Asia: Andy Lau Cancels Hong Kong Shows, Chthonic Singer Refused Visa

AP Photo – Sammi Cheng and Andy Lau
Hong Kong Coliseum, Hong Kong, China

Andy Lau Cancels Hong Kong Shows

Due to a throat infection, Cantopop star Andy Lau was forced to cancel seven concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum in late December and early January. The singer was staging a massive stand at his home town venue, starting on Dec. 15, to launch his upcoming world tour, but halfway through the Dec. 28 show he lost his voice and was forced to go to the hospital. 

On January 2, Focus Entertainment announced that due to lack of availability at the Coliseum, the earliest dates that the canceled concerts could be restaged would be December 2019, a full year after the original concert dates. Nevertheless, the promoter asked fans who still held tickets for the cancelled shows to hold on to them and either refund them or trade them in for new seats to the rescheduled shows. About 80,000 people are affected. The news that the unused tickets can be traded in for new ones is especially welcome for those who paid as much as $750 for scalped tickets, since it means they don’t have to settle for refunds at face value. 

Lau was discharged from the hospital Jan. 2 and apologized for his illness via the webpage of the Andy World Club fansite. The upcoming world tour will be his first in eight years, so demand for tickets has been fierce ever since they went on sale last fall. 

The lead singer for the popular Taiwan metal band Chthonic was denied a visa to perform in Hong Kong in late December due to his “lack of special skills,” reported the Sun Daily. The band was scheduled to play a festival the weekend of Dec. 22-23 in Hong Kong but was forced to pull out at the last minute due to the city’s immigration bureau’s refusal to issue a visa. 

As it happens, the singer, Freddy Lim, is also a lawmaker in Taiwan who favors independence from mainland China. Consequently, a number of people believe that the immigration bureau’s visa refusal is yet another example of “eroding artistic freedoms” in the former British territory, which is increasingly under the sway of Beijing. 

Chthonic was invited to the festival by Canto-pop star Denise Ho, who has herself come under scrutiny by local authorities for her pro-democracy views. Ho posted the letter from the immigration bureau stating the reason for the visa refusal, which said that Lim did not meet the requirements of a “person seeking to enter Hong Kong for employment.”

Lim released a statement calling the reasoning “ridiculous.” The immigration bureau did not respond to media requests for clarification.

Chthonic was founded in 1995 and Lim became a lawmaker in 2016. His New Power Party has called for Taiwan to gain recognition as a sovereign country, a move that is anathema to China. He has been denied a travel visa to Hong Kong at least once before.

The immigration bureau has since been derided by Hong Kong internet users, who say that if Freddy Lim doesn’t qualify for a work visa, then even Madonna shouldn’t be let in. 

“Only he can sing the songs he sings,” said one commenter. “How is that not a special skill?”