Ho fun fun fun as China lifts wall of silence on Western artists
Words Jeremy Allen
Following in the illustrious footsteps of Steven Spielberg and, er, Konnie Huq, Björk has caused quite a sensation by being a bit lippy where the Chinese are concerned. Many have got testy about the Chinese government’s human rights record and their co-opting of Google, but Björk has gone one better by recently performing on stage and shouting “Tibet! Tibet!” in a really angry way while singing her song ‘Declare Independence’, which was a fairly edgy to song to sing anyway considering everyone from the Rolling Stones to… some other people who have played in China were forced to change lyrics in order that the kids there didn’t suddenly start spitting in the street and getting ear-piercings. Björk apparently “broke Chinese law and hurt Chinese people’s feelings”. Ah bless.
As a knee-jerk reaction, the government decided to ban all pop stars from coming to China ever again, but remembering the Olympics are just around the corner and sensing a diplomatic humdinger, quickly retracted the prevention.
“We will further tighten controls on foreign artists performing in China in order to prevent similar cases from happening in future,” warned the country’s website initially. However, after some consideration, Vice President of Culture Zhou Heping relented, saying, “It was an individual case. I don’t think it will affect our invitation of artists from all over the world to come to China and perform, particularly during the Olympic games.”
The Stool Pigeon will be boycotting the Chinese Olympic games, even on the telly, but it’ll have nothing do with an oppressive regime, the bullying of the Tibetan people and the fact there are way too many bicycle races. The Olympics are just really annoying. Oh, you can jump higher than me? Well done. You can hop, skip and jump really far? But why? Anyway, I’m off for a synchronised swim. And I can run much faster than you, but you’re on drugs etc. etc.
