As Taiwan's biggest rock band took to the stage in Beijing late last month, their home island was reckoning with the latest act of Chinese aggression.
For two days, the self-governing democracy was encircled by Chinese warships and fighter jets in the largest military exercises in over a year.
Addressing the tens of thousands of fans at the sold-out Bird's Nest stadium, Mayday's lead singer Ashin did not mention the aggression. But what he did say has since caused no less friction.
"We Chinese people must eat roast duck when we come to Beijing!" he said.
It may sound like an innocuous travel tip, but his choice of words was freighted with political meaning. Ashin – one of Taiwan's biggest music stars – had referred to himself as Chinese, instead of Taiwanese.
The choice of words delighted the crowd, but sparked immediate anger back home – reflecting the precarious position of Taiwanese stars with mainland appeal.
Growing numbers of people in Taiwan – especially the younger generation – view themselves as distinctly Taiwanese. Many have no desire to be part of China, whose authoritarian ruling Communist Party views the self-ruled island as its territory, despite having never controlled it.
Beijing has long sought to bolster its claims by emphasizing the cultural and historical ties across the Taiwan Strait, but polls show only 3% of Taiwan's population identify primarily as Chinese – while 67% see themselves as primarily Taiwanese, and less than 10% now support an immediate or eventual unification with China.
Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, Beijing has become more aggressive toward Taiwan, and has abandoned official ties since the island's ruling Democratic Progressive Party came to power in 2016. But there is still considerable cultural overlap, not least because of a common main language, meaning musicians from Taiwan – population 23 million – often seek to enter the lucrative market of 1.4 billion across the strait.
As Beijing and Taipei have drifted further apart politically, these artists have come under increasing pressure to toe Beijing's political line. The same evening that Mayday was playing in Beijing, Taiwanese pop queen Jolin Tsai proclaimed on stage that fans in "our Chinese city of Nanchang" were the most passionate, as she performed in the southern city. The phrase was taken by some Chinese fans as implying she and her audience were compatriots.
Meanwhile on Weibo, China's X-like platform, dozens of Taiwanese actors, musicians, and celebrities reposted a state media post championing Beijing's claims of sovereignty over the island.
"'Taiwan independence' is a dead end, and the reunification of the motherland is unstoppable!" broadcaster CCTV said in the post, which has been retweeted nearly 18 million times since it was published last Wednesday.
On Douban, a popular site for reviewing movies, books and music, users compiled a list of nearly 100 Taiwanese celebrities, detailing whether each of them had shared the post.
Despite her onstage expression of kinship, some lashed out at Tsai for not reposting it. A comment with 14,000 upvotes called for authorities to suspend her concerts in China, because she "had never spoken out directly."
CNN has reached out to Tsai for comment.
On Saturday, CCTV publicly endorsed Taiwanese celebrities who shared its post, sharing the screenshots of 36 such reposts – fueling a further backlash against those who hadn't.
"Those who didn't endorse and take a stand, can you not come to the mainland to make money?" said a top comment with 55,000 upvotes.
Lin Chen-yu, a lecturer at Cardiff University who specializes in China's censorship of Taiwanese music, said acts such as Tsai and Mayday were facing problems because "both the government and private sectors are increasingly reacting to and engaging with digital nationalism."
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