Chinese crackdown hits jazz pianist
Laid-back American jazz pianist Harry Connick Jr has said he is the latest Western performer to fall foul of China's cultural restrictions.
He was forced to make last-minute changes to his show in Shanghai because an old song list was mistakenly submitted to Chinese authorities to secure the performance permit for the concert.
Authorities insisted he play the songs on that list, even though his band did not have the music for them.
Connick said: "Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was not able to give my fans in China the show I intended."
JQ Whitcomb, a musician living in Shanghai, said the concert mostly featured Connick playing solo piano, with the band sitting on stage doing nothing.
He said: "Other people there said 'Wow, that was pretty mellow'."
Chinese authorities, embarrassed by Icelandic singer Bjork shouting "Tibet!" at the end of a Shanghai concert last week, have promised to be stricter on foreign performers.
The Culture Ministry said last week that Bjork's outburst in support of Tibet's independence movement "broke Chinese law and hurt Chinese people's feelings".
Vice minister of culture Zhou Heping said of the incident: "Foreign artistic troupes and artists should voluntarily observe relevant laws and regulations of China when they come to perform on the Chinese soil."
Foreign performers have faced restrictions before in China. The Rolling Stones were censored in their China debut in 2006. Brown Sugar, Honky Tonk Woman, Beast Of Burden, and Let's Spend the Night Together were banned from the concert.
http://ukpress.google.com/article/AL...hNKpaNZD3rjLTw
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