Friday, November 7, 2008

Clean Kanye MC'd to sitting fans, soldiers' orders

No cursing, no standing and your curfew is 9 p.m.! No, that's not your father speaking, it was the orders of the Chinese soldiers managing Kanye West's Glow in the Dark tour show on Nov. 1 at the Worker's Stadium in Beijing.

I admit, I didn't see the show--Kanye priced his tickets at 780 kuai a pop, more than a quarter of my monthly salary. However, I did celebrate the day after Halloween about a short distance away and saw the disappointed fans filter onto bar street, Sanlitun.

Kim, an American from Massachusetts, said she was ordered to sit down by a armed soldier after standing up to dance during "All Falls Down."

The Beijinger reviewers were pretty tough on the show too, calling Kanye's performance half-hearted and sanitized. (Kanye didn't swear, didn't perform "Jesus Walks" and didn't speak to the crowd once.) Read the review here.

If this is indicative of Western musicians performances in China, I think I'll wait to see them back home.

4 comments:

Austin-92 said...

So,what's the reason for those soldiers to make Kanye do this.Could you tell more.Thank you,then

Unknown said...

I don't know why the authorities made these restrictions. I assume it was meant to ensure safety, but I don't know. What do you think? Have you ever been to a music concert in China? Anyone?

Anonymous said...

Hi Liz, I think it is the reaction to Björks statement towards Tibet last year.

Unknown said...

Thanks Mark. That's definitely a valid possibility. One friend of mine who was at Bjork's controversial concert in Shanghai last year said authorities openly admitted music festivals would be banned this year because of Bjork's statements. Definitely a possible reason...