MCLC: foreign performers need college degrees

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: foreign performers need college degrees
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Source: The Atlantic (2/14/13):
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/02/want-to-perform-in
-china-go-to-college/273104/

Want to Perform in China? Go to College!

While it is axiomatic these days that you need to go to college to get
ahead in life, there are a few professions in which having a four-year
degree isn't strictly necessary. Basketball players, for example, need not
have a degree to be successful at their craft, something LeBron James
(among others) has amply demonstrated.

Music would seem to be another case in which schooling plays a minor role
in determining success. But in China, this may soon cease to be the case.
According to a recent article in The Guardian, Chinese culture minister
Cai Wu has apparently demanded that all foreign musicians who perform in
the country have college degrees.

Somewhere, Justin Bieber just hired an SAT tutor.

Cai's suggestion comes on the heels of an Elton John concert in Beijing
last November, after which the musical icon dedicated his performance to
the "spirit and talent" of dissident artist Ai Weiwei. Though John was
permitted to play a subsequent show in Guangzhou in December, his comments
did not sit well with China's authorities, and it is unclear whether he'll
be invited back to play in the country.

China has long been highly sensitive to celebrity statements about the
country. In 2008, the Icelandic singer Bjork triggered a minor scandal
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/05/china.musicnews> when she
shouted "Tibet!" three times at a concert in Shanghai, apparently in the
misguided hope that her screams would foment an independence movement in
the region.

Celebrities the world over have always shown the predilection toward
speaking out on politics. The question, then, is why China cares what they
say. A country with the world's second-largest economy, one would think,
has bigger matters to attend to than a singer who peaked in popularity
more than three decades ago. But by floating his absurd proposal that
foreign performers have university degrees, Cai Wu managed to perpetuate
China's image as a petty country unable to take criticism.

Then again, Cai and other Chinese leaders have another audience in mind:
China's people. 

Beijing has long gone to great lengths to combat real or perceived slights
to its image, a policy that bolsters its reputation as the defenders of
China's national honor. It's this defense, accompanied by its stewardship
of the economy, that gives the ruling Communist Party its legitimacy. So
while it's unlikely that many Chinese even knew about Elton John's
comments, a fair number would be pleased to hear that the government won't
take a foreign star's comments lying down.

Better-behaved foreign musicians need not be deterred from entering the
Chinese market, however. The recent Spring Festival gala, an annual
variety show commemorating the Chinese New Year, featured a performance by
the lithe Canadian singer Celine Dion. And while none could deny her
immense talent, Dion, it should be noted, never went to college.