Beyond Mayday’s lip-synching Investigation: Taiwan’s music freedom questioned under PRC influences

Lin, Chen-Yu 2024. Beyond Mayday’s lip-synching Investigation: Taiwan’s music freedom questioned under PRC influences. [Online]. https://taiwaninsight.org/: University of Nottingham, Taiwan Insight. Available at: https://taiwaninsight.org/2024/01/31/beyond-mayday...

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Abstract

This article examines how the controversy surrounding the Taiwanese band Mayday and allegations of lip-synching in China illuminate the broader pressures of transnational censorship affecting Taiwan’s music industry. Situating the incident within the context of the 2024 Taiwan presidential election, the article argues that the case extends beyond questions of music technology or performance authenticity, revealing how political pressure, market dependency, and authoritarian influence intersect across the Taiwan–China divide. Drawing on ethnographic research and interviews with Taiwanese musicians and creative professionals, the article explores how censorship operates through both formal regulation and informal self-regulation. Musicians and record companies are shown to alter lyrics, avoid politically sensitive topics, remove social media content, and comply with approval systems in order to maintain access to the Chinese market. The article further demonstrates how censorship increasingly functions through economic interdependence, contractual obligations, platform governance, and anticipatory self-censorship rather than direct state prohibition alone. By conceptualising censorship as a transnational system embedded within cultural industries and digital infrastructures, the article argues that Taiwanese musicians occupy a precarious position between artistic freedom and market survival. The Mayday case therefore becomes emblematic of how authoritarian power can extend beyond territorial borders and reshape creative practices within democratic societies.

Item Type:	Online Content
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Journalism, Media and Culture
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) M Music and Books on Music > M Music P Language and Literature > PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
Publisher:	University of Nottingham, Taiwan Insight
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	20 May 2026
Last Modified:	21 May 2026 10:43
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/187130

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