Pop music can also cross political red lines. The latest “China Situation Quarterly Report” released by the China Commission points out that Golden Melody Award winner Fish Leong’s classic song “Ke Xi Bu Shi Ni” (“Sadly, it’s not you”) has recently been reported as having restricted playback on Chinese online platforms. The reason is not the content of the song itself, but because some netizens used the homophone “Ke Xi Bu Shi Ni” (“Sadly, it’s not you”) as a political metaphor for "Ke Xi Bu Shi Ni" (“If only it weren’t Xi but you”), triggering the intervention of censorship mechanisms. The report believes that such cases reflect that China’s standards for cultural content censorship are gradually extending to “how it might be used.”
“Ke Xi Bu Shi Ni” has long been loved by listeners across Chinese-speaking regions, with high popularity, and is even considered a KTV classic. However, some netizens, when discussing international political issues, converted the song title into a homophone to express their personal positions and emotions. This gave a previously apolitical work new symbolic meaning. Such usage is seen as a key factor triggering risk control measures on platforms.
The report’s analysis points out that, under the current logic of censorship, whether the work is directly related to politics is no longer the sole criterion. As long as there is the possibility for it to be further interpreted or converted into a metaphor, it may be listed as a controlled object. In other words, the “potential use” of cultural products has become one of the important bases for censorship.
Source: Liberty Times