Singer Katy Perry recently blasted off into space, and now she's heading for a trip to Asia. That in some ways is a bit more difficult. It's a trip to China — complete with fireworks of its own.
Pop singer Katy Perry is heading to mainland China for some concerts this fall, which means the Chinese government granted her a visa. That was enough of a surprise that it landed on the home page of the South China Morning Post under a subject banner labelled “Diplomacy.”
This all goes back 10 years, when Perry was in Taiwan as part of an Asian concert tour — and she wore a dress with sunflowers.
She'd worn it before, plants and food and other decorations on clothing have been so common for her over the years that Chinese fans gave her the nickname “Fruit Sister” in Mandarin.
But in 2014, a sunflower became the symbol of student-led anti-Chinese protestors in Taiwan.
So when Perry wore a dress with sunflowers at a Taipei concert the next year, officials in mainland China were not amused, especially when she also used a Taiwanese flag as a cape.
Two years later, Perry was denied a visa to come to Shanghai.
The singer has never made any explicit comments in support of Taiwanese protestors, and the entire controversy retains more than a bit of ambiguity about intent.
But at this point, it seems like it's no longer enough to block her from Chinese concerts planned for November. So far, no word on her choices for wardrobe.
