Comments on: The Bjork Effect, echoing still

By: Mostly Harmless

Mostly Harmless — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:51:10 +0000

China Music Radar-
I offer my apologies for the “personal” nature of my post and I do commend your charitable activities. That being said, I have worked in the live music biz for more than 30 years, much of it working closely with promoters. No love lost there mind you. I will admit that these past experiences may color my opinion of promoters… I find it very hard to believe that you would continue to (or could even afford to) do business in China if you are operating in the red (no pun intended) as your post implied. Or perhaps your business there is entirely philanthropic? I feel very strongly that anytime we (I do include my hypocritical self here) do business with China it legitimizes and helps finance the Chinese government’s oppression of it’s people. I am not completely dismissing the value of exposing the people of China to western art. I seems to me you may be overstating that value to buttress your position. (Waxing a bit lyrical?). That’s a matter of opinion I suppose. I stand by my support of Bjork’s actions and do not agree that they benefited “no-one but herself”. The Chinese people need to know that many of us oppose the occupation and subjugation of Tibet. Perhaps it wasn’t many, but some of them heard and understood her, and they will tell others. In retrospect, my Third Reich comparison did veer into “overstatement” territory, but I think it’s fair to say that the methods of oppression used by the two entities bear more than a passing similarity. The business sector’s support of them both was and is indefensible, as is our consumer support. On a personal level, I judged too harshly. For that again I offer my apologies. The western world has gone to bed with the Devil where China is concerned. IMHO you selling government approved pop music to them doesn’t make you any more complicit than the rest of us, but no less either. As to your philanthropy, if it is not a stipulation of your arrangement with the Chinese government (that promoter prejudice is flaring up again) then good on ya for that.

By: anonymouse

anonymouse — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:10:15 +0000

China- Go Fuck yourself and your oppressive Communist regime.

Taiwan is an Independent nation

And So is Tibet!

Now get back to WORK and make shoes, clothes and electronic devices for 25 cents an hour and keep your american masters happy.

By: China Music Radar

China Music Radar — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:08:10 +0000

@Mostly Harmless

As the guy with a “cash cow”, I think you should try to be a promoter before you wax lyrical about something you know nothing about. My company has currently “invested” (i.e. lost) considerable amounts of money bringing good, influential bands to China. We are here because we believe that the power of music can help this country to develop in a positive way. We work with environmental organisations in an attempt to increase knowledge amongst the Chinese of all the harm that they are doing to our planet. We invest significant amount of ticket revenues into the migrant worker communities (if you don’t know about migrant communities, you have no right to comment on what’s happening in China) and we are doing our best to make China a nicer place to live.

You do not believe that the government wishes to open up? This may be true, but what when the next generation (who will have been exposed to these positive influences) get into power? Perhaps they will want to change things for the better because they know better. Or what happens when the middle class increase their clamour for freedom of speech and choice? We help this process in a very small way…

Do you think Western sanctions will work here? China owns the USA, so the world’s most powerful country does not actually have a particularly powerful bargaining position. We are arguing that Bjork’s actions were ill thought out and will benefit no-one but herself. The Chinese here don’t know or care what she said…

So please wind your neck in before you accuse any of us of working with the likes of the 3rd Reich again…

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:12:05 +0000

I liked it when she was the Swedish Chef.

By: Mostly Harmless

Mostly Harmless — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:15:48 +0000

This story is so full of hypocritical doublespeak it makes my head swim. The Chinese Government is an oppressive dictatorial regime. THEIR position is completely indefensible, right along with the money grubbing promoter who would try to defend them. It is plainly obvious that this guy sees his cash cow as being threatened. I do not believe for a second that the government of China wishes to move towards a more open, free society. If they are loosening up at all, it is out of economic necessity and the wish to appear so, all the while maintaining the tightest of grips on Chinese public perception, opinion, and behavior through brutal oppression, censorship, and propaganda. Is government sanitized art going to bring anything to the Chinese people other than some lite entertainment, and most notably, wads of filthy lucre for those slimy enough to take it? To me this promoter, and ironically the artists who take the gigs are on par with the companies that did business with the Third Reich during WWII. At least Bjork spoke out, if you can call it that.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:57:06 +0000

Bah, in a country where a man must resign from his job just because he publicly kissed his girlfriend, I have little sympathy for them when they get “embarrassed” about something. Bjork may be a wanna-be-diva, but I find a certain irony in the fact that the music industry may loose money over someone who uses them to deliver a rather ethical agenda to the country.