Wait, are they acknowledging our fandom ?

A Wechat topic from what seems to be an official-ish source is being shared (translated in English) right now on forums and social media, and it was brought to our fandom's attention. At the risk of coming across as self-centered, I'm wondering if it's acknowledging our fandom tbh.

The topic is about the Chinese "green card". It emphasizes that the SPOUSAL green card doesn't actually exist, people need to work. That's what our fandom was saying, so, it's confirmed.

However, here, it seems they're saying that people like Melina will not be able to get it ever. They literally use 2 examples : one person who applied (and who "used to be Chinese", not sure if it's relevant at all ???) and had a job. He got the card. The second person is unemployed but has foreign income that doesn't come from employment (read : passive income such as royalties or rent from housing owned abroad, freelance or stuff like these), and he got denied.

It seems that they REALLY mean it when they say STABLE source of income. French people said that a Ytber who lives in Japan said it's also how it works in Japan. As an artist who mostly gets royalties or even gigs, he cannot apply for the Japanese "green card" either.

They claim that (in China) the amount of tax paid doesn't matter for this green card. (As opposed to the work one (for people who are not married) that says you need to pay A LOT of taxes in order to be eligible). But apparently it also goes both ways : as long as the person is not EMPLOYED with a stable job, the amount of tax they pay doesn't matter.

(For those out of the loop, in China, people employed start paying taxes when their salary is ABOVE 5000 Yuans (650 Euros or so) per month. Average salary is 3500-4500 Yuans, so most people don't pay income tax ! And they pay like 5% (for the first tax bracket) + social security (only available in Shanghai for non-Chinese people, though). For royalties and other type of passive income, it's 20% of one-time payments ABOVE 800 Yuans (100 Euros or so).

So, that sounds a bit unfair IMO.


So, that's what the official-ish stuff say. On Reddit, everybody seems to say that teachers (that they call "low salaries" on Reddit, despite the fact it's 3 times the average local salary) are always rejected. Maybe the law is changing right now and they're making it easier, though ?


Anyway, I really think our fandom (who has discussed and asked on social media about this) is being acknowledged here and they want us to know beforehand/right now that it's how things are, so that we don't ask "but how come Melina can't apply ?" anymore. I hope for Melina that they will change the law a bit in the future.

Also, source, but in Chinese : https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-_GlpooGkXjZnTIEMLh49Q

That's a bit of a bummer. Also, nobody knows how things will be in a few years from now, so...

As everybody said before, Melina shouldn't seek to do some random job for the sake of being able to apply, because everybody on Reddit is saying that people who do so might not get it either way regardless ? 

What's important is that Melina does what she really wants to do and what fits better for her. She wants to do art as a hobby anyway. She never wanted to sign with a label, she's actually been trying to not sign any kind of contract with the Big 4, so... She doesn't want to tour the world (also, let's not forget that glycols allergy can be very debilitating !) or be on tv or whatever ! 

Also, if she has to go back to France or somewhere else for whatever reason in the future, she would be able to just keep doing her thing as usual. That's actually quite stable IMO. I get that here they're talking about stable income, but I mean, her art, even though it's just a hobby, would be her "constant". With all the layoffs nowadays, there's nothing stable about working anyway IMO.

Maybe things will evolve in time ? Also, maybe after paying taxes for a few years she'd be eligible ? It seems that indeed royalties mean not stable. Also, apparently royalties from radio plays are sometimes paid to the singers YEARS later. 🤯

The article in English say there is no limit as long as people pay taxes, but for people who work (especially for the Chinese person), it still means having a salary well above 5000 Yuans, ideally in the bracket that pays 20% as well ? That's the rich, then ? 5000 Yuans per month is already upper class ?


Also, when Melina was told to try to apply (by the local immigration office), they told her that she might not get it, but you will never know unless you try. Back then, Melina had her company in HK, and it doesn't count administratively in China. Also, it was still c0vid times, and her company was declared "inactive" back then, with literally no income. Melina said she had to pay all the fees and taxes out of pocket ! But that doesn't count for Mainland China... The few royalties and stuff from her music were all absorbed by the corporate and banking fees, so Melina had literally 0 income at all.

Some literally think she wasted her time and money with that company. Especially given all the bad stuff that happened ! I guess it was better because it allowed them to have access to payment methods and all social media platforms, but like... Melina literally aims to be a hobbyist artist who does stuff at her pace, doesn't feel the need to make MVs, doesn't do gigs (although, her propylene glycol might be the reason) ! Sure, she would have liked to produce other artists, but I mean...


At least we got a tangible answer now. Not sure why there were some kind of misinformation going on, claiming people who don't work can actually get it, or maybe it's true but only for Shanghai ? It was confusing everybody and even making some people unhappy then. Now it's clear and we got the answer. We hope Melina will be eligible some day, especially after paying huge amounts of taxes, haha. But tbh, even if she gets it, I don't think she should open an offshore company. She's literally aiming at being a hobbyist, so she should keep things this way IMO.

RandomUser wrote:

That's a bit of a bummer. Also, nobody knows how things will be in a few years from now, so...

As everybody said before, Melina shouldn't seek to do some random job for the sake of being able to apply, because everybody on Reddit is saying that people who do so might not get it either way regardless ? 

What's important is that Melina does what she really wants to do and what fits better for her. She wants to do art as a hobby anyway. She never wanted to sign with a label, she's actually been trying to not sign any kind of contract with the Big 4, so... She doesn't want to tour the world (also, let's not forget that glycols allergy can be very debilitating !) or be on tv or whatever ! 

Also, if she has to go back to France or somewhere else for whatever reason in the future, she would be able to just keep doing her thing as usual. That's actually quite stable IMO. I get that here they're talking about stable income, but I mean, her art, even though it's just a hobby, would be her "constant". With all the layoffs nowadays, there's nothing stable about working anyway IMO.

The constant, haha, I got the ref ! True though, even if she change countries, her music and novels would still continue to be streamed and bought, that's some type of stability indeed. The only thing that would change is where she pays taxes.