Don't Go To China Ashley Simpson

China will punish any firm or singer who is found to be lip-synching.
ORIENTAL DAILY NEWS - Government officials are cracking down on lip-syncing, a trend that's been spreading north into the Mainland by way of Hong Kong singers. Starting on September 1st, it is criminal activity for performers from the Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, while performing in China, to lip sync. Their belief is that it constitutes consumer fraud. All along, new and old singers from Hong Kong have lip-synced, such as Andy Lau, Leo Ku, Twins and Kelly Chen. They've been accused of it and with the new breed of singers, the situation is just getting worse.

As China has opened up its markets, more Hong Kong singers are flocking to the Mainland to perform. Monkey see, monkey do, singers from the Mainland are catching on too. Should any performer, promoter or production company be found guilty of this charge, even for nonprofit organizations, the government will take away the company's business license. Furthermore, the Chinese government is no longer allowed to sponsor any concert and cannot use any government funds to purchase any concert tickets. They are trying to get the public involved too. Any person who suspects that a performer is lip-syncing should report it to authorities either by phone or text messaging. The government promises that they will take appropriate action.

I dont know if these Chinese authorities got to watch Ashley Simpson on SNL or they went down music's memory lane and remembered the drealocked, cycling shorts & coat duo Millie-Vanillie (spell check, please) of the late 80's to early 90's when they thought of this prohibition (but knowing how they value their own brand of music, I dont think it was any of those I mentioned). Well, whatever triggered this knee-jerk reaction, I think it was called for. Transmorphing the situation to legal parlance, China is just implementing civil society's "unjust enrichment" rule--that no one should be enriched at the unjust expense of another (haha! I think I just failed in exlpaining what unjust enrichment is. Anyway, just look it up in the NCC (New Civil Code) guys; the book on Human Relations). Now, in ordinary parlance, they're prohibiting a mass rip off by the artist against the fans. These fans qued (and probably had to bear the burnt of the extreme weathers in China), shelled out hard earned money, and did numerous overtime work to free their schedule to see a live show! And what do they get? Recording! Aint that a rip off or what? You paid for a live show, of course, naturalmente, you expect to see a live show! No amount of explanation can excuse an artist who is doing a live concert for doing a lip synching. Even if they say they are sick! They know the rigors and demands of the industry they are in, so they should have prepared; beefed up their immune system and took precaution. If they cant stand it, then they better put off their concerts until they can. It saves them and their fans from disappointment, disillusionment, extreme embarassment and loss of credibility which is something, in any industry or career, hard to regain once lost.