The Internet is abuzz over the sudden and unexplained removal of most of Taiwanese Hakka singer-songwriter Lin Sheng-hsiang’s (林生祥) works from China-based Web sites over the past three days.
There have been discussions since Sunday regarding the removal of Lin’s music, followed by further discussion on Chinese social media platforms Sina Weibo and Xiaohongshu, known as RedNote in English.
On China’s major music streaming service, NetEase Cloud Music, Lin’s recent work has been removed, leaving only work dating to the early 2000s, when Lin was with other bands.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
Lin and his band have visited China many times, with their most recent tour, “Planting Trees and Growing up Wild,” conducted only last year.
People online expressed confusion about why Lin’s music — based on his observations of farming villages, the relationship between the city and the countryside, and environmental issues — have been taken down.
Some Chinese commenters on Sina Weibo said that the truth would eventually come out.
Lin’s work has won multiple Golden Melody Awards and Golden Indie Music Awards.
His band’s composition for the 2017 dark comedy The Great Buddha+ (大佛普拉斯) won him the Best Original Film Score at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival that year.
Lin and his band also composed songs for the three-part documentary Eyes on Democracy (民主之眼) released last year, which documents Taiwan’s democratic transition and social transformations from 1980 to 2000.
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