A 2022 social media post by Ningning, the Chinese member of K-pop group Aespa, has become an unexpected cultural flashpoint amid rising diplomatic tensions between China and Japan.
The post on the messaging app Bubble contains a video of a “pretty light” shaped like a “mushroom cloud”. It has stirred outrage in Japan where critics claim that it references the Hiroshima bombing.
The backlash has gained traction. A petition in Japan demanding that Aespa be removed from a New Year music programme has gathered more than 103,000 signatures, according to the South China Morning Post, intensifying public anger as tensions rise between Tokyo and Beijing.
Those tensions have begun to reverberate across China’s entertainment scene as well. Authorities and venue operators in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou were told this week to stop staging performances by Japanese acts and to halt applications for new events, Reuters reported, saying that nearly a dozen concerts were affected.
Fans of Japanese singer-songwriter Kokia were among the first to feel the impact. Her Beijing concert on Wednesday evening was cancelled due to what organisers said was a “last-minute technical issue”, according to the South China Morning Post.
“Everyone queued till the start time, but they still wouldn’t let us in. Afterwards, Kokia’s team came out to tell us the band is ready, but the venue won’t let them perform,” a post on the platform RedNote said, according to Reuters.
The cancellation was one of several announced since the beginning of this month.
In Guangzhou, a show scheduled for later this month featuring three members of Japanese boy group JO1 was cancelled, with organisers providing no explanation beyond “force majeure”.
The China tour of Japanese rapper KID FRESINO was indefinitely postponed, his promoter announced on Friday.
In Shanghai, a three-day comedy festival involving a dozen Japanese comedians was abandoned two days before opening.
A Guangzhou event featuring three members of Japanese boy group JO1 scheduled for later this month stands cancelled (Getty)
In Beijing, a concert by veteran jazz musician Yoshio Suzuki was cancelled after police intervened at the venue shortly before the performance was set to begin, telling staff that shows involving Japanese artists could not proceed.
“The owner of the live house came to me and said, ‘The police has told me tonight is cancelled,” Christian Petersen-Clausen, a music agent who has arranged around 70 concerts in China over the last 12 months, told CNBC. “No discussion.”
“Foreign musicians have refused bookings from us because they said we don’t know if it will actually go ahead or be cancelled,” the music agent added. “This word has gotten around that China is sometimes unstable. That’s a problem for us if we want to foster people-to-people exchanges. If we don’t get stability and predictability, I am going to have to disclose a very significant risk that’s an unnecessary risk to potential investors.”
The cancellations come amid escalating political tensions triggered by Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks earlier this month that a Chinese assault on Taiwan, if it threatened Japan’s survival, could provoke a military response.
China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that must eventually be reunited with the mainland – by force if needed – and is lately stepping up military pressure around the island.
Tokyo historically avoided saying how it might respond if China were to deploy force against Taiwan, maintaining a form of strategic ambiguity similar to that practised by Washington.
Beijing has demanded a retraction of the Japanese leader’s remarks and advised its citizens against travelling to Japan. This has led to widespread travel cancellations in the East Asian country, threatening a significant economic hit to the fourth-largest economy of the world.
China also announced a blanket ban on all Japanese seafood imports this week.
Beijing has advised its citizens against travelling to Japan (AFP via Getty)
In addition to concerts, Japanese movie releases have been affected. The Chinese debut of the comedy Cells at Work!, which was due to open on Saturday, has been postponed.
Crayon Shinchan the Movie: Super Hot! The Spicy Kasukabe Dancers, an animated feature scheduled for early December, has likewise been delayed.
In Japan, a petition demanding that Aespa, the K-pop girl group that includes Chinese member Ningning, second from right, be removed from NHK’s year-end show has gathered more than 70,000 signatures (Getty Images for Amazon Music)
According to Reuters, music venues across China were told by authorities to prepare for the eventuality that concerts featuring Japanese musicians till the end of the year could be cancelled and to suspend new applications for 2026 performances involving Japanese artists.
China has previously used cultural restrictions as leverage in diplomatic disputes.
It has for years imposed what is often described as an “unofficial ban” on Korean entertainment. Analysts trace the ban back to the deployment of the US THAAD missile defence system in South Korea in 2016.
No major K-pop group, including BTS, Blackpink and Seventeen, have held large-scale concerts in mainland China in years, Korean dramas and variety shows remain subject to unofficial bans, and promotional events have been abruptly called off.