China definitely doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to human rights. Bearing this in mind, the news that they have now banned hip-hop culture and tattoos from television doesn’t come as much as a surprise, however it is still something of concern.
The countries top media regulator, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People’s Republic of China (SAPPRFT), have explained via Chinese media that the government has demanded that programmes “should not feature actors with tattoos [or depict] hip hop culture, sub-culture (non-mainstream culture) and dispirited culture (decadent culture).”
The “Don’t” rules outlined by the administration are as follows:
Absolutely do not use actors whose heart and morality are not aligned with the party and whose morality is not noble
Absolutely do not use actors who are tasteless, vulgar and obscene
Absolutely do not use actors whose ideological level is low and have no class
Absolutely do not use actors with stains, scandals and problematic moral integrity
There is a cemented underground hip-hop scene in China at present, even one of their top TV shows Singer broadcast on Hunan TV, featured a hip-hop artist named GAI. However GAI was removed from the TV show without explanation this week, with all footage of him on the show’s YouTube channel also having been removed.
A fellow hip-hop artist Wang Hao was forced to publicly apologise in December for lyrics in his song “Christmas Eve” which were said to be insulting to women and promote drug-culture. To give you a taster of the song, some of the lyrics can be translated to “sleeping in the day, shouting at night, pure white powder walking on the board”.
When Wang apologised on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, he explained that “the spirit of hip-hop should always be peace and love,” but then added ““early exposure to hip-hop culture” and the “deep influence of black music” were to blame for the tone of his lyrics. He’s one of the country’s most famous rappers, and the state led media campaign seems to be directed heavily at him.
President Xi Jinping has spoken openly about the need to “perfect the systemic management of culture” in the country. It won’t be an easy task to defeat the governmental rules however we’re sure protest will take place where possible.
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