When the social media posts started appearing that Ye would take his Vultures Listening Session to the Wuyuan River Stadium in Haikou, China, there was a bit of head scratching. Why isn’t this in Shanghai, Beijing, or Guangzhou? Is this real? Didn’t the show in Taiwan just get canceled and people can’t get their ticket money back?

In the middle of September, Ye and his entourage of four kids and wife Bianca Censori arrived in China and put on a show that included 90 songs, even more than the 70-plus he played in Seoul, Korea shortly before. The show sold 42,000 tickets and netted Ye a revenue of US$7.2 million, far bigger than any of his other listening sessions, with the second-highest being Chicago with US$2.9 million. Then a funny thing happened again. He announced a second show two weeks later. With that show, Ye sold 40,000 tickets.

So how did the controversial rapper get to do two shows in China back-to-back when other artists like Maroon 5 or Justin Beiber have had their shows canceled?

The main reason is that China is trying to promote Haikou as the next Hong Kong, but it hasn’t worked. The island was declared a Free Trade Zone in 2020 but the benefits haven’t trickled down to the average person. However, when Ye performed the show, hotel occupancy rates in the city were at 84 percent, higher than the holiday season in December. Also, 93 percent of concertgoers were from other parts of China. It’s estimated that Ye’s first show brought in US$53 million in tourism revenue, so he was asked back.

The second show was more for the locals but again it got people spending money on things that the Haikou government was having trouble doing. Since Ye’s rantings are in English, the Chinese censorship board could overlook it. Ye’s agent Daniel McCartney told Pollstar that these shows were basically about guanxi. “When you book someone in China at this level, you have to have government ties, and we had some great people who worked for the government, federally and locally, involved with the show.“