Barrage of Corn Cobs, Stones Greets Burmese Model at Loikaw Concert

By The Irrawaddy 20 January 2016

Burmese model Zune Thinzar, a social media celebrity known for her racy photoshoots, was attacked by members of the audience while performing at a concert to commemorate Kayah State Day in Loikaw, the Karenni State capital.

Zune Thinzar told The Irrawaddy that people in the crowd threw stones and eaten cobs of corn at her and fellow singer Zar Zar Htet while the duo were performing in the capital on Monday evening.

“They twice threw eaten corn at me,” Zune Thinzar said on Wednesday. “They also threw small stones the second time. They kept throwing them at me until singer Ko Aung Htet came to the stage. It was hard to control the audience as it was a free show in a large area. And some were drunk.”

Zune Thinzar has made a name for herself in socially conservative Burma for her propensity toward risqué photoshoots in which she is often scantily clad. Posts of these images garner thousands of “likes” on Facebook and numerous shares, but also elicit negative comments that question the cultural propriety of her apparently liberal stance on public exposure of the female form.

“When I realized that they were throwing stones at the stage, I told them to hit me if they really wanted to do so,” she told The Irrawaddy. “Then, they threw more stones. I don’t want to say anything more about it. I believe that they were just judging me superficially.

During election campaigning last year, Zune Thinzar also performed for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) ahead of a contest in which the ruling party was thrashed by the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the Nov. 8 vote.