Songs of praise
A North Korean girl band fails to take China by storm
HARDLY had the group of two dozen winsome North Korean musicians arrived in Beijing, than they were on a flight back home. Their first ever overseas concert, set for December 12th at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (the “egg”, as the giant building in the centre of the Chinese capital is known), had been cancelled. North Korea’s state news agency removed its gushing coverage of the all-female band’s tour from its website. Chinese censors swiftly erased news of the cancellation from their country’s social media.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Songs of praise”
From the December 19th 2015 edition
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