A Chinese official dropped a bombshell in a news briefing usually reserved for major policy announcements: Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was set to hold a \u201clistening party\u201d for his new \u201cVultures\u201d studio album on the Chinese island of Hainan on Sept. 15.<\/p>\n
To 33-year-old Ziteng Du, a Shanghai-based office worker, and many other Chinese fans, the idea of seeing Ye in China is beyond their wildest imagination. Many fans were dumbfounded when the authority\u00a0agreed to allow one of the world\u2019s most notorious rappers to perform.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy China\u2019s conservative social values, Ye is an outright misfit,\u201d one fan commented on Weibo, China\u2019s equivalent to X.<\/p>\n
Hainan going global<\/strong><\/p>\n Ye\u2019s last show in China was 16 years ago. Now he is set to return, not to Shanghai or Beijing, but to a place largely unknown to foreign visitors.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is Hainan trying hard to forge its branding as an international destination,\u201d said Michael Zhou, founder of Jingjian, a consultancy specializing in China tourism. Zhou said transforming Hainan into an international destination is a crucial national strategy of the central government.<\/p>\n The tropical island of Hainan, dubbed the \u201cHawaii of China,\u201d has long been a top travel destination for domestic tourists. Last year, its tourism sector pulled in 181 billion yuan ($25.5 billion), representing roughly 24% of its total gross domestic product.<\/p>\n But domestic tourists are now tightening their travel purse strings, and international travelers aren\u2019t filling the gap. According to Hainan\u2019s Provincial Bureau of Statistics, foreign visitors accounted for 0.87% of the island\u2019s total tourists in the first seven months of 2024.<\/p>\n Domestic spending slump<\/strong><\/p>\n Tepid domestic demand also threatens the island\u2019s ambitious goal of attracting 207 billion yuan in tourism revenue, a 14% increase from 2023.<\/p>\n According to Zhou, the bulk of Hainan\u2019s tourism income comes from hotel stays and duty-free shopping.<\/p>\n But shopping plunged in 2024, spelling trouble for the economy which is betting big on revenue from duty-free stores. Hainan has the world\u2019s largest duty-free shopping mall, and the government plans to turn the entire island into a duty-free hub as early as next year.<\/p>\n From 2023, the number of shoppers decreased 11% across the island, while duty-free sales dropped by 30% during the first seven months of 2024, according to customs officials for Haikou, the capital city of Hainan.<\/p>\n A major tourism retailer on the island, CTG Duty Free posted a disappointing H1 report with a 12.8% year-on-year decrease in revenue to 31.26 billion yuan ($4.40 billion).<\/p>\n \u201cAs it is the largest duty-free channel in China, Hainan\u2019s duty-free sales decline is inevitable,\u201d said Charlie Chen, head of Asian Research at China Renaissance, a financial institution. He said a drop in shopper and average spending suggests that even affluent customers are controlling their spending.<\/p>\n Luxury shopping in China is declining, but the concert economy is experiencing a notable upturn \u2014 a trend that hasn\u2019t escaped the attention of Hainan officials.<\/p>\n In an official document published in May, Hainan\u2019s government pledged to award a maximum of 3 million yuan in one-off payments to companies that bring \u201cworld-class music events\u201d to the island.<\/p>\n A state media op-ed later praised Hainan\u2019s efforts to use China\u2019s visa-free policies to attract high-quality music events from abroad. The article detailed the local government\u2019s efforts to make Hainan the first stop on foreign artists\u2019 tours.<\/p>\n The strategy worked on Du, he said. The only reason he is going to Hainan is Ye\u2019s show, he said.<\/p>\n Ye and the China connection<\/strong><\/p>\n Like major concerts, Ye\u2019s \u201clistening parties\u201d often take place in front of massive crowds. But there are differences too; the events can include live performances along with DJs playing pre-recorded mixes and audience sing-alongs. Sometimes, Ye and collaborator Ty Dolla Sign do not rap or dance at all.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, he canceled listening parties in Florida, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Washington, D.C. An event in Taiwan on Aug. 25 was also called off days before it was scheduled to occur, leaving confusion in its wake.<\/p>\n However, on Aug. 23, despite starting 70 minutes late, a listening party went ahead as scheduled in Seoul, South Korea.<\/p>\n Ye has spoken affectionately about China in the past. He defended China during the pandemic and expressed his love for the country in a 2020 interview with the New York Post.<\/p>\n \u201cI love China. It changed my life. It changed my perspective; it gave me such a wide perspective. My mom, as an English professor, taught English in China when I was in 5th grade,\u201d he told the publication.<\/p>\n Ye has faced backlash in many parts of the world after he made antisemitic remarks in 2022, which resulted in the termination of a lucrative partnership with Adidas in October 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Chinese official droppe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":909,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908\/revisions\/909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ftpol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}