In July, indie rockers Say Sue Me were due to play a show in Beijing: a concert that would have chipped away at China’s famous years-long ‘Hallyu ban’ on entertainment and pop culture from South Korea. But it wasn’t to be – in an exclusive interview with NME, frontwoman Choi Sumi spoke about the permit withdrawal that foiled them, and their enduring desire to reach their Chinese fans someday.
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On June 20, the indie rock band from Busan revealed that they had successfully applied for a permit to play their first show in Beijing the following month, only for Chinese authorities to withdraw permission for the show to take place just as the band were gearing up to announce it. “We thought that a warm breeze was coming in the cold, but it’s such a shame,” they wrote on Instagram – an oblique reference to how they could have helped end China’s unofficial ‘Hallyu ban’, or prohibition on Korean entertainment and pop culture, which has lasted about seven years.
The Hallyu ban has its roots in geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Seoul, specifically a year-long standoff over the USA’s deployment of a missile defence system on Korean soil in 2016. As The Diplomat reported in 2023, this ban manifested in the prohibition of new investment by South Korean entertainment agencies, performances by idol groups and cooperation for K-drama and K-variety projects.
While China has never officially acknowledged the Hallyu ban, the sudden disappearance of South Korean pop culture in the country was clear to see. The last K-pop act to hold a concert in mainland China was boyband Big Bang in 2015, while the K-dramas that once swept Chinese audiences off their feet were no longer allowed to air on television.
In recent years, though, there have been hopeful signs that the Hallyu ban is being loosened. Government officials have held diplomatic visits like the 2021-2022 Cultural Exchange Year initiative, which greenlit several projects promoting human and cultural exchange, and a South Korean film was made available on a Chinese OTT platform in 2022. K-pop girl groups like LE SSERAFIM and (G)I-DLE held fansign events in China in 2023, and acts like NewJeans and CNBLUE’s Jong Yong-hwa have done so this year. In May, the Korean soprano Jo Sumi performed at Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts – seven years after her concerts in the country were cancelled, in the shadow of the Beijing-Seoul anti-missile system standoff.
Say Sue Me were among the South Korean entertainers feeling optimistic about finally performing for their Chinese fans. “Every year, we hear rumours that the ‘Hallyu ban’ is going to end soon, so we decided to give it a try,” Choi told NME. When the band met a promoter from Beijing at a showcase festival in Tokyo last year who “expressed his desire to organise a show for us as the first rock band [to perform in China] after the Hallyu ban,” they jumped at the opportunity. (Choi declined to name the promoter, citing privacy concerns.)
Say Sue Me applied for the permit to perform in China via their agent, Choi said. “We sent some documents, including setlists for the show, lyrics and explanations of the song meanings – something I’ve never done before for a visa permit in other countries.” They were successful: “When we heard we got the permit, we were quite surprised and excited about the fact that we would finally be performing in mainland China.”
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Though the band had yet to make an official announcement, news that a South Korean act had obtained permission to perform in China quickly spread in both countries, even becoming one of the top 10 search topics on Chinese social media app Weibo in late May. Meanwhile, South Korean news outlets began speculating that the end of the Hallyu ban was on the horizon.
A month out from the Beijing show, Say Sue Me were hit by the news that their permit to perform had been cancelled without explanation. Though the band were surprised, they weren’t completely shocked. “We felt it could happen,” said Choi.
As for why the permit was revoked, Say Sue Me remain in the dark – though they wonder if the media attention had a part to play. “People reacted to the news about a Korean band getting a permit to perform, so we’re just guessing they don’t want the buzz,” Choi surmised.
She added that the band are still looking for ways to reach their audience in China. “We’ll just keep trying. It’s a bit of a shame, but we believe that the barriers will disappear someday,” she said. “Perhaps we should create an account on Weibo?”
Though Say Sue Me had made some merchandise for the show, Choi said there were no financial or logistical repercussions to the cancellation. The hard-touring band are no strangers to the difficulties of playing abroad: in 2022 they cancelled a North American tour (already postponed once due to the pandemic) as “we just could not make a tour budget work enough that it would not overwhelm us with financial hardship”. Earlier that year, they’d been forced to pull out of Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival due to a band member contracting COVID-19.
The cancelled Beijing concert, Choi said, is just one of many things that are out of their control. “I might be too optimistic, but it doesn’t seem likely that these setbacks would change my views on touring much. What matters most is our determination.”
In the meantime, the four-piece are turning their attention to the follow-up to their 2022 studio album ‘The Last Thing Left’ as well as other upcoming performances. “We’re working on new music, but progress is slow,” Choi shared, adding that they have already started previewing some of their new material at recent shows. “We’ll be playing at a few festivals in Korea this year, and planning to go on a short tour in Japan this autumn.” As for Say Sue Me’s fans in China, she shares a hopeful message: “Be safe and healthy, if so, we’ll meet someday!”