Hong Kong pop star Andy Lau performing his classic song, Zhong Guo Ren (meaning Chinese people), at his recent concert in Taiwan. - PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM SOCIAL MEDIA
HONG KONG (The Straits Times/ANN): Hong Kong pop star Andy Lau has found himself embroiled in a political controversy after he performed his classic song, Zhong Guo Ren, or “Chinese people”, at his first concert in Taiwan in over a decade.
Lau’s recent performance of the nationalistic song in Taipei earned the ire of some Taiwanese people, including a ruling-party politician whose critical comments online quickly went viral, sparking heated debate among netizens both in Taiwan and mainland China.
The incident is the latest controversy highlighting how the political impact of increasingly tenuous cross-strait ties has spilled over into broader society.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Wang Ting-yu had on Nov 2 posted a video clip from Lau’s concert on social media platform Threads.
It showed the singer belting out the classic as simplified Chinese text ran on a screen behind him and a multi-coloured dragon danced across the stage above him. Taiwan uses traditional Chinese characters.
“Is this a scene of Andy Lau performing in China? What a very, very ‘China’ stage design,” Mr Wang, 55, wrote in his video caption.
“I’ve never heard this song before... Shocked to hear it sung tonight at the Taipei Arena!”
Andy Lau’s recent performance of his classic song, Zhong Guo Ren, or “Chinese people”, in Taipei earned the ire of some Taiwanese people. - PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM SOCIAL MEDIA
In an earlier post on Facebook on Oct 31, the politician had also described Lau, 63, as a “pro-Communist Party artiste” whose concert was “not worth watching”.
The lyrics to Lau’s song, which was released in 1997 to commemorate Hong Kong’s return to China, border on the nationalistic.
“The same tears, pain and bitter sufferings of the past, we bear them in our hearts. The same blood and seed, let us together realise our dreams for the future,” the lyrics read.
“Hand in hand, with no distinction between you and me, we advance with our heads held high, to let the world know that we are all Chinese.”
Some Taiwanese internet users soon joined Mr Wang in lambasting Lau, suggesting that the song was “intentionally selected” to “culturally indoctrinate” his fans and concertgoers.
“I’m dumbfounded... If you’re Chinese, then don’t come to Taiwan to hold your concerts,” one netizen wrote.
As Mr Wang’s Threads post gained traction, mainland internet users jumped into the fray to defend Lau, pointing out that the creators of the song were, in fact, Taiwanese.
Its lyricist Preston Lee An-xiu and composer Chan Yiu-chuen are famed Taiwanese music producers who have worked on many Hong Kong and Taiwanese pop singers’ classic hits since the 1990s, including those of Anita Mui and Jolin Tsai.
China’s state-run media weighed in as well.
A Nov 5 news segment on national broadcaster CCTV suggested that Mr Wang was deliberately sowing cross-strait discord and called on Taiwan’s leader Lai Ching-te to clarify if his legislator’s comments reflected the DPP’s political stance.
A Nov 4 opinion piece in the state-owned Global Times newspaper argued that the incident “exposes (the) fragility of ‘Taiwan independence’ secessionists”.
The heated debate over Lau’s song underscores the delicate relationship between Taiwan and mainland China.
“Many people in Taiwan understandably do not identify themselves with the PRC Chinese regime since this regime has continuously imposed threats on Taiwan and its people,” said Dr Josephine Chiu-Duke, a professor of Chinese intellectual history at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Asian Studies.
China regards Taiwan as a part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, and has in recent years ramped up military and political pressure on the island.
“It is possible they felt that Andy Lau’s singing was intended to impose his view on them, (which) of course would not be received well,” Dr Chiu-Duke said.
“(But) if this person has not offended any laws in Taiwan, then it is really up to him to choose his own identity.”
Years of tense and often deteriorating ties have hypersensitised people on both sides of the strait, causing them to seek to police behaviours in society outside of the political sphere.
Taiwanese girl group S.H.E. found themselves mired in similar controversy in 2007, when their tongue-twister rap Zhong Guo Hua, or “Chinese language”, was slammed for pandering to mainland China.
It featured lyrics stating, “how smart the Chinese people are... The whole world is learning Chinese; the world is taking us seriously because of the language we speak”.
But the catchy song quickly gained popularity across the region, winning multiple music awards in Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China and South-east Asia.
The political hypersensitivity may be growing, however, as cross-strait relations have continued to deteriorate in recent years.
In Taiwan media, centrist news channel CNews noted that Lau also sang his “offending song” when he last performed in Taipei in 2013, but that there was no outcry over it at the time.
“The song is a staple in Andy Lau’s concert lineups,” local legislator Hung Mong-kai, affiliated with the Beijing-friendly opposition party Kuomintang, told the news channel.
“His world tour has used the same selection of songs...whether in Singapore, Malaysia or elsewhere. No changes were made specifically for Taiwan.”
“Can we please be more self-assured? Just hearing the song ‘Chinese People’ won’t cause us to forget that we are Taiwanese,” Mr Hung said.
“Let music be music. We shouldn’t impose our own political ideologies on Andy Lau.” - The Straits Times/ANN
