China plans to create blacklist of subversive karaoke songs

CHINA will ban karaoke songs perceived to “endanger national security”, the culture ministry has said.

It will establish a blacklist of banned songs with “illegal content”, such as endangering national security and unity, inciting ethnic hatred, or promoting cults, gambling and crime.

China regularly removes songs deemed to be “politically incorrect” from domestic streaming services.

The ministry did not elaborate on how a song could endanger national security, or reveal the contents of its blacklist. However, the Hong Kong national security law last year effectively criminalised the performance of songs sung during anti-government protests in the city in 2019.

That year, Chinese music streaming sites took down unofficial protest anthems, including the Les Misérables song Do You Hear the People Sing?, as well as some songs by the Chinese rock musician Li Zhi that referenced the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Songs by pro-hong Kong democracy artists have been pulled from music sharing sites.

The new regulations, which come into effect at the start of October, require providers of karaoke content to audit their catalogues, and also state that the ministry may establish a central expert review group for songs.

“Since there are almost 50,000 karaoke and entertainment venues nationwide, law enforcement and supervision is difficult,” a source at the ministry said. They added: “The basic library of karaoke venues’ systems can have 100,000 songs and it can be difficult to identify illegal tracks.”

The regulations were ridiculed on the Chinese social network Weibo. “Our culture has gone 15 years backwards. How many people are still going to karaoke now and it still needs to ‘be positive’ – why don’t they just sing the national anthem every day?” one user posted.