Hong Kong star Eason Chan’s management cuts ties with mainland Chinese concert organiser in ‘censorship’ row
- Row breaks out after Guangzhou Xinfei Cultural Development replaces credits for outspoken lyricist Albert Leung, better known as Lam Chik, with other names
- Chan’s management says it ‘instantly terminated our cooperation’ with the concert organiser
The mainland Chinese organiser of concerts by Hong Kong superstar singer Eason Chan Yik-shun in Guangzhou has apologised amid a censorship row after it replaced the name of a politically outspoken lyricist in its show application and promised to withdraw the document.
Guangzhou Xinfei Cultural Development – which was found to have replaced the name of Albert Leung Wai-man, better known as Lam Chik, in the documents – admitted it had failed to handle its application to authorities rigorously enough, resulting in a “major error,” a statement posted on its Weibo social media account on Sunday said.
The company explained: “Guangzhou Xinfei Cultural Development Limited is willing to take full responsibility for the error this time. We want to sincerely apologise to the lyricists and the copyright holding companies of the songs, as well as the artist and management company.”
The firm added it would apply to cancel the application for the concerts.
The incident came to light after the application documents were leaked online earlier this month, with several songs written by Leung being credited to other lyricists.
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His backing for activist Nathan Law Kwun-chung, who left the city before the imposition of the national security law in 2020, through his lyrics also drew criticism from state broadcaster CCTV.
Images of the application online showed the six-show series was to be held between December 29 and January 7 next year at the 18,000 capacity Guangzhou Baoneng Qoros Arena.
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Chan has faced political problems before. The star earlier sparked a fan backlash after he announced he was ending his association with long-time partner Adidas over its rejection of Xinjiang cotton.
Thousands of angry fans flooded his social media pages with attacks on his stance after the announcement and some vowed to boycott his concerts and albums.
