Today is the last day of March and I'm flying back to Taipei after the 3rd leg of my promotional tour to China. It's been tiring but truly a great experience as I spent some time in Nanjing, Shanghai and Hangzhou this time.
Hangzhou, in particular, was spectacular as I finally had time to visit Westlake ?? and it's surroundings. I even had some time to take a short boat ride on the lake which was relaxing and refreshing. I wish I had more time there but unfortunately it will have to wait till I visit Hangzhou again on my own time. I can totally understand why Marco Polo once said that Hangzhou is one of the most splendid places on earth.
One thing I'd like to share with everybody during this trip was my album signing in Hangzhou. Actually, it was something that did NOT take place though it was planned way in advance. The record company and I had showed up on time and were ready to meet the fans to sign their albums; however, when we arrived we were told by the police ?? that the event had to be cancelled. The reason they gave us was that the scene was too chaotic and they were afraid things would get out of hand resulting in a riot. There were many fans outside waiting (we were told approximately 2000 people) though, honestly, from what we could see there were absolutely NO signs of chaos or unruliness. Many fans arrived and waited in front of the record store since 8am for the event that was scheduled to start at 5pm. You could imagine how tired, cold and restless many of the fans were by that time.
We stood by waiting for almost an hour to see whether the police ?? would allow the album signing to resume but they were insistent on canceling it without really giving us a good explanation. As you can imagine, I was both frustrated and saddened by the fact that I couldn't meet the fans whom many had been waiting all day for this event. I was NOT even allowed by the police ?? to speak to the fans or crowd. We had attempted to use a microphone to communicate with the fans but the police ?? forced us to stop. All of us felt this was extremely unfair and unreasonable. Till now, I'm still not sure of the exact reasons why we couldn’t hold the album signing or why it was cancelled. As I had said, from the looks of things that day everybody was very cooperative and peaceful and there were NO signs of any danger or threats to public safety if we were to hold the event.
The media was present at the event and I spoke to them extensively about the situation that day in Hangzhou. For those of you at the event that day in Hangzhou, I hope you can understand that the cancellation that day was NOT due in any part to any of us from the record company. We had every intention of signing every person's album that day though we were prevented from doing so. What my record company and I had proposed after receiving final word from the police?? that the event must be cancelled was that we would have the record store collect everybody's CD and I would personally sign them back at the hotel and return them back to the fans the following day. That is exactly what I did and I hope many of you had given the record store your CD's to be autographed by me. That was the best thing we could have thought of in light of the forced cancellation by the police ??
I hope I have explained and clarified the situation so that there would be no misunderstandings. Situations like this have happened in the past to me and other artists and the majority of the times it's rarely because the artist or the record company wants to cancel events. Public safety is very important to all of us and I would want no harm to come to any fan or person. However, there are often times when there are no evident signs of danger to public safety and this is one of those situations. Perhaps there were some other outstanding issues between the record store and police?? that were unsettled prior to this event that forced it to be cancelled. In any event, it's the public and fans that suffer.
I'm deeply regretful that I couldn't personally meet every one of you that day in Hangzhou to autograph your CD's. I left feeling quite down and sad that night and I'm sure many of you were very depressed and frustrated as well. I hope there will be many more opportunities in the near future for us to meet again. Thanks for your understanding and always for your gracious support and love.
