Chinese singer Jane Zhang and her team are crying foul over an alleged case of discrimination in the recently held MTV European Music Awards. Zhang and her team flew to Milan on Sunday to accept an award as the Best World Act of the Asia region for 2015.
The joyous occasion turned bitter, however, when Zhang and her team were told to accept the award backstage. Zhang's management, Show City Times, released a statement on Monday.
"Zhang and her team were suddenly told that they could not accept the award onstage," said the press release. "The organizers said it was because some other Worldwide Acts from other countries and regions didn't come so that anyone who came had to accept the award backstage."
"We were attending the event with respect to MTV EMA and with gratitude for tens of thousands of fans for their votes. But we cannot accept this treatment which was seriously unfair and discriminative, so we decided to officially pull out of the award's red carpet ceremony and all other activities of EMA," the statement said.
Many were quick to criticize MTV's move to make Zhang accept the award backstage, including her fiancé and CEO of Show City Times, Michael Feng.
"In the past, Chinese artists have accepted award onstage, why should we accept it backstage? We can't accept this; this was discrimination and an insult," Feng said in a report by China Entertainment News.
Despite the disappointment, Zhang kept mum about the situation. The Chinese singer only posted some photos and a thank-you note on her Weibo microblog.
MTV China was quick to respond to the incident. In a statement, MTV China expressed regret over what happened but cleared that the Worldwide Acts category only required videotaped messages from winners.
"The MTV China team has tried hard to communicate with both parties, and regrets the eventual results. We can understand Jane Zhang and her team's reaction. Now, we are still communicating with relevant parties on this issue and hope to win over more interests for artists in every continent including Asia."
The MTV European Music Awards was held on Monday, Oct. 27, in the Mediolanum Forum in Milan, Italy.