Territorial Tension

 The 20th Chinese Music Awards will be held in Taiwan, and those objecting to the ceremony say that the event itself “undermines Taiwanese independence” because it categorizes Chinese music as being from either “the Mainland” or “Hong Kong/Taiwan,” thus implying that Taiwan is, like Hong Kong, a province of China.

According to the Shanghaiist blog, two major political parties recently held a special meeting to discuss the matter, though another political group, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, said the matter was already settled and mainland tourist agencies were selling package tours for the awards ceremony.

Some suspect some sort of official connection between the event’s Taiwanese organizer, Taipei Artist Agency Association, and the government.

The Chinese organizer had already announced that the Dec. 29 event would take place in Taipei even before the application had been approved. The event has only been held outside of China twice before, in 2002 and 2005, when it took place in the U.S.