What you need to know
The Chinese government has ordered all Chinese media to delete every story relating to "Island’s Sunrise" winning an award. Some netizens say, “If 'Island’s Sunrise' really needs to be shut out, then why wasn’t it done sooner?” Others say luckily they downloaded the song before it was banned.
Chinese officials have banned the 26th Taiwan Golden Melody Award’s Best Song of the Year, “Island’s Sunrise."
The Taiwanese song is written by the Taiwanese rock band, Fire EX., and Taipei National University of the Arts in light of the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement.
BBC Chinese reports, when the Chinese website, Tencent, was live broadcasting the Taiwan Golden Melody Awards, it delayed airing by two minutes to monitor the content as usual. The moment it was announced that “Island’s Sunrise" had won Best Song of the Year, the website stopped the live broadcast and didn’t resume until after the acceptance speech. Soon after, the Chinese government ordered all Chinese media to delete every story relating to “Island’s Sunrise" winning an award.
TNL editors searched on some Chinese music websites and found that one site still displayed the playlist for “Island’s Sunrise," but it was only a few seconds before the page was redirected to the homepage.
Photo Credit: kuwo.cn截圖
As for news articles, only Sina News still features the story of “Island’s Sunrise" being awarded.
According to the report, students, Wu Da-kun and Chen Jing-yuan, from Taipei National University of the Arts, conceived “Island’s Sunrise." They asked Fire EX. to write the song and then added images created by the students. Fire EX. gave the Sunflower Student Movement permission to use the songs, “Goodnight! Formosa!" and “Island’s Sunrise," free of charge for non-commercial purposes.
The report also says the Taiwanese rock band mentioned in their acceptance speech, “This song belongs to the students of the Sunflower Student Movement. Let’s continue to make Taiwan a better country. God bless Taiwan!”
Some netizens have posted criticism on social media saying, “You say both sides of the straits are family. Taiwan is ours, but do you know what people on the other side think? If ‘Island’s Sunrise’ really needs to be shut out, then why wasn’t it done sooner?”
There are also netizens that say luckily they downloaded the song before it was banned.
Translated by Olivia Yang
Sources:
BBC Chinese
Sina News
