News > Music > Article
Taiwan rapper evades China censor with piracy http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=musicNews&storyID=2006-11-02T050017Z_01_TP281702_RTRIDST_0_MUSIC-TAIWAN-MUSIC-DC.XML
Thu Nov 2, 2006
By Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Piracy may rob musicians of profits in China, but it has also helped Taiwan's top rap artist to get around the censors and build an underground following there.
China cultural authorities first rejected the music of Yao Chung-jen, better known as MC HotDog, for profanity.
He said Beijing had also turned down a "super clean version" of a special compilation CD targeted at China.
Yao, 27, has sold more than 200,000 CDs on the island since he began making music in 2001.
The rapper, whose lyrics feature profanity and humorous social criticism, estimates black market sales of his CDs in China at 1 million. Those sales, combined with illegal Internet downloads, have helped him to build up a mainland following.
"I'm ambivalent about this," Yao told Reuters in an interview this week. "You can't blame the masses."
His passive stance on piracy contrasts sharply with most artists and their labels, who say it eats into their profits and makes earning money in China difficult.
China also regularly censors song lyrics it deems unhealthy. In a case that made headlines earlier this year, it forbade the Rolling Stones from singing five songs considered too racy when the band made its first-ever China performance in Shanghai.
Yao predicted that China's music policy will liberalize within the next five years, when he'll be in a good position to strike again at Beijing.
Yao remains Taiwan's most popular rapper because of lyrics that criticize society but are humorous enough to avoid offending listeners, said River Yan, marketing manager with Hit FM radio in Taipei.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.