For a competition meant to introduce the diversity of Asian pop music to the world, the lineup for the first Eurovision Song Contest Asia on Saturday had several notable absences.
For starters, the continent’s four most populous nations — China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia — were not there. Even Japan, a country globally considered a cultural powerhouse, was absent.
That left some of the region’s best-known musical cultures out of the mix. India has Bollywood hits. China has produced both Mandopop and Cantopop, the genre associated with Hong Kong pop stars. JPop was once huge across Asia.
As a result, the only large pop powerhouse in this contest was South Korea.
China’s absence is relatively simple to explain. Performers are entered by local broadcasters, and Eurovision has long had a messy relationship with China’s, which are heavily regulated and try to reflect the government’s social and political values. Mango TV once had a deal to broadcast the high-camp Eurovision to Chinese viewers, but Eurovision abruptly canceled it in 2018 after Mango TV censored acts whose performances featured gay themes. It also blurred rainbow flags in the performance arena.
Frank-Dieter Freiling, a former Eurovision official, said in an interview that such censorship was against Eurovision’s values and that the show’s organizers had historically barred broadcasters from airing the competition with delays.
It’s less clear why broadcasters from India, Pakistan, Japan and Indonesia did not participate. Assaf Blecher, Eurovision Asia’s executive producer, said that conversations with Chinese, Japanese and Indian broadcasters had not concluded in time. But he insisted that they “are knocking on our door.”
Not participating saved those countries the potential embarrassment of being the regional power that comes in last.
Just look to Europe, where Britain and Germany often perform badly at Eurovision. In this year’s show, Britain’s Look Mum No Computer placed last, scoring only one point, while Germany finished third from last. Whenever that happens, political commentators give interviews suggesting that the results reflect those countries’ poor standing across Europe.
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