Beijing's Music Scene in Peril Due to Viral Experimental "Fondle" Performance Piece

It seems when festival season pokes its hopeful little head, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, into the spring abyss there’s always “something” preventing it from blossoming. While last year it was a fear of stampedes, this year it was the antics of an oft-topless poet named Lin Ce (link NSFW) at DDC on April 19 that created a viral stir on the Internet, eventually gaining the attention of ever-wary authorities. As we all know, this is never a good thing and usually leads to these said authorities tampering with spring musical frolicking, and subsequently, putting a damper on all musical activities over the course of the next month. 

Now, musical events in the city are currently at a standstill with the temporary closure of DDC due to these unsavory activities, and also Modernsky Lab is apparently under investigation for reasons associated with this performance. We were there Friday night, and it was business as usual, though we could sense a little apprehension in the air. 

In other news, it pains us to inform you that there have also been lots of unfortunate changes to the Sound of the Xity Festival. Though it's still happening, the schedule has been greatly abridged to two evenings and moved to Tango 3/F on April 27-28. There is a tiny upside, and that is now the fest will be free. Just scan the QR code below and you’ll be asked your “Real Name!”, phone number, which day(s) you plan on attending, and then your top three bands of SOTX 2016. Seems like a relatively easy process, just do it quick because we have the feeling that attendance will be regulated. 

As far as we know, Strawberry Festival shall go unmolested, apparently far enough away from the authority's purview in Hebei Province, and will feature a couple of the bands slated for Sound of the Xity. As for the future of DDC, the venue’s boss 69 hopes to reopen after the May holiday if everything goes his way.

These events should serve as a good reminder to all performers out there to remember that we still live in China, and there are a lot of things you can do on stage but unfortunately freeing the nipple (or merely touching breasts through clothes), even if it is to draw awareness to body shaming issues, is not one of them. The audience will love it no doubt, but it is the venue that will ultimately have to pay.

More stories by this author here.

Email: danielkippwhittaker@thebeijinger.com

Images: Sound of the Xity, rootwords.ch, weibo.com