China to censor karaoke

"Censors with China's Ministry of Culture have created a program to keep 'unclean' songs out of the country's karaoke parlors.

"The ministry has said the cities of Wuhan, Zhengzhou and Qingdao will be the first to test the new program, which allows local karaoke businesses to play songs off a central database loaded with pre-approved songs, The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. The ministry said the program will also help the government protect intellectual property rights.

"The program could go national if the government deems the test run successful.

"'All the songs in the database for use by karaoke parlors and consumers need to be censored' to ensure their content meets government standards, Liang Gang, director of the Cultural Market Development Center of the Ministry of Culture, said in the Times' report."