Everybody Must Get Banned

To fertile political minds, art creates the highest degree of plausible deniability in an oppressed or censored world. I’ve written about this before, but it is worthwhile remembering that China has never been a bastion of literal expression, long, long before the current version of China – the Peoples Republic – was founded. Traditional art never drilled down to create realistic depictions of common scenes of life. The novel was not a part of Chinese tradition until very recently, and abstract symbolic writings (poems, stage plays, etc.) and impressionist art have historically been the rule.

In the time of Confucius, hundreds of years BC, you could find yourself beheaded, drawn and quartered, subjected to a death of thousand cuts or simply banished should your eyes meet those of a ruling magnate or if your words offended a passing duke. Folks learned to deflect true meaning into art that might truly imply a hostile truth but could in fact find an innocent explanation elsewhere. Chinese learned to speak in visual metaphor, design homes with windows that faced inward (towards the courtyard) but not to the outside and only engage in writings and art that were abstract enough to create this aura of plausible deniability. Get-to-the-bottom-line Americans often can’t deal with this Chinese proclivity of indirect speech.

Fear of artists is thus heavily ingrained in the highest reaches of Chinese leadership. They’re not comfortable with free expression, and when it comes to Westerners – celebrity artists in particular – used to speaking their mind, the Communist Party is downright paranoid. So rabble-rousers, even from times gone by, are a hard ticket for Peoples Republic officials to sanction, especially when those might be tickets sold to a rock concert in China featuring musicians who made their mark in protest songs, however long ago.

As the April 5^th AolNews.com illustrates: “During a 2008 performance in Shanghai, Bjork called out, ‘Tibet! Tibet!’ while singing a song titled ‘Declare Independence.’ Since then, some say Chinese officials have been increasingly wary of Western performers… ‘Those who used to take part in activities that harm our nation's sovereignty are firmly not allowed to perform in China,’ the Ministry of Culture said after the Bjork incident… In 2009, for example, China is thought to have banned the English group Oasis from performing, after officials discovered that a band member had appeared at a 1997 Free Tibet benefit concert in New York. But according to Chinese officials, the promoter's financial problems were the issue, not censorship.” Tibet, PRC policy maintains, is and always has been part of China and has no independent right to exist. The spontaneous comments were not appreciated.

Enter Robert Zimmerman… er… Bob Dylan… who was scheduled to carry his current concert tour into Asia, particularly featuring performances in Shanghai and Beijing. “Chinese officials will not allow Bob Dylan to hold concerts in Beijing and Shanghai, apparently because of the rebellious lyrics that helped make the singer a '60s icon. Over the weekend, Dylan canceled the entire Asian leg of his tour… Dylan's promoter in Asia, Brokers Brothers Herald, told Hong Kong's South China Morning Post that ‘China's Ministry of Culture did not give us permission to stage concerts in Beijing and Shanghai, so we had no alternative [but] to scrap plans for a Southeast Asian tour.’ Brokers Brothers' Jeffrey Wu said the ‘chance to play in China was the main attraction’ for Dylan.” AolNews.com. Google, Bjork, Oasis and now Dylan. Threat down!

I’m Peter Dekom, and I smile at what continues to strike fear in the hearts of government officials.