Asia News: Tencent Partners With Galaxy; Hong Kong Coliseum Accident Probe

CHINA

Tencent Partners With Galaxy Corp.

China’s Tencent Music Entertainment Group, looking to expand its global presence, announced Oct. 17 a strategic partnership with Galaxy Corporation, which represents South Korean producer-performer G-Dragon, the leader of one of K-pop’s biggest boy bands, Big Bang.

The partnership will promote G-Dragon’s upcoming tour of Asia and adjacent regions.
TME’s job will be to facilitate G-Dragon’s tour in most of Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.

So far, TME’s main push into the international market has been its Global Music Outreach program, which promotes Chinese music artists, and its JOOX streaming service in Southeast Asia. TME’s collaboration with Galaxy is significant since China has effectively restricted the activities of South Korean artists on the mainland since 2016 owing to diplomatic friction caused by security concerns.

HONG KONG

Hong Kong Coliseum Accident Trial Continues

In the trial to determine responsibility for a summer 2022 accident at the Hong Kong Coliseum by the Cantopop boy band Mirror, in which two dancers were seriously injured, the deputy manager of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, which oversaw the concert, claimed on Oct. 18 the department was not responsible for stage safety.

In addition, the deputy manager stated that the department was not required to inspect special installations, including the video screen that fell on the two dancers.
The accident called into question the local concert industry’s adherence to safety protocols.

The prosecution is maintaining that the main contractor for the stage setup, Engineering Impact, misrepresented the combined weight of the six overhanging screens used for the concert, effectively reducing it by two-thirds, and thus engaged in fraud.

However, an attorney for one of the three defendants who work for the company wanted Wong to explain why she had “hurriedly handed over key documents [by the engineering company] to another company [her] department had outsourced to carry out vetting services.” Wasn’t it her job, as a civil servant whose goal was ensuring public safety, to examine the papers herself?

It was revealed during the trial that PCCW, the parent company of concert organizer Music Nation Group, lost about HK$100 million ($13 million) when the final nine Mirror concerts of the Coliseum series were canceled.

Losses from refunds alone totaled about HK$20 million.