Photo: Screenshot from Hong Kong singer William So Wing-hong's Sina Webo account

Hong Kong singer William So Wing-hong issued an apology on Tuesday night on his Sina Weibo account, after his planned concert in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, was canceled amid online complaints about his past drug charge.

So's "So Live" 2025 tour had been scheduled for October 6 at the Wenzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium, according to ticketing platform Damai. But the concert drew widespread criticism online over his drug-related offense more than 20 years ago.

Media reported that So was arrested in 2002 in a bar in the island of Taiwan for drug possession and underwent 11 days of compulsory rehabilitation before his release.

The tickets had sold out by September 16, according to the concert's official page, but the listing was also found later removed from the site on the same day.

Screenshots circulating on Sina Weibo showed a netizen filing a complaint with local authorities demanding the show be canceled over So's past drug possession. The Wenzhou Longwan District Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports said in response: "After further communication and coordination with the provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and the performing company, the event was reviewed and approved, with the paperwork complete and the procedures followed."

Following such online complaints over So's concert, Sichuan-based Red Star News reported on September 16 that the organizers had submitted a cancellation request to the approval authority. Damai also removed the sales page, and refunds were underway.

A Longwan district officer told the Hubei-based media outlet Jimu News on September 15 that the bureau had received feedback about So's concert and was following up. The officer said the approval process lies at the provincial level and that no notice had been issued prohibiting the performance, adding that So had performed in other cities over the past two years.

An official with the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism's market supervision office declined to comment, according to Jimu News.

Global Times