Li Ronghao Counter-Accused of Plagiarism: 'Even If My Ancestors' Graves Are Dug Up, I Won't Admit It'

Li Ronghao's 2015 song “Small Eyes” was compared by a music blogger who found that its melody, harmony, structure, and even details were almost identical to Ken Hirai’s 2003 track “Signal.” In light of the Shan Yichun incident, these allegations of plagiarism were dug up once again. On the 1st, Li Ronghao furiously posted an explanation of the whole story, stating that this song was actually a practice piece he did during his early days struggling in Beijing 20 years ago. At the time, he carelessly stored these audio files on his computer without proper organization, which resulted in mistakenly sending a cover practice piece to the copyright company. 'The copyright company seldom contacted me, thinking I was too busy. They had the right to directly authorize without asking me.' He said he did not realize the situation until the song’s release in 2016.

Li Ronghao emphasized that, at the early stage of his career, he was often teased because of his small eyes. When he found out the company was about to release this song, he was furious: 'To publicly mock my appearance like this, and even write a song about it, I couldn't accept it. Sorry, at that time I had just debuted and was sensitive about my looks, so calling it “Small Eyes” was what annoyed me the most.' He immediately asked the company to contact Ken Hirai’s side, but cross-border communications took too long, and in the end, the copyright company went bankrupt, leaving the matter unresolved.

Finally, Li Ronghao made three statements: '1. I did not plagiarize!! What kind of idiot (250) would plagiarize a song and make it 100% the same? That’s just the original song, with a different singer. 2. When I first debuted, everyone was making fun of my small eyes. How could I possibly write a song called “Small Eyes” for someone else to sing? If I sang it myself, fine, at least that would be making a statement. 3. Back in 2016, I had just debuted and handled everything extremely cautiously—why would I dig such an obvious pitfall for myself?'

Li Ronghao admitted that this issue has been troubling him for a long time, and asked his company to keep contacting Ken Hirai’s team. 'No matter what their decision is, I will apologize and compensate everyone involved, as this is my responsibility. But I did not plagiarize!' He also urged netizens not to put him on a pedestal, stating that he prefers to focus on music creation rather than participate in entertainment industry hype. 'Even if you beat me to death, curse me to death, dig up my ancestors’ graves, or shave my head, I won’t admit it. I did not plagiarize!'

News source: ETtoday Starlight Cloud