China and Korea have been reported to be joining forces and working together to set up a joint concert featuring some of both countries’ biggest stars, in order to raise money to help fight the global Coronavirus pandemic.

According to an exclusive report from Maeil Kyungjae, the ban on Hallyu culture in China will be lifted from the online space first, as Korean-Chinese joint media platform KVLY and China’s largest performance agency FREEGOS Entertainment will host the world’s largest online concert starring some of China and Korea’s biggest artists. The China Benevolent General Association will be sending official invitations to major Korean agencies later this week, and this move is expected to be a sign of the lifting of the Hallyu ban in China. The concert is expected to be held on April 30.

The report also detailed how KVLY and FREEGOS Entertainment are planning to hold the first untact (no contact) live streaming concert We Are The World 2020, with the theme of “Let’s Fight the Global Crisis of Coronavirus”. The joint venture is also receiving investment from NetEase Music, one of China’s leading music platforms with over 900 million users, as well as VT GMP, best known for their company VT cosmetics and their collaboration with BTS. The concert can be seen as the 2020 Asian version of We Are The World, the global sensation from 1985 that was held to support Africa.

The concert would be streamed live throughout the continent. China would finally open up their online platforms to Korean content for the first time since THAAD and heavily restricting Hallyu content. Viewers in Korea and other unspecified regions will be able to view the concert on YouTube. The Chinese Association of Performing Arts and the Chinese Charity Foundation will also participate as sponsors.

As the concert is a joint Chinese-Korean concert, the lineup is expected to be filled with stars from both countries. Leading China’s group of 10 artists are Jay Chou and Jacky Cheung, while BIGBANG‘s G-Dragon is expected to headline Korea’s lineup. As many K-Pop artists are cancelling events in Japan due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the demand for K-Pop’s re-entry into China is growing faster than ever.

While watching the live online concert, viewers will be able to donate to help support the relief efforts for the Coronavirus pandemic. Korea’s team of artists will be performing in Seoul while China’s team of artists will be performing in Shenzhen. In addition, artists from Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, and more will perform in Macau. Fans will be able to donate in real-time, with donations being sent to the World Health Organization‘s Coronavirus Relief Fund and the Community Chest of Korea.

Following the online, untact concert, KVLY and FREEGOS Entertainment plan to hold a series of offline concerts, where Korean artists will be able to perform in China once again in Hainan, Beijing, and Shanghai.

If the Coronavirus situation slows down [in China and Korea], we expect the two countries to begin reconciliation, which was put on hold. We will work closely with the Chinese government to engage in cultural exchange between the two countries. — KVLY executive