Chinese live-streaming star locked up for singing national anthem in ‘disrespectful’ way
Online celebrity Yang Kaili given five days’ detention for ‘insult to dignity’ of the March of the Volunteers during broadcast
A Chinese live-streaming star has been detained for five days after singing part of the national anthem in a “disrespectful” way while broadcasting.
Yang Kaili, a 21-year-old self-made celebrity who had 44 million followers on one social media platform, “insulted” the national anthem while broadcasting on the Huya live-streaming platform, on October 7, police in Shanghai’s Jingan district said in a social media post on Saturday.
Yang was introducing an “online music festival” when she hummed the beginning of a ceremonial tune called Athletes March, before singing the opening words to the national anthem March of the Volunteers while waving her arms in the air like a conductor.
Some internet users expressed anger at her apparent levity while the police statement described her behaviour as “an insult to the dignity of the national anthem which repelled internet users”.
Yang is the latest to fall foul of Beijing’s increasing controls over people’s behaviour online and she was detained under a law introduced last year under which anyone who maliciously modifies the lyrics, or plays or sings March of the Volunteers in “a distorted or disrespectful way in public”, can be detained for up to 15 days or jailed for up to three years.
Similar legislation is due to be implemented in Hong Kong and Macau after a number of incidents in which soccer fans in the former British colony booed the anthem before international fixtures.