Both praise and condemnation have followed Bob Dylan’s concerts in China. After a lot of speculation about whether the Chinese authorities would allow Dylan to perform, the concerts went ahead in Beijing on April 6th and Shangai on April 8th. Amongst others, Heather Horn in the Atlantic Wire criticises Dylan for going ahead with the concerts (with up to 2000 Ministry of Culture security staff in attendance) just days after the prominent dissident Ai Weiwei was taken into custody, and she accuses Dylan of “a cave in”. But the politics of cultural boycotts are difficult. Certainly in this case it would appear that Dylan has outsmarted the Chinese censors to the delight of much of the “young, enthusiastic and knowledgeable“ crowd, as one reviewer described the audience. From the concert in Beijing, one or two examples of Dylan’s messages of dissent and hope:
From “Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall” – an outstandingly powerful song of rich imagery and deep meanings which must have resonated with many in the audience:
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are a many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I’ll tell and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’
But I’ll know my songs well before I start singin’
From “Ballad of a Thin Man” (repeated in Shangai) – as Dylan covertly taunts the authorities:
And something is happening here
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
In “Forever Young” performed by Dylan as a rare second encore in Beijing, and as the final song in Shangai, and in which Dylan expresses his empathy with, and encouragement of, the audience
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong …
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And of course both concerts started with “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking”, in which almost at the start of the song Dylan notes:
So much oppression
Can’t keep track of it no more
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