A street piano in London has accidentally become a symbol of defiance after a livestream of flag-waving Chinese TV crew clashing with a British pianist went viral.
Following the bizarre incident, in which the Chinese individuals demanded pianist Brendan Kavanagh not to show their faces on his popular YouTube channel, some musicians went to the piano at the St Pancras International station to play “Glory to Hong Kong”—a symbol of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.
Mr. Kavanagh, also known as Dr. K, told The Epoch Times that it’s “very interesting” how things have developed.
“So the piano has unintentionally become an anti-CCP [Chinese Communist Party] zone and an iconic symbol of freedom,” he said on Friday.
“So it’s very interesting how this has developed. I think it also shows how popular music and culture can effectively attack authoritarian regimes by providing freedom of expression.”
‘Image Rights’
Mr. Kavanagh is known for his YouTube videos showing him playing Boogie-woogie music on street pianos and interacting with other musicians and onlookers.
However, this was not communicated during the argument, and the conversation got heated after a man from the group got involved.
The man, Leng Xuenian, or Newton Leng, asserted that they had “image rights,” threatened Mr. Kavanagh with lawsuits if he didn’t comply with their request, and accused Mr. Kavanagh of racism after the latter said they were “not in communist China.”
When Mr. Kavanagh tried to take a small Chinese flag from a woman’s hand to show it on camera, Mr. Leng began shouting “don’t touch her” repeatedly, adding, “You are not the same age.”
The woman, Zhang Ning, or, Adelina Zhang, was filmed shaking hands with Mr. Kavanagh when they spoke prior to the episode.
Under Chinese law, consent is needed to show images of a person for commercial reasons and in some other circumstances. In Britain, it’s legal to film people in most public settings.
The Epoch Times approached Mr. Leng for comment.
‘Glory to Hong Kong’
The video went viral across the world. By Friday afternoon, it had had over eight million views, and Mr. Kavanagh said he had a lot of reactions from Taiwan and Hong Kong.In one of the videos, a singer sang the song, with several pro-democracy demonstrators holding banners around the piano.
According to X account of Byron Wang, Mr. Leung had posted in a Facebook Group saying he had been told on Thursday that his channel had been removed, and his appeal was rejected after 43 minutes.
The musician said he had always posted his own materials and attributed original composers and lyrics when posting other music.
As of Friday afternoon, the link to his YouTube page still leads to a message saying “This account has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy against spam, deceptive practices and misleading content or other Terms of Service violations.”
A spokesperson for Google told The Epoch Times they are looking into the matter and needed more time before responding.
The Epoch Times has not been able to identify his Facebook account and couldn’t access his post about YouTube. It’s unclear whether it was due to privacy settings or his Facebook page was removed, too.
Commenting on the removal of Mr. Leung’s YouTube channel, Mr. Kavanagh said it’s “disgusting.”
“Apparently, this has to do with the CCP, little pinks,” he said, referring to a Chinese slang for pro-CCP individuals.
“I think there’s something about Glory to Hong Kong, that song, which really winds up the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.
“I think this is how music and the arts can undermine authoritarian regimes because they are so scared of anything that undermines them or is sarcastic toward them.”
The musician said the episode has given him a “crash course” on the CCP, adding, “I’m gonna get Winnie-the-Pooh all over me.”
Images of the fictional teddy bear have been censored in China since July 2017 after “Winnie-the-Pooh” became an online reference to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
UFWD Speculations
The profile of the individuals involved in the incident has also sparked concerns about CCP influence.It’s unclear whether the individuals are CCP members, although the party is known for co-opting citizens and non-citizens alike in their influence campaigns, and many overseas Chinese entities operate on the behest of the party’s United Front Work Department (UFWD).
According to University College London’s IOE Confucius Institute for Schools, Mr. Leng, who was a school teacher at St Catharine’s College at the time, participated in a teacher training programme in the year 2017/2018.
St Catharine’s College told The Epoch Times that the school employed Mr. Leng for a short period of time before 2019, and that he has worked at a number of schools.
Free Speech
The incident has also raised questions over free speech in the UK after a British Transport Police (BTP) officer was filmed during the livestream trying to convince Mr. Kavanagh to stop filming and telling him he couldn’t say things like “we are not in China.”Mr. Kavanagh previously told broadcasters that he believes the officer “melted” after hearing an allegation of racism.
He told The Epoch Times on Friday that this has been a “great embarrassment” for the BTP.
“The general consensus was that she completely took the side of the Chinese little pinks. And I think she was kind of virtue signalling,” he said.
On Tuesday, the piano, which was donated by Sir Elton John, was cordoned off, leading to more speculations.
A spokesperson for St Pancras told The Epoch Times that the piano was cordoned off on Tuesday because of maintenance work at the area, and it had nothing to do with the incident last week.
