surge: heightened public attention to Ha Young's every move as the controversy unfolded ahead of Liberation Day, a wave of sympathy from some quarters, and wider name recognition after news of the affair spread to China and Japan following the release of her handwritten apology.

Above all, the strong debut of the Netflix series "Ireon Yeotgateun Sarang" (This Awful Love), in which Ha Young stars alongside actor Jung Hae-in, appears to have drawn a flood of global fans to her account.

According to the Netflix Top 10 chart compiled by the platform's official site Tudum, the series ranked first in the non-English TV show category worldwide for the week of Aug. 10 to Aug. 16, recording 7.5 million views and 88 million hours watched.

The series launched globally on Netflix on Aug. 7 and debuted at No. 5 among non-English shows in its first week, climbing to the top spot in just two weeks.

Actors ultimately speak through their performances and their work — and public attention will remain fixed on how Ha Young navigates her career from here.

Earlier, Ha Young appeared on the KBS2 program "Oktapbang-ui Munje-adul" (Rooftop Troublemakers) on Aug. 7 to promote the series, proudly saying her family had produced doctors across four generations — from her great-grandfather to her sister — and that her great-grandfather had opened the first Western-medicine clinic in Hanyang and treated Emperor Gojong. The controversy erupted when it emerged that her great-grandfather, Ahn Sang-ho, had been listed as a council member of the Daejeong Chinmok-hoe, a pro-Japanese organization, and had been featured in newspapers as a model case of "naeseon ilche" — the Japanese colonial policy of cultural assimilation aimed at erasing Korean identity.

On Aug. 12, Ha Young issued a handwritten apology, saying she had known only fragments of her great-grandfather's life through stories passed down by her family. "Shamefully, I spoke of it as a family point of pride while remaining ignorant," she said. She added that she "accepts the wrongdoing with the weight it deserves and sincerely apologizes as a descendant."

jshan@heraldcorp.com