An Image of SEA GAME in Vietnam Falsely Claimed as the Opening Ceremony in Cambodia

As the 32^nd SEA Game is underway in Cambodia, an image showing a girl wearing Vietnamese customs and walking in front of a group of Cambodian athletes was circulated on social media, and claimed it was the official opening of the event hosted in Cambodia. The claim has been widely shared and commented on. After running Google Reverse Image Search, however, we prove the claim is misleading.

SOCIAL MEDIA CLAIM

An image showing a girl dressing in Vietnamese traditional cloth with a ‘CAMBODIA’ banner in hand and walking in front of Cambodian athletes was circulated on social media last week.

The caption written by the image author implied the photo is of the official opening ceremony of the 32^nd SEA Game in Cambodia.

The post had been widely shared and commented on by Khmer-speaking social media users, some of them believing the photo is truly part of the 32^nd SEA Game hosted in Cambodia.

Below is the capture of the post on Thursday last week saying, “The blood of Khmer patriots… disappointed.”

Facebook Post | Archived Link

The caption above was corrected, and below is the capture of the original caption saying, “The blood of Khmer patriots! Does Cambodia lack cloth? How discreditable leaders [of athletes]? … a disappointed.”

FACT CHECK

Fact Crescendo Cambodia began checking the post by running a Google Reverse Image Search which led us to find out the facts below.

Running the Google Reverse Image Search proves the image had been circulated by local and international media last week.

One of them is a report published by News Yahoo showing a full-frame image. The outlet circulated a report from AFP, but we saw no detail.

Yahoo News | Archived Link

We found the same image in Getty Images, and its caption says the photo was the official opening ceremony of the 31^st SEA Game hosted in Vietnam in May last year.

Facebook Post | Archived Link

We also found photos showing one girl wearing the same Vietnamese traditional dress and walking in front of a group of athletes from different countries in South East Asia.

Below is the video of the opening ceremony of the SEA Game hosted by Vietnam last year. The video can be watched on YouTube.

Fact Crescendo Cambodia reviewed videos of the official opening ceremonies of previous SEA Games hosted by other countries. We learned that a girl wearing the traditional cloth of the host country is assigned to walk in front of a team of athletes.

Below is the full video of the opening ceremony of the 28^th SEA Game hosted in Singapore in 2105. It shows a girl wearing the traditional custom of the host country and walking in front of groups of athletes from different countries.

Below is the full video of the official opening ceremony of the 29^th SEA Game hosted by Malaysia in 2017.

And here is the full video of the official opening ceremony of the 32^nd SEA Game hosted by Cambodia last week. The video shows at least one girl wearing Cambodian traditional cloth with a country banner was assigned to walk in front of each group of athletes from the regional countries.

CONCLUSION

Fact Crescendo Cambodia found out the post described above is misleading. The image showing a girl wearing Vietnamese traditional cloth and walking in front of Cambodian athletes is of the 31^st SEA Game hosted in Vietnam last year. In the official opening ceremony of the 32^nd SEA Game hosted by Cambodia this year; a girl dressed in Cambodian traditional cloth was assigned to walk in front of each team of athletes from countries in the region.