AI singers, lip-synching, wars over tickets, chaotic music festivals…the biggest music news of the year in China
Even though China’s economic recovery in 2023 was sluggish, the country’s music sector boomed. While consumers are finding cheaper alternatives for everything from meals to lipsticks and down coats, music fans continue to splurge on concert and music festival tickets, whose prices have soared from several hundred yuan to over 10,000 in some cases.
There were over 342,400 commercial performances nationwide in 2023, generating a total revenue of 31.54 billion yuan, according to statistics released by the China Association of Performing Arts, an industry NGO. In the first three quarters of the year, 60 million people attended concerts, surpassing the number in 2019. Singer Jay Chou’s four concerts in Haikou, Hainan province, alone attracted over 154,000 visitors in four days (from June 29 to July 2).
However, not everything has gone to plan in the industry, with ticket scalpers attracting criticism, artists being accused of miming during live performances, and mass thefts at music festivals. Here are some of the biggest stories from China’s music sector this year:
Tan Yunfei is the editorial director of The World of Chinese. She reports on Chinese language, food, traditions, and society. Having grown up in a rural community and mainly lived in the cities since college, she tries to explore and better understand China's evolving rural and urban life with all readers.
