Malay concert organizer, B in Music, is receiving a flood of comments for the upcoming Kuala Lumpur concert of Taiwanese boy band Mayday. This is not an outpouring of support, but the expression of frustration by Chinese Malaysian fans who are voicing their concerns through the Malay language.
Mainland Chinese scalpers locked in on the VVIP tickets for the concert and are reselling them to locals at outrageous prices, and now a ticket that would normally cost RM1,339 ($326.82) has now been inflated up to RM28,000 ($6,834).
The same situation happened during Taiwanese Mandopop star Jay Chou’s concert in Malaysia last 2024, where Chinese fans were able to request most songs during a song-request session.
“Chinese fans made four out of five successful requests. The seats closer to the stage were locked by scalpers, who then sold the tickets to them. Many fans complained: ‘Is the show in Malaysia or China?’” said Fish Lee, a frequent concertgoer, in an interview with Strait Times.
Last year, during the G-Dragon concert in Kuala Lumpur, the majority of the people in the concert were non-Malaysians—and most were Chinese nationals. Rather than being for the locals, recent concerts have been catering to foreigners and scalpers.
With their anger about the scalped tickets, Chinese Malaysian nationals have chosen to air their grievances in B in Music’s comment section using the Malay language. They criticized that the promotional material was predominantly in Chinese rather than using the host country’s language, which is partly to blame for the influx of Chinese scalpers who have been buying tickets through bots and proxies, and selling them for outrageous prices.
One of the common phrases found in the comments is “lembu kuning”, which means “yellow cow” in Malay. These comments come from ethnic Chinese Malaysians, who are using the local language to express their frustrations. The term is a play on the Chinese slang for concert scalpers, which originated in the 20th century when laborers would mob ticket counters like cows to hoard tickets and resell them for a higher price.
Instead of being able to purchase tickets with ease, Chinese Malaysians have to fight for the tickets against an influx of foreigners, drawn in by low rates and targeted marketing. When asked about possible solutions to the problem, K-pop fan Cheong Yi Fang suggested a similar system to concerts in South Korea, saying “Real-name ticketing, priority access for locals when ticketing opens, or any form of action to prioritize locals would be a fair form of return.”
While these comments are currently just an outlet of anger for Chinese Malaysians, concert organizers acting on these suggestions will be much welcomed by fans, making them feel catered towards and having a system that works for them too.
What do you think about the foreign scalper issue happening in Malaysia? Let us know in the comments!