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‘Shocked and angry’: Taiwanese pop legend dismayed his lyrics were changed to be less critical when performed in mainland TV variety show
- The original song featured lyrics that criticised society with references to a dirty sky and obscured stars
- An updated version changed the words to describe a clear sky where the stars are bright
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Taiwanese singer Zheng Zhihua said on Sunday night he was “shocked, angry and regretful!” after a mainland television channel changed a line of lyrics of his song to make it more positive, sparking a controversy about censorship in mainland China.
The 1992 song, Star Lighting, features lyrics that said: “The sky is now dirty, and the stars cannot be seen anymore”, which Zheng wrote as a social criticism at that time.
The new version was written for a variety show, Sisters Who Make Waves, on Hunan Satellite TV in central China, and the lyrics were changed to: “The sky now looks clear and the stars can always be seen.”
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The 60-year-old Zheng opened the short Weibo post by highlighting the “randomly changed lyrics of my classic song Star Lighting” before expressing his disappointment in the revision.
The original song is still popular in mainland China and Taiwan today.
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The new version replaced the synthetics that were an iconic part of Asian pop music in the 1980s and 1990s and created a sound more in-line with today’s young singers and bands.
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