Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Taiwan bans concert by Chinese rapper over insulting 'Taipei, China' promotional materials

Taiwan has cancelled a planned Taipei concert by a Chinese rapper over his use of the insulting term “Taipei, China” in promotional materials

Via AP news wire
Monday 26 August 2024 13:35 BST
Taiwan China Singer Banned
Taiwan China Singer Banned (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Taiwan has cancelled a planned Taipei concert by a Chinese rapper after he used the insulting term “Taipei, China” in promotional materials.

Wang Yitai’s scheduled Sept. 14 concert has been scrapped and the performer from the southwestern city of Chengdu banned from the island, the Taiwanese government’s Mainland Affairs Council announced late Sunday.

The term is insulting because it describes Taipei, the island's capital, as a Chinese city under Beijing’s rule, echoing the government’s position on eventually annexing Taiwan by force if necessary and denigrating the island’s lively democracy.

Not widely known outside China, Wang is signed to a rap label in Chengdu, a city with a lively arts scene that has become famous for eclectic performers and venues. Its also home to the rap group CD Rev, which won international notoriety for hard-line nationalist tracks including ones that compare Taiwan to the semi-autonomous Chinese city Hong Kong and made obscene and misogynist references to former President Tsai Ing-wen.

China regularly bans Taiwanese artists, many of whom are popular in the mainland, for any sign of support for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party that favors the island’s de-facto independence from China.

While Taiwan regularly welcomes Chinese artists and its government considers musical interactions in a positive light, the Mainland Affairs Council said that “cross-strait exchanges should be conducted based on the principles of reciprocity and mutual respect, and any publications or promotions that belittle Taiwan’s status will not be tolerated."

While Taiwan’s official name is the Republic of China, after the government that fled to the island in 1950 amid civil war, it is widely known simply as Taiwan, and competes at the Olympics as “Chinese Taipei” in deference to Beijing, whose pressure has reduced the island's number of formal diplomatic allies to just 12.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in