China's decision to ban 120 songs from the country's tightly controlled Internet was met with contempt and ridicule by commentators and netizens on Tuesday, who warned that the ban could have the opposite effect to that intended by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
China's ministry of culture on Monday released a blacklist of 120 songs that official media said "trumpet obscenity, violence, crime or harm social morality," ordering website administrators to take them down.
The content of the songs, which include hip-hop tracks "Beijing Hooligans," "Don't Want to Go to School," and "Suicide Diary," is "severely problematic," and violates the ministry's principles of online cultural regulation, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
"No unit or individual is allowed to provide [these songs]," the ministry said in a statement, warning that anyone who failed to comply with the take-down notice would face "severe punishment."
"Whatever you say about it, this is yet another curb on the freedom of expression, because songs are part of public opinion, a way of expressing yourself," Guangzhou-based writer Xu Lin told RFA on Tuesday.
"A government shouldn't try to control such things. This wouldn't happen in a free society."
Xu said there is "very little space" for Chinese people to express themselves nowadays.
"You can't do this, and you can't do that. This will definitely give rise to a public backlash," Xu said.
More may listen now
He said the ban was more likely to boost the popularity of the songs, because people would follow their natural curiosity and seek them out in spite of the system of filters, blocks, and human censorship known collectively as China's Great Firewall.
Xu, who recorded a song in support of rights lawyer Xu Chunhe, said it was a shame his song hadn't made it into the blacklist.
Exiled Chinese political cartoonist "Perverted Chili Pepper" said the government is overstepping the mark with the song ban.
"I am very familiar with some of the songs on the list, some of which I like very much," he said. "Of course they are pretty rude."
"The Chinese government believes that they aren't in keeping with socialist values, not in keeping with this or that or the other," he said.
"I think that banning what is entertainment for ordinary people is trying to control too much," he said. "They think they can ban every single thing that might be harmful."
'Can't forgive this world'
The ministry has vowed to update the list, which includes 17 songs by Beijing rapper IN3, whose lyrics are full of sexual expletives and contempt for authority and the pressures of modern life.
"Set light to yourselves, self-immolate," he raps in a track titled "Go fire, burn." "The stupid c***s haven't got any water."
"Developing the economy isn't a good thing; there are so many people that none of them have any manners," he says.
In "Everyone's Going to Die," a track which is peppered with sounds of machine-gun fire, the lyrics hit out at "Bloody laws, family traditions, discipline that push people into a dead end," demanding, "Whose fault is it that we are so rebellious?"
Also on the list is "Suicide Diary" by rappers Xinjiekouzuhe, which contains the lyrics: "I don't want to live like a mummy, wrapped in the camouflage of optimism, tied up in life's coffin."
"Death makes more sense than the cruelty and coldness of society; I can't forgive this world; it has hurt me to the point where I can't fight back any more."
Complying with the order
Major content sharing sites appeared to be complying with the order on Tuesday.
A search for a banned song titled "The Supercar in Our Neighborhood," on popular video-sharing site Youku returned the message: "This video has either been deleted by the account holder, or it has been deleted by Youku for violating the relevant rules and regulations."
Netizens appeared largely unimpressed by the ban. "First they ban books, then they start banning songs," user @jiluzhegunke commented on social media.
"I will have to make time to listen to all of these songs."
And user @jingfenhualaodezongzijun wrote: "They want to tell us what books to read, what films, TV shows and even cartoons to watch, and now they want to control the songs we listen to. They must be exhausted."
"Excuse me," the user added. "Are we in kindergarten?"
Meanwhile, user @douhaowaxiansheng said the despair and anger in many of the lyrics of the banned songs suggest they say rather too much about the state of Chinese society.
"The fact that they have banned ... four songs by the band Tamen just proves that the lyrics were too close to the bone when it comes to reflecting on contemporary society," the user wrote.
"This is the best accolade [the band] could receive in such preposterous times."
Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.