Stay Bobby Stay
According to the Guardian, Bob Dylan will not be permitted to play concerts in Beijing and Shanghai, thus scuttling his proposed East Asia tour:
China's ministry of culture, which vets planned concerts by overseas artists, appeared wary of Dylan's past as an icon of the counterculture movement, said Jeffrey Wu, of the Taiwan-based promoters Brokers Brothers Herald.
Dylan fans denied the chance to see their hero might also blame Björk, who caused consternation among Chinese officials two years ago byshouting pro-Tibet slogans at a concert in Shanghai, Wu told Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.
The verdict scuppers Dylan's plans to play his first dates in mainland China. The singer, who plays around 100 concerts a year on his Never Ending Tour, had hoped to extend a multi-city Japanese leg with concerts in Beijing, Shanghai, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong. All these would now be called off, Wu told the newspaper.
I think I own or have listened to most of Bob Dylan's music, and I'm struggling to remember if China, Tibet, Taiwan received any mention at all in his lyrics. Dylan also hasn't been a counter-cultural icon since the early '60s. When the hippie movement blossomed in the latter part of that decade, Dylan was living on a farm in Woodstock, New York and making folk/country albums like John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline. In other words, he hasn't raged against the machine since before the Cultural Revolution was in full swing.
I also find the Bjork connection dubious. Ministry of Culture apparatchiks are understandably not paid to keep up with Western pop music, but had they seen just one of her videos they'd have realized that the Icelandic ice queen isn't exactly a bellwether of mainstream Western culture. If anything, her embrace of Tibetan rights would almost be enough to discredit the movement.
Once again, the Chinese government reveals its inept approach to international public relations regarding the Tibet issue. Moreover I doubt even the most rabid fenqing would have been riled up by a near-septuagenarian folk singer entertaining a few thousand nostalgic boomer laowai.
April 5th, 2010 - 08:34
Hey Matt, enjoying your blog. (Longtime reader, first time commenter.)
Do we know if this was canceled by the government, or whether this was nixed by the promoter? The latter happens as often as the former these days.
April 5th, 2010 - 08:43
David,
The article didn’t specify, but hinted that the government was behind it. Would the promoter have any other motive beside the possibility that nobody would go to cancel the concert?