Shanghaiist.com
June 29, 2015

Taiwan’s 26th Golden Melody Awards kicked off on Saturday at the Taipei Arena, where awards were presented to stars for their contributions in the fields of Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, and Formosan music. Unfortunately, viewers in Singapore and mainland China didn’t get the chance to enjoy the whole show.

The annual music award show, founded in 1990, often sees award-winning artists use the stage as a platform to bring awareness to political, war or human rights issues. While such campaigning may be tolerated in Taiwan, it most certainly doesn’t get the pass from censors in Beijing and Singapore, whose are hardly subtle when it comes to editing.

When singer Huang Wei-chieh (黃瑋傑) stepped onto the red carpet with huge banners reading “Today Dapu, Tomorrow the Government (今天拆大埔，明天拆政府)”, Singapore’s broadcasters simply switched to a blank screen. Viewers were greeted with an alternate message, reading: “This segment of the program is not suitable for broadcast. We apologize for the inconvenience caused”, according to the blog Thinking Taiwan. The words on Huang’s banner have become a symbol of civil resistance to forced evictions in Dapu, Maoli County since 2013.     [FULL  STORY]