Chinese rock star arrested after dropping shorts on stage.
Authorities arrested a musician on Saturday after he stripped his pants during a performance at a rock festival in northern China while the audience screamed, “Drop the briefs!”
The incident exemplifies the fine line tightrope artists must walk in a country where free expression is severely restricted.
According to a statement made on Monday by the local culture department of Shijiazhuang City, the singer, whose surname has been identified as Ding, was detained by police for “damaging social morality.”
As a Chinese rock star was arrested after dropping shorts on stage, according to the statement, a performance organizer was also fined $28,000 and forbidden from staging concerts.
According to videos that went popular on Chinese social media, Violent Champagne’s frontman removed his shorts while performing at the Rock Home Town festival in the city on Saturday.
Also read: India, Brazil opposes China over BRICS expansion
The audience can be heard chanting, “Drop the briefs!” in the video, but the singer is shown wearing his pants.
Live performances have resumed in China after years of closures due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but authorities are closely monitoring and reacting to events that exceed political or moral lines, as demonstrated in Shijiazhuang, according to CNN.
Officials in Shijiazhuang, the capital of the surrounding Hebei province, have been eager to capitalize on the city’s reputation for its independent music scene.
With China’s post-COVID economic recovery being so slow, the city said earlier this month that it will hold the Rock Home Town festival until October to attract tourists and increase spending.
However, in the aftermath of the singer’s detention, many internet observers questioned the authorities’ commitment to the rocking-out mentality.
“Shijiazhuang wants to be the City of Rock, but do you have that gene?” said a comment on China’s Twitter-like Weibo following the singer’s detention.
“Before you start to rock, you are rolled away,” another user said.
