A series of online songs is described in the Beijing Morning Post article below. The songs have set off a sort of Chinese version of last year’s CNN-Daily Show dust-up, in which CNN is a group of traditional Chinese musicians and Jon Stewart is an emerging cadre of smirking Internet punk-commentators. Translated by CDT:
“Mouse Loves Rice (ËÄÅȺ†Áà±Â§ßÁ±≥):”
This song, as with a host of other similar tunes that have gained popularity over the Internet, came under semi-official criticism at a workshop hosted by China’s Musicians Association. The theme of the conference was “boycotting the vulgarity of online songs.” Big-wig musicians Xu Peidong (ÂæêÊ≤õ‰∏ú), Yan Su (ÈòéËÇÉ), Gu Jianfen (Ë∞∑ª∫Ëä¨) and others have vehemently panned a long list of popular online ditties, accusing them of being vulgar, obscene, verbally violent, shallow, and/or rife with nonsense.
“I am very concerned about my own grandsons and granddaughters, who are in their early teens,” complained Yan Su. He said these kids are very prone to hear these songs and pick up the tunes and their goofing culture. Some works, Yan noted, make fun of his music.
Xu Peidong, who composed for the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, said that one of the reasons for the emerging culture of vulgarity is the overnight fame gained by many online celebrities. He said next year the Association will host a competition of online songs, attempting to guide the Internet music community onto a “correct path.” [Full Text in Chinese]
Here below is a selection of the offending songs, “vulgar” to varying degrees:
“Fart (Êîæ±Å):”
“He He He (ÂòªÂî∞Âî∞):”
“Not Afraid, Not Afraid (‰∏çÊÄï‰∏çÊÄï):”
