Ahn Ha-young debate: Why does a Korean actor’s family history still matter?

SEOUL – South Korean actress Ahn Ha-young’s rising career has hit a major roadblock after comments about her family history sparked a backlash over allegations that her great-grandfather was linked to Japan’s colonial rule of Korea, just days before the National Liberation Day of Korea on Aug 15.

The uproar has revived the debate over whether descendants should be held accountable for their ancestors’ actions – with experts saying that the South Korean public increasingly places more weight on how people conduct themselves today than on their lineage alone.

The issue at hand emerged during Ahn’s promotional campaign for Our Sticky Love, Netflix Korea’s highly anticipated romantic comedy, which premiered globally on Aug 7.

Ahn, who made her acting debut in 2019, has spent much of her career in supporting roles, appearing in projects such as hit series The Trauma Code: Heroes On Call (2025) and Doona! (2023). Our Sticky Love marks one of her first major leading projects.

At a time when Ahn, 33, was gaining prominence, her mentions of her family background on several television programmes resurfaced, with one of the most recent examples being her Aug 7 appearance on KBS’ variety show Problem Child In House.

During the show, Ahn said her great-grandfather had opened a Western-style clinic in Hanyang (Seoul’s former name) and treated Emperor Gojong (1852 to 1919). She added that her grandfather, father and older sister are doctors, making hers a four-generation family of doctors.

Although Ahn did not identify her great-grandfather by name during the broadcast, online speculation soon pointed to Ahn Sang-ho, a doctor who practised during Japan’s colonial rule of Korea.

The great-grandfather

Attention quickly turned to Ahn Sang-ho’s activities during the colonial period, particularly his involvement with the Daejeong Friendship Association. Founded in 1916 as a business organisation, it was led by Min Yeong-gi, a known pro-Japanese collaborator, and included several figures associated with Japan’s colonial government.

Among them was Yi Wan-yong, one of the signatories of both the 1905 Eulsa Treaty and the 1910 Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty, which formally placed Korea under Japanese rule.

The allegations triggered an immediate backlash against Ahn Ha-young.

On Aug 10, her agency, Bistus Entertainment, initially dismissed claims that Ahn Sang-ho was a pro-Japanese collaborator, but it reversed course the following day.

Further verification had confirmed historical records identifying Ahn Sang-ho as a council member of the Daejeong Friendship Association. The agency apologised for issuing its initial statement before sufficiently verifying the information.

Press interviews with Ahn Ha-young and her co-star, Jung Hae-in, were then cancelled, dealing a setback to the drama’s global promotional campaign as well as Ahn’s multimillion-dollar commercial advertisement opportunities.

As the controversy intensified, Ahn issued a public apology on Aug 12, saying she had been unaware of her ancestor’s past.

According to experts, the intensity of the backlash may hinge not simply on the existence of the historical record, but on how Ahn’s great-grandfather’s role during the colonial period is interpreted.

“There were different degrees of collaboration with Japan during the colonial period,” said Lee Sung-min, an associate professor in the Department of Media Arts and Sciences at Korea National Open University.

While some figures may technically be categorised as pro-Japanese despite having had limited choices under colonial rule, Lee said others actively cooperated with the colonial authorities.

“Ahn’s great-grandfather appears to fall closer to the latter category,” Lee said.

Historic sensitivity

Experts add that the more fundamental issue may not be Ahn’s ancestry itself, but how she presents her family history.

“People would be more uncomfortable not with the fact itself, but with how the descendants conduct themselves,” said pop culture critic Jung Duk-hyun, pointing to cases in which descendants distort the past or speak about their ancestors’ actions with pride.

“Even if someone is a descendant, if they have a negative view of their ancestor’s actions, they’re unlikely to go around highlighting or taking pride in that connection. They can instead take a more humble stance or show greater interest in and engagement with those historical issues. I don’t think the (South Korean) public would necessarily criticise them if they responded in those kinds of ways,” Jung said.

The controversy arrives at a particularly notable moment in South Korea-Japan relations, as cultural exchange between the two countries is at a high point.

According to Hankook Research, Japan’s favourability rating among South Koreans stood at 44.8 degrees in a July 2026 survey, up from 42.7 degrees in April and 44.6 degrees in January.

It is the highest rating recorded since the firm began measuring South Koreans’ favourability towards various countries – China, Japan, North Korea, Russia and the United States – in 2018. The survey uses what it calls a “feeling thermometer”, ranging from zero degrees, meaning very unfavourable, to 100 degrees, meaning very favourable.

However, experts stress that South Koreans keep a boundary between contemporary lifestyles and historical accountability.

“Cultural exchange and consuming each other’s cultural content is essentially a matter of personal taste,” Jung said, noting that audiences separate entertainment choices from unresolved colonial grievances.

That growing separation between Japanese culture and the country’s colonial past, however, does not necessarily apply to the descendants of those who collaborated with Japan.

“Obviously, (descendants of pro-Japanese collaborators) are not going to be viewed favourably.

“But I do think some of these tensions are gradually being resolved,” Lee said, adding that since anti-Japanese sentiment has been passed down through generations, there is also a growing degree of nuance and rationality in how some South Koreans approach the issue.

“If someone can clearly distinguish between the two by saying, ‘What my parent did was wrong, but I am a different person’, then people can see that person as someone who shares the same basic values,” Lee said.

“But in this case, that distinction wasn’t really made. There seemed to be a lack of awareness of what was wrong in the first place.” THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK