Banning the rampant practice of lip sync in live concerts across China, the Ministry of Culture came down heavily on those indulging in and encouraging this ruse during performances, in a videoconference with provincial offices of culture held on May 26.

The ministry asked the provincial offices to get cracking on the offenders and demanded those doing it should be blacklisted and penalized. As per the new directive from the Ministry of Culture, the performance licenses of those with repeated acts of offence would be revoked.

Showing its determination on controlling this malpractice, the Culture Ministry officials said that it was detrimental to the live shows and performance market.

The ministry had released a regulation draft on November 12, 2008, proposing a ban on lip-sync in commercial events.

Lip-syncing uses pre-recorded songs for actual performances on stage. It originated from live programs on TV, for example, the CCTV Spring Festival gala. According to the ministry, lip-sync is the violation of audiences’ rights and shows disrespect toward them, while also being unhealthy for the market development and performers’ own development.

Moreover, using lip-sync means relying too much on studio techniques with performers neglecting basic skills training.

A small number of known performers take advantage of lip-sync to pretend they can still perform well despite their old age and poor vocal chords, thus preventing new stars from emerging on the music scene.

Lip-sync generated huge controversy when actress Zhang Ziyi "faked" singing at the 2008 Spring Festival gala though the director had promised to ban lip-sync in the gala.

The videoconference is the first official action taken after the regulation draft was released last year.

Eagerly debated on the Internet, government’s move has been widely welcomed by the Chinese net users. Most say that music fans would no longer have to pay a lot simply to watch performers lip-sync. Meanwhile, there are also concerns over to what extent shall provincial officials carry out the supervision.