TWICE Chaeyoung and Her Antisemitic Shirts

Ethan Han

TWICE, a 9 member K-pop girl group, is one of the most popular and influential K-Pop groups in recent years. However, one of the members — Chaeyoung Son — is currently under fire for wearing a shirt with the swastika symbol and posting it on her Instagram with 8.6 million followers. What’s more inappropriate was that she was pictured wearing the shirt in Jack’s Wife Freda, a historically Jewish restaurant in New York City.

She posted an apology on Instagram stating she didn’t know the history behind the symbol, and deleted the photo.

“Hello, this is Chaeyoung from TWICE. I sincerely apologize regarding the Instagram post. I didn’t correctly recognize the meaning of the tilted swastika in the t-shirt I wore. I deeply apologize for not thoroughly reviewing it, causing concern. I will pay absolute attention in the future to prevent any situation similar from happening again. Sincerely apologize again.”

The t-shirt featured an image of The Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious wearing the swastika symbol. What’s more, the image and apology came out days after she was seen wearing another controversial shirt with the QAnon logo and phrase during a performance. However, this was understandable as this was selected by her stylist, and K-pop idols have no say in the choices. The swastika shirt, however, Chaeyoung was wearing on her own will.