f13.net

Chinese Adviser Urges Lip Synching Ban (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=816&ncid=816&e=1&u=/ap/20050306/ap_on_fe_st/china_lip_synching_ban)

BEIJING - Chinese government advisers meeting in Beijing this week have some weighty matters to discuss: blocking Taiwan's formal independence, alleviating dire poverty in the countryside. And lip synching.

Ma Bomin, an official with Shanghai's municipal radio, film and television administration, likens the practice of performers pretending to sing to selling fake goods. She wants to pass a law making it a crime for a performer to do so without first notifying audience members.

"Fake singing is no different from trading in fakes. It should be resolutely boycotted and shunned," Ma was quoted as saying in Saturday's Beijing News.

Ma didn't say what punishments would be proposed under the measure, included in a draft of China's first comprehensive law on arts and culture. Members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference — a key advisory board to the national legislature — are discussing the draft law among other proposals.

The law follows a campaign by Chinese rock star and artists' rights advocate Cui Jian to mobilize fans to boycott lip synching artists. The practice is believed to be widespread in China, encouraged by a state-sponsored arts scene that churns out cookie-cutter performers with little real talent.

Now if someone could just shut down American Idol.