Song hits a sour note

Mainland fans of the Hong Kong pop rock/pop-punk band Dear Jane are making discordant sounds on social media after the foursome's popular number Galactic Repairman was given a bad rap.

That follows a case of what some say is selective hearing by education authorities in Hong Kong.

Two Secondary Five students at ELCHK Yuen Long Lutheran Secondary School were disqualified and penalized with demerits after performing their version of Galactic Repairman in the school's singing contest.

The Education Bureau's claim was that lyrics include words like "chaos" and "confront" are political messages and officials told the school to stay perfectly in tune with the national security law.

And the sour notes wafted across the border, with music streaming service QQ Music turning off Galactic Repairman on Wednesday, which set off discussions on Weibo.

"I don't understand how a love song can be interpreted as having a political stance," one person wrote.

But other songs by Dear Jane still featured on QQ yesterday. And the music video of Galactic Repairman was still up on Weibo and mainland sharing site Bilibili.