An Unapproved Song for Liu Huan: Na Ying's Tribute Runs Into China's Concert Permit Rules
Na Ying added 'The Curved Moon' to her Chengdu setlist on the day Liu Huan died — a song her paperwork did not cover. Regulators are still deciding whether mourning counts as a violation, and Weibo is asking why it would.
On the evening of September 26, halfway through a stadium concert in Chengdu, the singer Na Ying added a song her audience did not expect and her filed program did not cover: "The Curved Moon," one of the best-loved songs associated with Liu Huan, whose death at 63 had been announced that same day. She sang it, reports say, as a tribute to her friend. Within forty-eight hours, the question running under her name on the trending charts was whether an act of mourning needed a permit.
Under China's Regulations on Commercial Performances, the setlist an artist submits for approval is, in principle, the setlist performed. Adding or swapping a song means going back for fresh sign-off — a rule defended as the baseline that keeps large shows safe and copyright clean. What it also means is that an encore improvised in grief can be read as a violation, and a violation can carry a fine. That is the possibility fans spent the weekend worrying at.
On September 28 the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald worked the phones. The concert's organizer, Chengdu Maizhi Culture Media, said it was "not convenient to say." The culture, sports and tourism bureau of the city's Jinniu district said it was still investigating and verifying; if an unapproved song was performed, it would be handled "according to law and regulation" — though, a staffer added, specific fines are not decided at the district level. A second official noted that the approval for Na Ying's show sits with the municipal culture and tourism bureau, which, after repeated calls, offered no effective reply.
Public sentiment has run overwhelmingly the other way. "'Quite a few netizens' are worried — which netizens?" one commenter asked. "Would this really be fined? Can't there be some human warmth? There are things in this world worth more than money."
The more considered version of that argument made the same point without dropping the rulebook. The regulations exist for reasons no one disputes, one widely shared post conceded — safety, copyright, the bottom line of any commercial show. "But Na Ying used an unreported song to mourn a close friend on the day he died. That is a human instinct, not a business decision." In an era when everything is calculated for traffic, the post went on, someone was still willing to risk a fine to say goodbye to a music elder in the plainest way she could — and that sincerity is worth more than any approval process. The question it left hanging was whether the system has any mechanism at all for the moment no form anticipates.
For now the song hangs there too. Whether "The Curved Moon" ends in a penalty decision rests with the municipal bureau — which, so far, has said nothing.