Tag Archives: censorship

Oh goodie – here we go again. International artist (Elton John) calls out an enemy of the state (Aye WW)

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Back in 2008, a certain Icelandic singer dedicated her song “Declare Independence” to a certain part of China that has famously been trying to do just that for over 50 years. Last night, Elton John dedicated his Beijing show to infamous dissident artist Aye WW.

While most probably not as seriously or damaging as the Bjork incident (which was 4 months before the great Olympic coming out ceremony in 2008), it begs the question “Why won’t these primadonnas ever learn or think what the potential consequences of these actions might be?”.

Promoters across China work hard in the margins, trying to incrementally increase their ability to do more and at the same time increase choices for the Chinese public. In fly cosseted stars on their private jets, stay in their Chinese presidential suites for a night and think they will solve the problems of a nation by embarrassing the state in their own back yard. Then fly out, back to their mansions in Cannes surrounded by sycophants that tell them how brave they were and how significant those actions will be, and we are left to clean up the mess.

So what are the consequences likely to be? Most probably an increase in the already expensive and weighty Ministry of Culture approvals process. Most likely more scrutiny for international artists wanting to come and play China and subsequently less variety and frequency of shows. Life post Bjork was tough here in China…

Progress is currently being made and artists of all stripes are arriving every week to play China’s big cities  sharing messages, friendship and collaborating with fans and artists here. Soft power is a very real phenomenon, and has very real results.

Everyone knows and appreciates Mr. Aye and his efforts to stand up for the rights of the Chinese nation and her people – the foreign media cover it on an almost daily basis. If Elton wants to do something valuable for China, why not play a benefit concert for orphans; or how about spending some time in Beijing understanding the issues, then going home and writing an op-ed for a global publication about his experiences and thoughts? Nah, let’s go for the easy one: call out my “mate”, get some headlines which never hurt global Elton PR and get the fuck out.

Thanks Reg…

 

Festival Update – problems at Nanjing and Pinggu

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After Suzhou Strawberry was abruptly canceled last week, and the sudden cracking down on foreign artists (see the comment from Mike Weed re, ChongQing), we expected this festival weekend to be a difficult one. After day one, we can so far report that

  • all international bands (including the expat-ish bands out of Shanghai Boys Climbing Ropes and the Fever Machine) have been banned from playing Nanjing’s Blossom Music Festival. Quoting from someone there
  • fun in Nanjing: k-holes, typhoons and censorship
  • From another source at the Pinggu Festival in Beijing, apparently the organizers were told late yesterday that no alcohol was allowed to be sold on site.

We’re sure there will be many more twists in the tale over the next couple of days, but initial signs aren’t very promising.

MIDI Festival

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Over at Beijing Daze, there is a small amount of doubt lingering over MIDI Festival 2011. Certainly we’ve heard a couple of reports that the sensitive spring that we are having might be putting spanners in the various MIDI works (and those of Strawberry too, truth be told). Of course, there were issues with nationalistic Japanese flag burning last October, something that the NY Times somewhat sensationally covered. We predicted this coverage might have repercussions, literally

Music Festivals in China are in no way a fait accompli – just because the government has been involved increasingly in the last couple of years, a single missive from the centre could put paid to festivals entirely. The first page of the article basically highlights every single anti authoritarian element of Midi in particular and seems to be excessively sensationalist. It strikes us that coverage like this might be a double edged sword for China’s festival industry.

In these Jazzy Mine times, perhaps the risks of backfire are just too great.

Fingers and toes crossed that the authorities don’t mess with the Beijing festivals again. Cancellations play havoc with the reputation of Chinese festivals both domestically and internationally.

Classic get out clause – Bob Dylan cancelled – blame the government…

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The poor Chinese Ministry of Culture. They get it in the neck every time a promoter doesn’t pay up or can’t sell any tickets. The latest in the Bob Dylan saga featured in the Guardian yesterday, in which the spokesman for the Taiwanese promoter/ agency Broker Brother’s Herald (BBH) claim that the Ministry of Culture deemed the artist too controversial.  You can read the Guardian article HERE.

We don’t have any inside information, but this claim doesn’t sit very well with the 3 month running saga that we’ve followed quite closely. When we first announced that Dylan was meant to be touring (HERE), we noted that BBH had promised a massive guarantee for the entire 5 date run.  Our initial sources put that figure at close to US$2m.  At the same time, there were questions raised about BBH’s cash flow.  They had guaranteed this astronomical amount in order to flip the shows to individual promoters for a vastly inflated fee (HERE).  At the same time, it was rumored that the local promoters weren’t biting, particularly in China.

And so, predictably enough, we receive word that BBH have put the blame squarely at the feet of the Ministry of Culture. A great excuse to get out of the guarantee, but another blow to the credibility of the Chinese touring market, and let’s face it, likely a big nail in any ambitions of mainland touring BBH had…

SARFT to block Bittorrent servers?

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According to the good people over at ReadWriteWeb, we here in China are just about to lose access to all our favorite torrent sites.  To quote:

A document called Regulations on the Protection of the Right of Communication through Information, created by SARFT in 2006, was posted on its website late last week, just before the agency rounded up and shut down around 530 bittorrent sites, including the 50-million-users-strong BTChina. SARFT states that websites are not allowed to provide audio or video products without specific licenses.

SARFT rep Cao Yunxia told China Tech News that “illegal audio-visual service websites have brought great harm to the media industry and the administration will continue to seek and destroy illegal Internet audio-visual program providers.” Continue reading →

What will become of Expo?

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Culturally, there was great excitement around the Beijing Olympics in 2008.  This was a chance for the outside world to witness what we’ve know for some time – that Beijing has a thriving, diverse music and arts scene that is growing year on year.

In the end, however, Beijing was just about the most boring place in the entire world for a 3 month period leading up to August 2008.  Nearly every venue was closed for the lead up and duration of the big O – the city was completely locked down to musicians, artists and even brands and national bodies that had been planning for the Olympics for up to 3 years.  Damp squib – hell yeah! Continue reading →

Some more thoughts on the digital distribution of music in China

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Back in September, new laws on the digital distribution in China flashed into our consciousnesses briefly.  If you want to read about that, go HERE.

We thought we would come up with a more thoughtful analysis.  If you are interested, please read on.

by Nick Papa

Continue reading →

Uh oh – no foreign bands at Modern Sky?

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We’ve seen debacles before – Oasis, Linkin Park II, Hohhot Green Flag, Midi 2008, but this is as serious a China moment as we’ve seen to date.  Apparently, no foreign bands will be allowed to play Modern Sky festival this year.  Boss Shen Lihui was phoned this morning by the local PSB and told this really rather rubbish news.

It has been a source of confusion for us since Modern Sky announced that their festival would be held in Chaoyang Park during the 60th birthday celebrations of China’s communist party.  It was claimed that the festival was going to be a part of the celebrations – we did laugh at the prospect of 70′s punk band the Buzzcocks playing the official birthday party for this harmonious regime.

This is a sad day for China’s music industry, which has recovered from similar blows before, but this is hugely worrying for the future of Chinese festivals…

Foreign performances at Modern Sky Music Festival has been cancelled

The Censors close in

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As a further post to our original article HERE, we report further on this newly announced move to regulate the distribution of music online.

China moves to control online music industry: state media

BEIJING, Sept 10, 2009 (AFP) – China has announced that every foreign and domestic song posted on music websites must receive prior approval, state media said Thursday, in the nation’s latest efforts to control online content.

Continue reading →