China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism recently issued a draft of the “interim regulations on the management of karaoke music content in entertainment venues,” and opened it for public comment. The purpose was “to strengthen the management of karaoke music content entertainment venues, to promote the core values of socialism, and to safeguard national cultural security and ideological security.”
The draft mentioned the phenomenon of prohibited songs offered in entertainment venues. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism established a national karaoke music content auditing expert group to establish a list of illegal songs.
According to the draft, there are nine categories of prohibitions, namely: violating the basic principles established by the Constitution; endangering national unity, sovereignty or territorial integrity; endangering national security or damaging national honor or interests; inciting ethnic hatred, ethnic discrimination, hurting national feelings or infringing on national customs and habits, and destroying national unity; violating national religious policies, propagating evil religions and superstitions; propagating obscenity, gambling, violence and drug-related illegal and criminal activities; the violation of social morality or national cultural traditions; and insulting or defaming others.
The draft emphasizes that entertainment venues should use karaoke music from legal sources. The content provider of the on-demand song system should conduct self-censorship of the content of the songs and screenshots before providing karaoke music to the entertainment venues.
Source: Central News Agency, July 10, 2021
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202107100121.aspx