American jazz pianist Harry Connick Jr. bumped up against China’s cultural restrictions when he was forced to make last-minute changes to his performance in Shanghai on 8 March 2008. Officials also refused to allow him to perform a revised set list.
Players in Connick's band told a reporter from the Shanghaiist that 'government people' showed up an hour before they were to perform in Shanghai. The officials from the Cultural Bureau went to town on their set list, crossing off a number of tunes they disapproved of and replacing them with "safer" tunes. Tunes which the band did not happen to have charts on hand for.
Thus explains the extraordinary number of solo piano-with-vocals tunes heard throughout the show. J.Q. Whitcomb, a musician living in Shanghai, said the concert mostly featured Connick playing piano by himself, with the band sitting on stage doing nothing.
“Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was not able to give my fans in China the show I intended,” Connick said in a statement.
Music banned by the Chinese authorities will not be available at a new free Internet music download service launched earlier this week by Google Inc. and major music companies
Western musicians and tour organisers have encountered difficulties with performances in China due to a tightened political control over the arts and Christianity.
"Any artistic group or individual who have ever engaged in activities which threaten our national sovereignty will not be allowed in," the Chinese Ministry of Culture stated
The Chinese Ministry of Culture announced on 26 April 2008 that China will tighten up controls over cultural activities and products ahead of the Summer Olympics
Jamyang Kyi, prominent Tibetan singer and a song-writer, internet writer and feminist activist, was arrested on 1 April 2008 and is held without charges by Chinese authorities
During a concert Björk added “Tibet! Tibet!” to her song “Declare Independece”. The statement was followed by angry reactions amongst Björk fans and Chinese politicians.
A religious group in Taiwan managed to get the government to ban the singer Singa Rinpoche from entering the country for one year. The ban only increased his popularity
Beijing officials who seven years ago banned the music of Taiwan's pop star A-Mei now use her name to improve political ties between mainland China and Taiwan
An edited version of a part of a thesis entitled 'Three Decades of Canto-pop: Hybridization, consolidation and Innovation', written for University of Liverpool in 2005
200 professional musicians, scholars, and composers from 22 countries met at the 3rd Freemuse World Conference on 25-26 November 2006 in Istanbul, Turkey
