Going mainstream brings exposure and with it added financial gains, but the flip side is more scrutiny and this week the hammer fell on the burgeoning hip hop scene in Mainland China. The government broadcast authority released a memo basically banning hip hop on television, likely spurred on by the recent scandal with a very well known hip hop star PG One and his alleged affair with married C-actress Li Xiao Lu. The backlash was on his lack of morals and filtered into scrutiny over his hip hop song lyrics being called out for drug use and misogyny, nothing new in hip hop culture the world over but in China this is still a relatively new musical medium for the mainstream audiences.
The memo states that all television programs must follow the 4 tenets in booking guests – no one of low moral values, no one who is vulgar or has low taste, no one whose thoughts and style are not refined, and lastly no one who has been involved in a scandal. An added requirement is that tattoos are not allowed to be shown. Since the memo was circulated other The Rap of China famous contestants such as co-winner GAI and popular VAVA have been pulled from the variety show programs they were currently participating in. Like all bans this could be temporary and may be quietly lifted in years to come, but it certainly puts the breaks on the spread of hip hop in mainstream China but the rap culture there has been vibrant in the underground scene for years and will likely go back to that arena and thrive in a smaller venue.
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I don't get this, haven't people cheated on their spouses before hip-hop? So why is it the music genre being blamed instead of the people who engaged in cheating? I think they were probably just looking for an excuse to ban it and took this so as to not let people get ideas of protesting for their rights.
thank you for stating this succinctly, couldn't agree more
Punish the person, not the art.
China just loves banning things. What a crude way of going about this. There are so many things banned than allowed in this country that I wonder if the officials have trouble remembering last year's ban.
Oh no, what will these culture vultures do now? Chinese government is overreacting as usual but I guess this will force these performers to be at least somewhat original.
Lmao China and their ridiculous bans. I can't believe from all the meetings and processes of approval they need to go through to pass this ban nobody stood up and said 'Y know isn't this kinda stupid?'
That is so stupid... just because one person fcked up doesn't mean everyone who's into "hiphop" has the same twisted values as them... And wtf "low taste", "low moral values".... how is one supposed to judge that?? So many people who have been in cheating scandals still appear on television; so are they all gonna be banned then?
Unfortunately the leaders of China are all "old" generation, so their values are very very old fashioned. People like my mother have the same type of thinking unfortunately, so I suppose a lot of (older) people in China probably think things like this should be banned. (Like gosh, go ahead and think the way you want, but don't discuss with me pls mother 8-))
*facepalm*
I think that the title of your article is misleading. Hip hop was not banned,the stations themselves practiced self censorship . However, you cannot exactly blame them. PG one winning the hiphop competition which brought mainstream popularity to the art of hiphop meant that he was the flag bearer of the art. This flag bearer them got himself into a major adultery scandal which invariably put the rest of the artists in a bad light as well thus the self censorship being practice. A period of cooling down is thus needed as the hip hop artists redeem themselves in light of the public and rid themselves of the guilty by association effect that Oh one pit on them
Typed too fast, had a few spelling errors due to autocorrect
I think in addition to the bad behavior of the artist (which of course not all rap singers do that), hip hop and rap music basically takes on issues of humanity, social, politics and culture. even now still use to protest if there is injustice in society. so not so surprised if prohibited there
Historically hip hop in America was a cultural protest of the treatment of minorities in the USA over the years it has morphed into glamorising the acquisition of money and mistreatment of women and basic vapidness seen both visually and verbally. There are a few hip hop artists out that take on the issues of humanity and societal unrest today. It is just another genre of music The Chinese govt has long had a history (non-redemptive) of clamping down on activities or music that is perceived going against the what they want to be the norm and of course hip hop will go back underground and its sub culture will thrive there. So be it. However this PG One rapper is an idiot and clearly exemplifies what modern hip hop is about.