Posted on 02/01/2018 1:02:22 PM PST by nickcarraway
Editor's note: This story contains graphic language.
A U.S. expatriate living in Vietnam has run afoul of its communist government and could face criminal charges for a joke posted online about a revered national hero.
Dan Hauer, who teaches English in Hanoi, is married to a local woman and speaks fluent Vietnamese, reportedly has a large following on social media for his popular language videos and observations about Vietnamese and Western culture.
However, a joke he posted about Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, who led Vietnamese communist forces against the French and later Americans, has not gone over well. Giap died in 2013 at age 102 and was mourned in an elaborate state funeral.
The comment on Facebook reportedly came last week as a riposte to someone who had said he would get a Vietnamese flag tattoo if the country's under-23s soccer team won the Asian Cup.
According to the BBC, Hauer replied: "that was nothing - after a Vietnamese athlete recently won a gold medal, he said, he'd got a xxxxx piercing making his xxxxxxxxx resemble Gen Giap."
The comment drew swift condemnation and according to The Associated Press, many people began calling for his deportation.
The BBC reports: "The grandson of Gen Giap also publicly shared his anger about the post, initially in a strongly worded comment and which he later replaced with a more toned down one saying "millions of people who love him [Gen Giap] felt the anger caused by this foreigner's insult."
In a video clip posted on his Facebook page, Hauer said, "he did not think that the Vietnamese would take his jokes seriously," the AP writes.
"Dan just wants everybody to understand that Dan has no intention whatsoever to vilify Vietnam or vilify Vo Nguyen Giap," Hauer said in on the video in Vietnamese, according to AP. "Dan [learned] a lesson to be careful in using names and images of others in a joke, particularly famous Vietnamese historical figures."
Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communication said Tuesday that Hauer had apologized to Giap's family and the country as a whole. State media said he could be fined up to $2,200 but that a final decision on his fate would depend on his behavior, the news agency reports.
Hauer declined to comment publicly, but his wife, Le Thi Hau, was quoted as saying that she had received threats via telephone and text and that English learning centers had terminated contracts with her husband following the incident.
He looks like he might be into getting his xxxx pierced.
Who knows, that may well be his punishment.
Dung: “Give my regards to General Giap”, ping....
How could this guy not have known that would get him into trouble?
You really can’t insult some country’s hero and his xxxxx and not expect to get some blowback.
What a dork! That’s like making a similar “joke” about George Washington ... except that it’s in a communist country with no guarantee of free speech. Dumb, dumb, dumb!
“He looks like he might be into getting his xxxx pierced.”
—
By a doctor of xxxxology.
Answer; Everyone in the world except Dan and every leftist professor in America.
Jeez, lives in Vietnam, marry a local, speaks their language and STILL don't understand the culture.
He has the credentials to be an American professor!
Commies will be Commies, after all...
Yeah , I forgot to add “Out of touch, Democrat politicians”. Thanks!?(grins)
Yep commies, liberals, leftists, and dictators are not known for their sense of humor....
Rutger Hauer could make that joke. Dan Hauer? Not so much.
He does not look to bright, he lives in a sh!thole, run by a leftist government. What could go wrong?
What a dope - try going to Thailand and insult their king while you’re at it.
Typical dumb guy who marries a hot Vietnamese woman, moves there (it’s cheap!), loves the cool street food and thinks it’s just like America only with unpaved roads and a bad sewer system. Actually, now that I think about it, we have a few of those types here.
How do you know she’s “hot?”
LOL...yes, we absolutely do!
Pleeeeeeze, diner is about to be served at our house, and you have to post that nasty picture? That’s enough to scare the maggots off a dead dog!
The man knew he rules.Different subject material but you get into legal trouble in freedom loving Canada for writing stuff the government does not approve.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.