The Ministry of Culture says all Chinese internet companies must start policing the music it offers online starting January 1. The plan calls for these companies to self-censor by hiring and training its own in-house staff to conduct detailed investigations of which songs are unacceptable to the ministry, which will then be added to a blacklist and removed from their servers.

The plan is similar to how internet companies in China are already forced to deal with other content offered online through the use of in-house censors.

The announcement comes at a time when music streaming apps and services are becoming popular with the public, with middle-class consumers paying for some of these services.

This past August, the Ministry of Culture put out a blacklist of 120 songs that are banned from all Chinese internet sites, the majority of them songs with “morally harmful” content from artists like MC Hotdog (pictured) that mostly featured sexist or immature content.

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Megadeth is set to perform in Beijing on October 6 at the Huiyuan M Zone Center in the Mastercard Center, and in Shanghai on October 8 at the Shanghai Gymnasium, according to the band’s website. However, China Daily reports the venue for the October 8 performance as being the Shanghai Grand Theater, so there’s still some confusion.

This will be the Megadeth’s first appearance in China after having cancelled a 2012 date in Beijing “due to issues with the show license for the venue.”

This fall has seen a number of shows by Western performers get cancelled in China, often at the last minute. The Shanghai tour date for Maroon 5 was mysteriously cancelled as was the Chinese leg of the Bon Jovi tour, both speculated to have to do with the band’s relation to topics regarded as taboo by the Chinese government.

This won’t be China’s first taste of metal music, with Metallica having rocked Shanghai with two shows back in 2012. However, as Megadeth may find out for themselves, there are some songs too metal for the sensitivities of China.

Chinese officials banned Metallica from playing certain songs in China, including Masters of Puppets whose lyrics include “Come crawling faster/Obey your master/Your life burns faster/Obey your master”. Metallica complied with the order, but it didn’t stop guitarist Kirk Hammet from playing the opening riff to Masters of Puppets during the show.

We hope that Chinese metalheads will be able to enjoy an unadulterated Megadeth show, but a cursory glance at the anthology of Megadeth songs reveals there may be some contentious choices. Songs that may be construed as being inharmonious include songs like Peace Sells (But Who’s Buying?), Addicted to Chaos, or even their cover of the Alice Cooper classic No More Mr Nice Guy.

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According to insiders, China’s ministry of culture cancelled shows scheduled for September 14 and 17 because they had discovered images of the exiled Tibetan spirtual leader hidden in the backdrop of a video used during a Bon Jovi Taiwan concert in 2010. And similar to the situation behind the recent cancellation of a Shanghai performance by Maroon 5, a member of Bon Jovi was discovered to have made a supportive tweet about the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama is a vilified figure in China accused of advocating for Tibet separatism and extremist actions. This upcoming fall marks a politically sensitive time as China celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

We all suspected he was going down in blaze of glory, but it appeared frontman Jon Bon Jovi was first going to woo China on a bed of roses. Bon Jovi had been promoting the concerts in an online video featuring him singing the Chinese love ballad The Moon Represents My Heart, as made famous by Taiwanese crooner Teresa Teng.

The band also has two upcoming performances in Macao scheduled for September 25 and 26. We’re not sure of the fate of these two shows, but seeing as it’s my life and knowing that we weren’t born to follow, hopefully the personal freedom of seeing a rock show will still carry through in these cases. But if the worst comes to pass and the likes of Bon Jovi aren’t wanted in China – either dead or alive – well then, who says you can’t go home?

And if you’re tired of the Bon Jovi puns, you’ll want to skip all these comments from Twitter today:

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China’s Ministry of Culture has put 120 songs on a blacklist for promoting obscenity or violence, and ordered them to be removed from all Chinese websites. The ministry said the songs “trumpeted obscenity, violence, crime or harmed social morality,” and anyone that ignores the ban will face “severe punishment” that was left up to the imagination.

The blacklist contains a number of famous singers including Taiwanese pop star Chang Csun Yuk, Taiwanese actor Stanley Huang, and even Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong. For the most part, the blacklist targets the rap genre with certain rap groups like Yinsaner and the New Street Talk Assembly appearing multiple times among others like MC Hotdog.

The song titles give us some clues into why they might have rubbed Chinese authorities the wrong way:

• Getting a Hotel Room Together Does Not Mean We are Lovers by Yiran
• Cheap Women, Bad Men by the Internet Singers
• This is Not a Song About a One Night Stand by Guangguang
• No Sex, No Love by Guangguang and K-Bo
• Mistress, You Are So Cheap by Benkui
• Fuck Your Love by the Internet Singers

The announcement the songs were banned caused a sensation among Chinese people, with one person saying: “These song titles are shameful in and of themselves. Is it right to publish them the way they are?” Another person took exception to not extending the ban further, saying “Why don’t they ban Myth of the Phoenix (the singers of many popular square dancing songs)? Everyday they massacre my ears.”

And citing the Streisand effect, another netizen said, “I have never heard of these songs before in my life, but now I really want to hear them.”

Anyone else interested in what songs the Ministry of Culture doesn’t think you should be able to listen to can find a full list published on their website.

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China’s “red songs”, works that show support for the Chinese Communist Party and its causes, appeared to be making a comeback in 2011 due to a campaign by charismatic Chongqing official Bo Xilai. A few years earlier, an American going by the stage name of Hong Laowai became a much-loved online celebrity in the People’s Republic for his renditions of patriotic Mao-era songs. In neither case was a movement sparked.

Though writing music is often an attempt at achieving immortality, even the most popular music can die with the beliefs that inspired it. Songs that were staples in the 1960s such as “The East is Red” are now seldom heard outside period dramas due to their toxic associations.

Luo Lang, the man who conducted the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) orchestra as they played that song and other triumphant anthems in Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949, died earlier this month. His best known composition is the dirge that was played at the funerals of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and those of ordinary Chinese every day. All things considered it is almost certainly the most played and enduring piece of music written for the Communist Party cause.

Luo Lang

The dirge

Surveys of the most popular funeral songs in the Anglophone world tend to throw up “golden oldies” such as “My Way” by Frank Sinatra and “Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong. Since Graham Chapman’s televised memorial service in 1989, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” has been widely played. Much-loved hymns such as “Abide with Me” also remain popular.

Though to a certain generation it is perhaps more associated with The Undertaker and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Chopin’s “Death March” was performed at the state funerals of John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. However, in the West there is nothing quite as universally played at funerals as the dirge 《哀乐》 composed in 1945 by the 25 year-old Luo Lang.

There are an estimated two million funerals a day in China and by far and away the most played piece of music at these funerals is Luo Lang’s dirge. It may be the most played piece of music in modern China. What’s more, Luo Lang never collected a fen in royalties, insisting that it is the people’s property.

“After witnessing the aftermath of the liberation of Zhangjiakou in 1945, he observed that many of the soldiers’ bodies were lying down as if still poised to enter battle. It was then he decided to write a dirge that, as well as being somber, also had an air of defiance. He subsequently adapted a northern folk song that was originally for suono horn,” his daughter Luo Jing told CPC News.

On September 30, 1949, the day before the People’s Republic was declared in Tiananmen Square, Luo Lang conducted a band of more than 40 players in the dirge to honour those who had fallen in the war from which his side had just emerged victorious.

Is it really a red song?

It is not a rabble rouser and appears to do a lot less to promote Marxist values than John Lennon’s “Imagine” (also a staple at funerals). However, the song and its author’s red credentials are beyond reproach.

Born Luo Nanchuan in Dehua, Fujian Province, he followed his father to Malaya (now Malaysia) as a child before returning to Shanghai aged 13 to pursue his studies. He entered the music department of the Lu Xun Arts Academy where he studied under some of the masters of the day such as Xian Xinghai, Xiang Yu and Li Huan.

After his mother was killed by Japanese soldiers in 1938, Luo became highly politicized and went with six friends to Yan’an to join the revolution. During the war, Luo composed over 200 military anthems, including 《从军区》 (From the Militarised Zone) and 《英雄赞》 (Praise the Heroes).

Luo Lang on Tiananmen Square October 1, 1949

Acting as composer of a military band of over 200 players as they performed triumphant red songs including “The East Is Red” and “Without the Communist Party There Would Be No New China” on October 1, 1949 was later described by Luo as “the most unforgettable experience of my life.”

In 1956 Luo was appointed as head of the People’s Liberation Army’s top musical academy, training the army’s most promising musicians such as French horn player Sun Dehua. “The people who he trained in the 1950s went on to keep the tradition alive,” a tearful Sun told CPC News.

Though in his old age, his eyesight and hearing declined and he became more foul tempered as the friends he went to Yan’an with died off, Luo kept strict the habits of his military background – bathing at exactly 9 p.m., keeping strictly regular patterns of eating and making his own way up and down several flights of stairs, according to Luo Jing.

In 2009, during the build-up to the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic, an 89 year-old Luo conducted an impromptu rehearsal of the Chinese National Anthem during a visit to a military camp.  The anthem, “March of the Volunteers”, which is now banned at funerals, was written by left-leaning, politically-engaged people but not members of the PLA who dedicated their lives to its cause.

If you listen to the lyrics it could just as easily have been written by supporters of Chiang Kai-shek. Lyricist Tian Han died in prison in 1968 after being denounced as a counterrevolutionary.

The dirge is the work of a man who had a long life with the Communist Party and a relatively uncomplicated relationship with it. “He is now conducting the PLA band in the sky,” his daughter told Caijing.

A musical soldier

The dirge was of course played at the funeral home on Balao Mountain in Beijing on July 17 as Luo’s loved ones said their last goodbyes. It remains to be seen whether his estate will continue to give the song away for free.

Music, unlike politics, can be simple and utopian. His political convictions may have prevented Luo Jing from hitting the heights of the great composers.

Shostakovich, for example, reluctantly joined the Russian Communist Party toward the end of his life.  His late string quartets are not heroic statements defying totalitarianism but a desperate comment on his own cowardice and opportunism. They were the works, according to Slavoj Zizek, of a broken man,

In “The Lives of the Great Composers,” Harold Schoenberg compares Haydn to Mozart. Haydn was, according to Schonberg “a very nice man to know,” who never acted in ways that were petty such as worrying about younger, better-looking composers stealing his thunder.

Mozart, by contrast, was “the more dangerous, repressed, rebellious man.” Schoenberg suggests this might be the reason why Mozart ultimately hit greater heights.

Luo Lang’s rigidity and conservatism may have held him back, but he wrote the piece that may well have brought tears to more eyes than any other in the past century.

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US pop star Taylor Swift is reaching out to her Chinese fans by opening an online store that will exclusively sell her own personal line of clothing in China.

E-commerce retailer Jingdong has secured the exclusive rights to sell Swift’s clothing line in Chinese markets, and will open its digital shop doors on August 8.

If you’re wondering what the Taylor Swift-branded clothing line looks like, here’s a quick peek for you:

If these happen to look like shirts you’d buy at rock concert, you should keep in mind that the clothes are being marketed as “authentic merchandise” and that the opening of the online store coincides with Swift’s upcoming Shanghai performances from November 10 to 12 for her “1989” world tour.

All the same, these clothes may be the only way Swift’s fans may be able to appreciate the pop star’s visit to China since tickets are in such high demand. Swift set a record with her previous China tour by selling 18,000 tickets a minute.

And similar to the way Katy Perry has been dubbed “Fruit Sister” in China, Swift’s Chinese fans have come up with a strange nickname for her: Meimei (霉霉). However, the nickname isn’t as flattering when trying to explain what it means. Although the origin of the name is unknown, thousands of Swift fans use this nickname that sounds like “beauty” or “sister”, but has a literal meaning of “moldy” or “unlucky”.

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Maroon 5 recently mysteriously dropped the September 12th date from the band’s tour schedule, but they are keeping their other shows in Asia, including Hong Kong. Chinese fans became suspicious that Maroon 5 may have gotten themselves banned in China when news came that band member Jesse Carmichael tweeted a birthday congratulations to the Dalai Lama after reportedly attending celebrations with him on July 4.

Shanghaiist translates some reaction from the Chinese Internet:

“When it comes to matters of a country’s dignity and territorial claims, there can be no compromise. Musicians should stick to music and do their thing. Why bother with politics?”

“It’s okay to have political opinions, but it’s not okay to be illogical. Does he (Jesse Carmichael) have any idea what Dalai Lama has done in Tibet?”

“Country before idol.”

“Such a shame. I really liked their song ‘Sugar’.”

“I believe Jesse (Carmichael) did not mean any malice. I also understand the government’s attitude. The fans are the ones who suffer.”

“Does attending a friend’s birthday party equal agreeing with his political views?”

Maroon 5 joins a long line up of Western performers that have run afoul of Chinese authorities.

During the Occupy Central protests last year, smooth jazz musician Kenny G infuriated China’s foreign ministry when he tweeted a picture in which he appeared in front of a protest sign. In 2009, Oasis was banned from performing in Shanghai and Beijing when the Ministry of Culture discovered the band had performed for a Free Tibet concert a decade prior. The most incendiary incident was in 2008, when Icelandic singer said the words “Tibet! Tibet!” during the closing number Declare Independence at a Shanghai concert right before the lyrics “raise your flag”.

But Western performers that earn approval to perform in China still have to conform to the wishes of Chinese authorities.

After being denied permission to play in Beijing and Shanghai in 2010, Bob Dylan was able to perform in Beijing using a list of songs that had been approved by Chinese authorities. In 2008, Harry Connick Jr. performed a show in Shanghai that mainly consisted of him playing solo piano despite bringing a big band with him. Reports say he was forced to abandon his current show when his playlist of songs was rejected.

In 2006 after downplaying the banning of such songs as Let’s Spend the Night Together as “no big deal”, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones countered the criticism with, “I’m pleased that the Ministry of Culture is protecting the morals of the expat bankers and their girlfriends.”

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South Korean pop star PSY was involved in a traffic accident yesterday when the Rolls Royce he was riding in collided with a bus in Hangzhou. The “Gangnam Style” singer had just been picked up from Xiaoshan Airport and was being taken to a hotel when the accident happened at 3:40pm. The red Rolls Royce carrying PSY crashed into a public bus as it turned westbound at the intersection of Yan’an Road and Qingchun Road.

Fortunately no one was hurt. A Porsche took him the rest of the way to the hotel.

PSY, who is called “Uncle Bird” by his Chinese fans, had come to Hangzhou to perform at the opening of a local club.

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Now one of the young scene’s core bands, Pokemon Dad, is embarking on a China-wide tour on the strength of their full-length album Casual Males.

Last month the group played three well-received dates in Beijing at some of the city’s most popular clubs – DDC and Temple – as well as in Hong Kong at The Backstage. And last October, they headlined a show attended by approximately 700 people, perhaps the only time Shenzhen has seen one of its large venues fill way over capacity by people coming to see a lineup consisting entirely of local bands playing original music.

Pokemon Dad’s songs are dynamic, ranging from the hard side of indie rock to airy melodic numbers. The band works hard to present a tight, complex live show in which they throw everything they have into the performance – a zen-like state that most call rocking out but which the band prefers to call “slamming,” hence the trip’s title: Slam Tour.

There’s a familiar, default attitude among China’s artistic intelligentsia towards Shenzhen – that it’s a creative wasteland with no culture and nothing cool happening. But their prejudices dictate their perceptions and the fact is Shenzhen’s music scene has grown exponentially within the past three years to include artists who could rightfully go toe-to-toe with the country’s finest underground acts.

Now you have the chance to see a band that is putting the notion that no cool music comes from Shenzhen to rest.

7/16 Dongguan @ Brown Sugar Jar

7/17 Zhuhai @ The Factory

7/18 Shenzhen @ Brown Sugar Jar Futian

7/19 Guangzhou @ 191 Space 191

7/20 Xiamen @ Real Live

7/21 Changsha @46 Live House

7/22 Wuhan @ Vox Live House

7/23 Shanghai @ Yuyintang

7/24 Shanghai @ On Stage

7/25 Beijing @ Temple Bar

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The 31-year old will play in seven Chinese cities as part of the “Bang the World” tour, which kicks off in Shanghai on July 27.

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