/ 2 June 2004

Britney faces communist costume check

Beijing’s bureaucrats will vet Britney Spears’ wardrobe to ensure she does not reveal too much raw talent on her first tour of China next year, a government-run news organisation reported on Tuesday.

The United States pop singer has been told that the outfit inspections are a condition for approval by the communist government, which is struggling to hold in check the liberal tendencies of the country’s increasingly affluent and curious urban middle class.

The singer is seeking permission to perform five concerts in Shanghai and Beijing early next year, which would be among the biggest staged by a foreign act in China.

But her reputation appears to have prompted Chinese officials into thinking that she may expose too much flesh.

”Relevant departments will carry out strict reviews of Britney Spears’ performance clothing,” a report in the China News Service said, without elaborating on the details of the committees that will be charged with scrutinising her outfits and judging whether they are prohibitively skimpy.

But organisers have insisted that the singer’s outfits are the same for every performance and cannot be made up specially for Chinese audiences.

It would not be the first time that big-name foreign musicians pulled out of Chinese gigs because of bureaucratic wrangling or money problems. Although the world’s most populous nation is increasingly open to overseas performers, technical, financial and political support is still inconsistent.

In recent years, The Eagles and the Rolling Stones have pulled out of tours. Suede and Bjork did play, but suffered tepid audiences and income losses at gigs in Beijing. – Guardian Unlimited Â