MAMA in Hong Kong goes on despite China’s ban on South Korean actors and singers
The eighth Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) will happen this Friday with more international acts expected to perform in the stead of absent YG Entertainment South Korean K-pop artists
By Kim Jae-heun
The eighth Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) hosted by Entertainment conglomerate CJ E&M will take place in Hong Kong this Friday despite toughened regulations on hallyu (Korean wave), in China.
China has reportedly prohibited all hallyu content in the country and banned Korean stars from appearing on Chinese TV shows in retaliation against South Korea’s decision to deploy a U.S. missile defence system in South Korea. Not only were the new Korean drama series not approved to air by the Chinese government, but even Korean celebrities already featured in Chinese advertisements or on their entertainment shows were either replaced or edited out.
As CJ E&M is hosting its biggest music festival in Hong Kong for the fifth time and its show will be aired live all over the world, only one question remains - whether the Chinese government will air the awards in its territory.
“It has been 20 years since we started the hallyu business and there has always been some sort of a little problem all the time,” said Mnet’s head of music content business Shin Hyung-kwan during the press conference at CJ E&M building in Mapo, western Seoul, Thursday. “We had difficulties when there was a change in Japanese TV industry regulations that would downsize the Korean content market, but we sorted it out.