Asia News: Katy Perry At True Colors; Andy Lau Breaks Record; BTS Draft Debate Redux

JAPAN

Katy Perry’s True Colors

Tokyo’s True Colors Festival announced in early September that Katy Perry would appear at the two-day event in November as a special guest.

True Colors Festival is an international arts program produced by the Nippon Foundation, a Japanese charitable organization, to celebrate diversity and inclusion.

According to the event’s home page, the festival “brings diverse artists and audiences together through concerts, documentaries, music videos, film screenings, children’s programs, musicals and other activities.”

It has staged a variety of events since 2006 throughout Japan and Southeast Asia.
True Colors Festival The Concert will take place Nov. 19-20 at the Tokyo Garden Theater and features 20 artists from 12 countries.

CHINA

Andy Lau Livestreams To 350M Viewers

Andy Lau’s Sept. 3 online concert, livestreamed on the video service Douyin, a sister app of TikTok, set a record by attracting 350 million viewers.

Lau turns 61 later this month and is the undisputed king of Canto-pop as well as one of Hong Kong’s most in-demand actors.

Lau drew more than 100 million viewers to a similar online concert in July 2021 to celebrate his 40th year in show business, according to the South China Morning Post.

The next day, after viewers raved about the concert on social media sites, viewers increased at one point to 410 million during the replay on Douyin, which has already this summer livestreamed concerts by Hong Kong singer-songwriter Eason Chan, Singapore pop star Stefanie Sun, and Malaysian singer Fish Leon. Chan’s concert also broke the 100 million line.

KOREA

BTS Draft Status Again Debated

During an August hearing in the South Korean parliament, the minister of defense proposed a plan to implement a national survey to find out the public’s opinion about exempting top K-pop boy band BTS from its mandatory military service.

However, according to SBS News, the plan was quickly shelved and the ministry told reporters that it was only “examining” the need for such a survey.

BTS’s draft status has been a hot topic in South Korea for several years. Its oldest member, according to law, must enter into military service by the end of the year, followed by fellow members over the next several years.