Removal of concert poster is censorship, outspoken Hong Kong singer claims

Canto-pop singer Anthony Wong Yiu-ming claims an MTR poster advertising his reunion concert next month was censored and removed from stations across Hong Kong, part of the political backlash that has shadowed his career since the Occupy Central movement.

The poster for Wong’s show featured him and Tats Lau Yee-tat – of 1980s musical duo Tat Ming Pair – along with digitally added images of about 80 prominent people in Hong Kong.

Wong said these were individuals the pair felt were influential in the city over the past 30 years, creating a collage effect inspired by The Beatles’ classic Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover.

People featured on the poster included Joshua Wong Chi-fung, the face of the pro-democracy Umbrella Revolution during Occupy Central; outspoken talk show host Albert Cheng King-hon; entrepreneur and media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying; populist former lawmaker “Mad Dog” Wong Yuk-man; and Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the sixth Catholic Church bishop of Hong Kong who was outspoken on human rights.

But while the added figures were approved by a newspaper, Wong said some were fearful of even appearing in the same poster with the duo, particularly since Wong was a strident supporter of the pro-democracy Occupy Central demonstrations in late 2014.

He said the ads were pulled because someone in the poster with business links to mainland China was afraid of appearing with him.