The name Ngoc Han is often used as a girl's name in the Vietnamese culture.
The most famous Ngoc Han, before Pham Ngoc Han, was Le Ngoc Han (1770-1799), who was the daughter of the last king of the Le dynasty.
In 1780s, a peasant rebel named Nguyen Hue, also called Quang Trung (pronounced Kwang tsoong), conquered most of Vietnam and advanced to what is now Hanoi, the capital. The King of Le dynasty, afraid of Hue's power, decided to ally with Hue and gave the King's favorite daughter to Hue as a wife.
After some intrigues the last King of the Le dynasty was exiled, and Hue became the new King, founding the Tay Son dynasty.
Hue was 17 years older than Ngoc Han and already had children from several women, typical for a warlord, but despite of that since she was a princess she was made the Chief Queen.
The union of a hardened peasant rebel and a princess is compared to Beauty and Beast in Vietnam.
Hue beat a massive Chinese invasion in 1787, for which he became a National Hero in Vietnam, but he died of a stroke in 1793.
After Hue's death, his older brother Nhac and his son (from another woman) Toan began fighting. Ngoc Han, now a widow, wrote a mourning poem for Hue but largely retired from public life.
Meanwhile, Hue's chief foe, Nguyen Phuc Anh (pronounced Fook Ayn), an ultra-reactionary, ultra-brutal, ultra-anachronitic (remember that I used that word to someone else), and ultra-pro-landowners, landed at Saigon with some French troops who didn't like the Revolutionaries or Napoleon, and began fighting the forces of the Tay Son.
Anh eventually conquered the Tay Sons, slaughtered every single relative and followers of Hue and his clan, and made Vietnam into a French protectorate. Fortunately Ngoc Han died in 1799, 5 years before all of these happened. (Anh's descendants ruled Vietnam until 1886, and a scion of them was allowed to remain titular king until 1945, but after that their descendants decided it was better to emigrate to France before the people had their revenge on the French puppets. They are never allowed back to Vietnam to this day.)
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I once called Lee Jieun, stage name IU, as KPop's most u-u-u-u singer, ultrareactionary-ultraisolationist-ultradomestic - ultraanachronistic singer.
IU would be comparable to Anh, while Pham Ngoc Han appears to be named after the aforementioned princess.
History does not repeat but it rhymes.
Despite of IU's great age at 1,344 years old, and she being in the industry for 16 years, she still has the most number of commercial features in Korea, more than anyone else including IVE and New Jeans.
It is said Ms. Pham is the most popular NJ member in Korea.
However, Pham Ngoc Han has not become the It Girl in Korea, because of the inconvenient reason that she is not Korean and the Korean sponsors would rather use Koreans to push their products.
Tzuyu had the potential to become the It Girl of KPop all over Asia but the Huang An shit ended any chance she had, and Sana had her shot but again the Korean sponsors preferred Koreans.
Jisoo and Jennie had their shots but YG preferred to promote them elsewhere.
So, at the age of 1,344, IU is still the It girl of Korea, although she is rather now the "It Woman" or , more accurately, the "It Hag" at the age of 1,344.
Pham Ngoc Han , if she had been Korean, would easily have taken the old singer's position since everyone likes new faces. IU only maintained the position of the It Hag of Korea for the lack of better candidates.
When Pham Ngoc Han covered a song by the It Hag, it is likely that she was aware of the historical parallel of her namesake and Nguyen Anh. Someone who wanted to bring KPop to the bad old days.
The mighty endeavor of dethroning KPop's It Hag is now about to be concluded, since the It Hag will just have a fan-only concert with no new songs released in 2023, but given Pham Ngoc Han had the awareness and the motivation to dethrone the It Hag, it is unfortunate that she is not given the chance.
