Rock Off: Visiting Musicians To Need College Degrees?

Jonathan White | Feb 12, 2013 10:54 pm | 10 comments | 1316 reads

It's good news for fans of the Chemical Brothers and Alt-J but bad news for fans of pretty much every other musician ever. According to an article in the Guardian, Chinese authorities have considered a ban on all foreign musicians who do not hold a university degree.

The debate followed the recent dedication of one portly English pop star's Beijing concert to a similarly-proportioned local artist. The Rocket Man is no rocket scientist, so he would not have made the college-educated cut. The proposed policy would also put paid to Icelandic singers who mention a particular place that, erm, sounds very similar to the reason most people visit Macau.

Anyway, the good news is that we can expect to see much smarter visiting acts from now on. Which baccalaureate-holding musical acts would you want to see perform in China? Let us know in the comments below. We're off to find out if The Three Degrees qualify.

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alwn1708's picture alwn1708 Submitted by Guest on Sat, 02/16/2013 - 23:37

Not being funny but look at the calibre of what the local authorities allow without a potential ban!
Can you see Green Day heading this way during their summer '13 tour , yeah no frickin way.
The censors here remind me of the three brass monkeys.......

Does this really look like the face of concern?

baiaili's picture baiaili Submitted by Guest on Sat, 02/16/2013 - 15:57

I meant to say that I agree with TRUCULENT.

Ban video game consoles, cool websites, foreign acts without college degrees (come on). Just take away everybody's fun, so all we can do is eat (which is all the locals do, basically)

If this is true then our home countries shall do the same to visiting Chinese.

waixingren's picture waixingren Submitted by Guest on Fri, 02/15/2013 - 16:48

All this proposal says to me is "The ONLY foreigners we want are wealthy businessmen, embassy folk and investors and we will go out of our way to make things difficult for any foreigner who wants to turn a profit inside of China". This includes foreign teachers and entertainers from abroad. The only people who actually like foreigners in this country are the women!

五毛 described by Chinese President Hu Jintao as "a new pattern of public-opinion guidance"

troychu's picture troychu Submitted by Guest on Wed, 02/13/2013 - 11:03

Putting aside the locals interest in possibly diversifying their musical/cultural interests, there are over 300,000 expats in Beijing alone. With all of the hard work they do for this city and the amount of revenue that is generated from their industrious efforts wouldnt it be a nice gesture to encourage western style entertainment so that these people away from home have something to enjoy in their free time? Why make it all so difficult....

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