Björk in Shanghai

[rezaf]

Tonight Björk had a great concert in Shanghai. Especially the brass band sounded fantastic. It reminded me of early baroque music and atonal music at times, but the problem is you don't know how to move your body with Björk's complicated music:roll: then you see that others are definitely enjoying but they also don't know what to do. Anyway in my view singing "Declare Your Independence" in China was a little bit dubious, I mean in a funny way of course. I don't know it was just my imagination or I actually heard something like "Tibet" in the lyrics.

[trevelyan]

I remember hearing about this concert. Would have liked to have gone, but always forgot about it. How did you end up getting the tickets?

[tooironic]

Soooo jealous.

She came to Australia and I couldn't afford the truly expensive prices they were charging to see her.

I reckon she definitely said 'Tibet' in the song, as she controversially said 'Kosovo' in one of her recent concerts as well hehe

Do you have a track list? Pics?

AAAH

[rezaf]

I bought my tickets last month from http://emma.cn/

They delivered it to my home and I paid the tickets' price plus 25 RMB to the courier.

[liuzhou]

You may be interested in this article from Danwei.

[rezaf]

I think that the organizers of the concert might be punished for what she sang, (sh)even before the concert I was wondering whether she was allowed to sing the song. I think many Chinese didn't expect it to happen so they continued clapping and shouting.

I like mixing politics and music. I think that there is a direct link between politics, freedom of speech and good rock music (顺便说 and that's why Chinese rock music doesn't have anything to say.) but this time it was a bad idea and offended many Chinese. Anyway Tibet is not my problem. so 算了吧！

[Lu]

I think the Chinese should realize that perhaps offending people and waking them up is one of the points of that song. From what I read she earlier sang it about Greenland and Kosovo, it's only fitting that she would mention Tibet when singing it in China. Or, in other words, the Chinese shouldn't feel that they are particularly singled out to be offended by Bjork in this song.

Elsewhere it was mentioned that Bjork shouldn't expect to perform in China again anytime soon. Silly. Why exclude a great singer for her political ideas? It happened before with A-mei, and now Bjork, and in the meantime China is missing out on good music. In the end they only hurt themselves.

[rezaf]

Lu, as you know better than I do China's social and political status is very far from that kind of freedom. Under the pressure of a fast economical growth they had to give a lot of social freedom to people but it is very important that this social freedom doesn't lead to political freedom, because one thing leads to another and there will be civil war, a lot of demonstrations and you name it. Something(like freedom of speech) that is good for a nation might be poisonous for another nation. I think that an artist must include his or her audience in the process of art. I don't see any relevant "waking up" in her message for the Chinese audience. However I don't have any problems with her message which seems logical to some extent. It could be different if she had a concert in Tibet but we all know that it's impossible.

I think that there are many more interesting problems in the middle east for writing political songs and this "wake up" business .

[gato]

I see that Bjork dedicated the Independence song to Kosovo while in Tokyo and to the indigenous people while in Australia. Is she doing this with some purpose? Is she going to Bombay/Mumbai next and dedicate it to Kashmir?

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/musicnews/s2176664.htm

Bjork declares independence for Kosovo

[rezaf]

I think that there is a line that you should not cross when you are a guest in a country. The only acceptable situation for Bjork's message would be if she had had a true experience or knowledge of the life of Tibetans and if she had originally written the song for Tibet, otherwise it looks like she just wants to fit it wherever she can.

[Lu]

I have the strong impression that "fitting it wherever she can" is an important point of this song, or she wouldn't fill in a different area or people every time she sang it. But I fail to see the connection between Japan and Kosovo. She should have picked the Ryukyu islands or the Ainu or something, or sing about Kosovo in Russia or Serbia.

And this is what I meant when I said that the Chinese shouldn't feel they are singled out, or that she is 管ing only their 'internal affairs'.

(Funny how I've known about this incident for about two days, via Shanghaiist and here, and just now the editor of the newspaper I work at heard of it. 'News' is quite a relative thing.)

[rezaf]

Anyway if I want to be idealistic I would say that we should destroy the remaining borders between people instead of making new ones.

[gato]

Anyway if I want to be idealistic I would say that we should destroy the remaining borders between people instead of making new ones.

Then she'd be singing "We are the World" instead of "Declare Your Independence." I'm sympathetic to the Tibetan cause, but people have to understand that it's a very emotional subject, not totally subject to rational analysis. Just imagine if Bjork went to Belgium advocating independence for Flander, to Toronto advocating independence for Quebec, or to London advocating independence for Scotland. She would get some pretty heated reactions. Maybe not heated as the one in China, but might be close.

[rezaf]

maybe it's a good idea to sing "we are the world", perhaps with a new arrangement for the brass band. It can start like a silly march and then the electronic sounds make it melancholic to show the irony that we are never going to be a world. it doesn't have to be a cliche.

[Outofin]

I think she'll be back. This is not as bad as Roger Water's Watching TV, who still has many supporters, including me. And for that matter, a handful of HK and Taiwan musicians wrote songs regarding 64. None is banned. (Probably was banned, but then un-banned.)

I'm not really familiar with Bjork. Does she sincerely believe what she said, or just randomly shouts out a provocative name according to her concert's geographic location? Either way I won't take her political view seriously.

[adrianlondon]

The thing that makes this unique in China (same, btw, if you mention Taiwan) is that they won't shrug off the comment, or even start debating it from any side, they simply get angry and denounce "foreign meddling". That's all they're taught to do.

So the reaction to her comments is bound to be over the top and angry. If you grab a Chinese person and show them, via a proxy, news about China on foreign websites, they are either shocked or denounce it as lies. Mention the number of people given the death penalty for instance.

So, Bjork misjudged. It won't help the issue (Tibet) and the majority of the audience will now hate her.

[rezaf]

The thing that makes this unique in China (same, btw, if you mention Taiwan) is that they won't shrug off the comment, or even start debating it from any side, they simply get angry and denounce "foreign meddling". That's all they're taught to do.

That's why they are so successful. I think that in the end what ordinary people need is a home, food and some entertainment. Why bother making the situation complicated for them. I am sure that other governments would die for having such tractable people. Don't you think that it's better not to engage people (who are definitely not qualified in economics and politics) in politics? but maybe I should ask how long can China control Chinese people like this?

[adrianlondon]

Don't you think that it's better not to engage people (who are definitely not qualified in economics and politics) in politics?

Well, I'm from a country that takes a completely opposite approach, so I'm taught to say "no" to that question ;)

We had a series of adverts recently on UK TV which showed two guys down the pub. One was saying how he wasn't going to vote as "I'm not into politics, it doesn't affect me" and then he started moaning about the price of his beer, transport, his wages, his job, his pension etc and the other guy pointed out that it's all politics, and hence it affects everyone.