Today’s Jianghuai Morning News reports on the Lantern Festival today － the last day of the Chinese New Year and fireworks. Inside, a story on the sensation of “migrant laborer” singers, who, since releasing a video of themselves singing to pop star Wang Feng’s (汪峰) hit song “In Spring” (春天里) after drinking copious amounts of alcohol and shirtless, has become a national hit. Their stage name is “Xuriyanggang” (旭日阳刚), a combination of their names. The raw performance gave the singing duo an opportunity to appear on the Spring Festival Gala (in a segment showcasing ordinary, “grassroots” performers), and they hit the mainstream.
However, Wang Feng has made a statement saying that he is taking back the rights to the song, although he performed with the duo in Shanghai last year. Faced with a murky property rights culture, reports in the Chinese media have shown about mixed feelings. Following is an article the Jianghui Morning News ran:
Xuriyanggang not migrant laborers?!
Because of singing Wang Feng’s (汪峰) “In Spring” (春天里), Xuriyanggang (旭日阳刚) has been involved in the “Singing Ban” incident, which has spread like wildfire. In the afternoon of the 15th, Xuriyanggang spoke for the first time, apologizing to Wang Feng and promising “never to sing his songs again.” In response to this, Wang Feng replies calmly that “I don’t want anything for helping them,” and openly says that they might write songs for them in the future. But in another respect netizens have tried to find out Xuriyanggang’s true identities using the human search flesh engine.
As soon as the “Singing Ban” incident appeared, netizens were debating it hotly. Some said that Wang Feng was jealous of Xuriyanggang, but many were impressed and said that Wang Feng’s protection of his intellectual property rights was reasonable. In their apology video Xuriyanggang first of all expressed full understanding over Wang Feng’s “Singing ban”: “Teacher Wang Feng will definitely forgive us. Actually we had decided to stop singing Teacher Wang Feng’s songs after the New Year. If we were in his position, we would do the same, you have to respect [property rights].”
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