Old cremation video in Vietnam unrelated to Taiwanese celebrity's death

Published on February 18, 2025 at 03:03
3 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

After Taiwanese star Barbie Hsu died from pneumonia during a vacation in Japan over the Lunar New Year holiday, social media users falsely claimed a video shared thousands of times was filmed at her cremation ceremony in Japan. But the clip was taken in a Vietnamese crematorium in December 2024 and has no connection to Hsu.

"Barbie Hsu cremated in Japan today. It makes me cry for her children who were orphaned," reads the caption of a Facebook video shared on February 4 in a mix of English and Tagalog.

The 59-second video shows mourners -- including kids -- weeping as they watch a brown coffin being sent into a cremator.

Overlaid text on the video says: "It's heartbreaking, Barbie's children are still so young."

It was shared over 4,600 times before it was deleted and has spread on Instagram, Threads, YouTube and TikTok alongside similar claims.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, taken February 12, 2025

Taiwanese star Barbie Hsu, who was hugely popular across Asia for her leading role in the 2001 television drama "Meteor Garden", died from a respiratory illness on February 2. She was 48 (archived link).

Hsu passed away after developing pneumonia during a family trip to Japan over the Lunar New Year holiday, the younger of her two sisters was quoted as saying.

The urn containing Hsu's ashes was flown back to Taiwan from Tokyo's Haneda Airport on February 5, according to Singaporean news outlet The Straits Times (archived link).

But the circulating video has nothing to do with her death.

Taken in Vietnam

Keyword searches found the video surfaced on TikTok on December 29, 2024 -- months before Hsu's death (archived link).

At the four-second mark of the TikTok video, Vietnamese text can be seen on the television screen above the cremator's metal door. AFP's bureau in Vietnam confirmed the name of the deceased on the screen did not belong to Hsu.

Screenshot comparison of the false video (L) and the December 2024 clip (R)

Subsequent Google reverse image searches led to similar footage posted on TikTok on December 30, 2024 by a user who identifies himself as Pham Son Hai and a worker at the Hoa Lac Vien crematorium in Vietnam (archived link).

It contains several elements seen in the false video, including the television screen, the cremation chamber number, the casket design and the yellow statuette on the table.

Screenshot comparison of the false video (L) and the December 2024 TikTok video (R)

When shown the circulating Facebook video, Pham told AFP on February 11: "The user posted the wrong thing. This is the Hoa Lac Vien crematorium of Long Thanh, Dong Nai, Vietnam".

Images of the crematorium on Google Maps also match elements seen in the false video (archived link).

Comparison of the false video (L) and a photo taken in Hoa Lac Vien crematorium in Vietnam (R)

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