A British pianist who was performing in public for his YouTube audience got into a fracas with Chinese nationals caught on camera. These not-so-innocent bystanders—who may have been members of the Chinese Communist Party—made demands with which the musician, Brendan Kavanagh, was unwilling to comply (Fox News, January 26, 2024):
Brendan Kavanagh, a British pianist with 2.2 million followers on YouTube (@DrKBoogieWoogie), was live-streaming a public performance of his piano riffs when the group of Chinese nationals was incidentally captured in the background. The Chinese nationals asked him not to record them, insisting he did not have the right to share their images online.
Kavanagh refused and that’s when things got heated….
“So, basically, the problem started when I disagreed with the ‘shouty guy.’ And then he started acting in a very peculiar manner,” Kavanagh told Fox News Digital. “They all had communist flags [the Chinese flag]. And I said, ‘Are you communist?’ And…that was gasoline to the fire. He was prevaricating.”
Kavanagh said he then tried to gesture towards one of the women who was holding the Chinese flag in the U.K. station.
“I put my hand down to take it because I wanted to get the flag to show it to the camera. I put my hand down like you would just say, give me the flag. And then he said, ‘Don’t touch her.’ Basically, he tries to make out [that I was doing] some kind of assault.”
Kavanagh said he thought the “shouty guy” wanted a testy response, but he didn’t give in.
“I didn’t give him the reaction he wanted. He’s not used to, kind of, cool, calm Western reaction, but I think he wanted me to sort of go into hysterics. I just thought the guy was ridiculous,” he said.
Kavanagh was interviewed about the altercation by TalkTV.
In the prelude to a later public performance, he defended Winnie the Pooh from the CCP while holding a stuffed Winnie the Pooh and a framed picture of the Pooh. “For goodness’ sake, you’re a dictator and you’re frightened of Winnie the Pooh.”
The world needs more entertainment and sports personalities like Brendan Kavanagh and Enas Kanter Freedom. And it needs fewer like self-censoring Daryl Morey, the former general manager of the Houston Rockets who in 2019 posted support for pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong on social media—then immediately apologized and removed his comment when the CCP raised a hue and cry.
