In the immediate aftermath of Taiwanese magician Lu Chen’s withering joke during the CCTV Spring Festival Gala — simultaneously seen live by millions, then re-watched over and over in the proceeding days, even after it got censored from subsequent reruns — we were told that all parties involved were cool with it.

That might not have been the case.

Let’s revisit the incident. On February 9’s big CCTV show, Lu tried to make a joke that plays off the public perception that Li Yundi and Leehom Wang, two famous young stars, are gay lovers. Lu and Li were on stage for a simple disappearing trick when Li whispered something in Lu’s ear to set up a punchline. Lu’s quip, however, was extempore.

“Looking for someone?” he asked. “Who? Leehom?!”

The audience gasped and laughed and cheered.

Leehom Wang, backstage, must have blanched. Multiple people wrote that they saw the pop singer, who was scheduled to appear in a separate act, slap Lu. The two publicly denied it, but the controversy continued. Lu’s camp said the joke was Li’s idea, while Li denied that. And then Leehom Wang unfollowed Li on Sina Weibo, and vice versa — but he still follows Lu.

We’re now finding out that the fallout runs deeper. On February 21, Lu’s publicist said the magician will not be appearing in tonight’s Lantern Festival Gala to mark the end of the 15-day Spring Festival. Reports Sina:

According to his agent during an exclusive interview with Chinanews.com, Lu has been so deeply vexed by the incident of late that he decided to “take a break” in the hope that he would be spared from future offense and criticism.

The agent denied that Lu’s exit was due to his poor relation with CCTV. He also appreciated the understanding and support by Ha Wen, the chief director of the upcoming gala.

Note to everyone: this is not how you handle a joke. Whatever happened to the idea that all publicity is good publicity?

Magician quits Lantern Festival gala over Leehom joke (Sina, h/t Alicia)

One of the most talked-about and controversial moments from this year’s CCTV Spring Festival Gala was magician Lu Chen’s “looking for Leehom” joke. His one-liner got the best crowd reaction — a mixture of delight and genuine shock that such a joke could fly — and ensured he’d stay in the public eye for days, possibly weeks, to come.

Lu’s remark to pianist Li Yundi — riffing off public perception of Li and Leehom Wang as lovers — got him in trouble with CCTV producers, who cut the scene from subsequent gala reruns. But it’s his performance that should have drawn criticism. Thanks to netizens, it now is, belatedly.

Check out his first trick, a simple sleight-of-hand involving sliding a wine glass through the middle of a wine bottle. Lu’s elementary mistake is highlighted here:

While pouring wine to prove that the bottle is solid, wine drips out from the middle, the exact location of the slit in which he’ll eventually slide in the wine glass.

When your audience gives you this reaction, it’s not a good sign:

Remember this when we don’t see Lu Chen on next year’s Spring Festival Gala. It’s not that he made an off-the-cuff remark that made CCTV producers uncomfortable. It’s that he’s not good enough yet at what he does.

Ah, live TV. Did magician Lu Chen give the CCTV Spring Festival Gala — the most-watched show on Chinese television every year — its Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” moment?

First, a little background. Top Chinese pianist Li Yundi and Chinese American singer Leehom Wang are best buds who spend so much time together that people openly question the nature of their relationship. (The two have repeatedly said they’re not gay lovers.) It’s kind of a running joke, the sort that feeds gossip mills and keeps tabloids in business.

On Saturday night, Li took the stage in Beijing for a magic act with Lu. The plan was simple: Li would play the piano behind a curtain, and Lu would “disappear” him. Meanwhile, young viewers would swoon, and CCTV would placate critics who call its Spring Festival Gala outmoded.

It didn’t turn out to be so straightforward, however. At the 2:20 mark of the above video, watch as Li stops playing and pokes his head out from behind the curtain. Perhaps this was part of the script. Then again, perhaps it’s here that CCTV producers break into a cold sweat.

Lu goes over, and Li whispers something in the magician’s ear.

“Looking for someone?” Lu asks. “Who?”

More whispering.

“Leehom?!” Lu exclaims.

It takes the audience a second to process the joke, but then the gasps and squeals of delight come cascading down.

Lu breaks into laughter, then says, “Sorry, sorry.” Li retreats back behind the curtain, and the act continues. Lu pulls on a rope, and not only has Li disappeared, but he’s standing in the middle of the audience. Applause all around. “Lu’s joke immediately became a hot topic discussed by netizens across China, with many calling it the best part of the entire gala,” reports SCMP.

You know who hated it, though? China Central Television, which excised the Lu-Li exchange from its reruns.

According to SCMP:

Homosexuality in China remains a sensitive topic in the state media and discussions about it are suppressed. So, it was no surprise that when the Gala was repeated the next day, the scene had been removed.

Anxious to disassociate itself from the joke, the gala’s official weibo account posted a statement saying, “Lu Chen’s joke about Li and Wang was not planned by the producers, but rather an impromptu act by Lu.” The gala’s chief director Ha Wen later confirmed the statement in an interview.

Li also said it was impromptu, but Lu, on his Sina Weibo, refused to play along. “Everything we said on stage was agreed by both parties. Come on! Be honest,” he wrote.

It was rumored that Leehom Wang confronted Lu backstage and slapped him, which seems ridiculous at face value. The two had some fun with this.

Wang wrote on Weibo, “Lu Chen, did anyone assault you? Does that person look like me?” To which Lu replied, “I think I was hit so hard that I lost my memory. I can’t remember this. What should I do?”

Good for everyone involved. In America, after an incident like this, the public would cackle and we’d all await the inevitable commercial or Saturday Night Live sketch involving the three. In China, however… perhaps we’ll not see Lu in another national Spring Festival gala for a while.

Not that that’s a bad thing. Regional Spring Festival galas have risen in visibility (thanks to the Internet) and popularity (thanks to CCTV’s own antiquated show) in recent years, as evidenced this week by the Backstreet Boys on Liaoning TV and PSY on Dragon TV. Meanwhile, CCTV’s production is stuck in the 1990s. “The Spring Festival Gala is a cultural legacy from the colletivism and group identity of socialism after China was liberated,” so goes a Southern Metropolis editorial from 2007, as translated by ESWN. “But following the changes in Chinese society today, this model is increasing[ly] more difficult to realize.”

Performers like Lu, Li, and Wang, with the goal of entertaining – what a revolutionary concept, right? — can help bring back this tradition, if only authorities will let them. There’s nothing wrong with collectivized entertainment, as the Super Bowl teaches us each year. There is something wrong and downright repulsive, however, about an entity imposing its narrow, blinkered idea of collectivism on all of us.

(H/T Alicia)

Leehom Wang wasn’t the only Chinese Olympic torchbearer in Manchester on Saturday — there was also news anchor Bai Yansong, for instance — but Wang was most definitely the only Chinese torchbearer to make all the Chinese ladies in the crowd shriek their minds out. He was also probably the only torchbearer to do an exuberant leap, which you can see in the above at the 0:35 mark and at the 2:11 mark in the Youku video after the jump. Look at all those excited people. Olympic fever — catch it!

We last wrote about Wang in April, when he flubbed a famous line in the song “As Time Goes By” at the Beijing International Film Festival. He was in top form on Saturday — though we think he could have gotten a bit more air in his jump. (UPDATE, 6:25 pm: Sarah Heintze, who was there and got this photo, tweets at us, “It was pretty cool, he was in such a good mood actually, it was infectious to watch.” Check out the second photo after the jump for an example.)

Xinhua/Wang Lili

Via @weloveleehom twitpic.com/a0b0nm

(H/T Alicia)

Taiwanese American heartthrob Leehom Wang performed “As Time Goes By” on Monday at the star-studded opening ceremony of the 2nd Beijing International Film Festival. (James Cameron and Jeremy Renner were reportedly both there; what will not be there over the six-day festival, however, are films that say anything interesting, as BJIFF was created last year by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television — China’s FCC, only with more power — a fact that the event’s website tries its best to hide.) All in all, Wang did a commendable job with Herman Hupfeld’s song — popularized by Dooley Wilson in Casablanca, of course — but in front of a national audience — the show was televised on CCTV-6 — he flubbed the famous line, “You must remember this, / A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh” (“The fundamental things apply / As time goes by”). He said “a smile is just a sigh.” Oops.

But, again, it was an otherwise impressive performance.

Let’s give it up for violinist Lu Siqing though. His performance was flawless, best that I can tell. Youku video for those in China after the jump.