A bit like being married to the Duke of Edinburgh, being a fan of Morrissey can put you in potentially uncomfortable situations from time to time.
In last year's Guardian interview, conducted by the poet Simon Armitage, Mozzer's quoted as saying "Did you see the thing on the news about their treatment of animals and animal welfare? Absolutely horrific. You can't help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies."
Predictably - and correctly - the quote's still being debated among the fans, and in the wider media - including the Guardian itself, turning the great man into a literal page 3 stunner and revisiting the (very) old chestnuts of songs like 'The National Front Disco', 'Bengali In Platforms' and 'Asian Rut'. Meanwhile, the campaigning organisation Love Music Hate Racism have stated it's unlikely they can continue to associate with Morrissey.
It was going to be a busy afternoon on the Returns Desk at HMV's Shanghai branch.
On the unofficial-but-essential website, morrissey-solo, various ding-dong battles raged on the message boards. In summation, they were a hotchpotch of comments from the serious to the flippant, and all points inbetween.For anyone interested, this blog believes the great man to be an unlikely candidate for racist views. Certainly, he's someone who's demonstrated the capacity to be bitter, biting and unforgiving. Simon Armitage, in fact, picked up upon the weird dichotomy that sees Morrissey, the author of lyrics as disarmingly romantic as those in 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out' flirting with violent imagery: guns and knives. "All useful implements." Truly, he fights with his right hand and caresses with the left.
So although at times I think he'd make a good addition to Tony Soprano's crew, I do feel he's not someone who'd wilfully treat a person badly because of their skin colour, nationality, belief system or any other fixture of their racial or cultural make-up. It kind of seems too simplistic a reason for enmity for someone like our Morrissey. There are loads of other, better, reasons to dislike people.
Back to the statement. Offensive. Yes. Inaccurate? Of course. Typical Morrissey? Absolutely. This is Mozzer doing what he does best: Being Morrissey.
But deriding China, exclusively, simply lets the rest of the world off the hook. When it comes to caring about animals I'd argue that no nation can hold its head particularly high. Everyone's at it. The inadequates on deer or bear hunts in the USA are matched by those on UK country estates who blast grouse from the clouds and long for a return to (legal) foxhunting.
Even as someone who's abstained from meat for over 20 years, I knowingly consume battery eggs concealed in shop-bought cakes. I quaff alcohol that may well have been clarified via animal products. I've taken medicines, the (dubious) testing of whose ingredients will surely have been inflicted upon live animals in a vivisection laboratory.
So Morrissey went too far - but also not far enough. Having a pop at the Chinese is entirely justified. Just like his protestations against Canada's seal clubbers are right too. But these aren't uniquely - and exclusively - cruel nations or people. China's synonymous with the ill-treatment of cats and dogs, our domestic companions whom we name and recognise personalities within. Footage of a saucer-eyed seal cub being clubbed for its fur immediately screams C-A-N-A-D-A at us. But we're all at it. I know decent young women in vintage frocks and decent young men in vintage shirts who eat in vegan pubs they've walked to via vintage clothing stores which wilfully peddle fur. Otherwise liberally-minded media titles helps sustain the fur trade, and grant it approval and acceptance, by including products in their fashion features and spreads.
In Britain we have the decorum and good business sense to do our mass slaughtering far from supermarkets, canteens, restaurants and music festival burger vans. But we're still doing our slaughtering. We ask for pork when we mean pig, and steak when we mean cow. We're a nation of animal lovers - and we love them best with our mums' home-made gravy. The very fact that we - all nations - exist is bad news for animals. So, to paraphrase PETA's Ingrid Newkirk, when it comes to cruelty and disrespect for creatures who do us no harm, 'China is Canada is USA is the United Kingdom'.
Perhaps light years from here there's a civilised planet whose own real and proper poet laureate pop star may be saying "Did you see the thing on the news about their treatment of animals and animal welfare? Absolutely horrific. You can't help but feel that the human race is a subspecies."
