A new Vietnamese restaurant in Brisbane has changed its name after members of the community protested its reference to North Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
Dr Cuong Trong Bui president of the Vietnamese Community in Australia’s Queensland chapter, said close to 200 people were protesting outside the restaurant which originally called itself Uncle Ho, on Sunday 10 April.
“The communist people called him Uncle Ho. That is Ho Chi Minh. He is a mass murderer, a dictator,” Dr Bui told the Sunday Mail.
“People can support the communists, but the Vietnamese people here are the people who ran away from them.”
Uncle Ho announced it would now be registered as Uncle Bia Hoi after director Anna Demirbek posted a statement to Instagram saying protesters had threatened to burn down the establishment and had issued death threats to employees.
“Our business will be closed today [Sunday 10 April] to ensure the safety and security of our team and our customers,” Demirbek said in the post.
Demirbek later released a statement to Channel 7 saying “We wish to announce that we have registered the name Uncle Bia Hoi and have commenced proceedings to change our trading name in the coming weeks.”
Bia Hoi is a type of draft beer popular throughout Vietnam. The restaurant’s social media pages have already been updated to reflect the name change.
