Bob Dylan Betrays His Roots, His Fans & Chinese Dissidents

The Polemicist

by Michael House

“No reason to get excited,” the thief he kindly spoke./ “There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke./ But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate./So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.” —from “All Along The Watchtower,” by Bob Dylan

LONDON England—(Weekly Hubris)—4/18/11—Bob Dylan was an icon for my generation. Despite having a voice like a corn-crake with laryngitis, in the 60s, the Old Mumbler stood for something: change, peace, progress—a Brave New World.

Last Wednesday, Dylan performed before 6,000 citizens in Pekin. Ticket prices ranged from £30 to £200—serious money in China. The Voice of Protest had agreed to censor his program, omitting subversive songs such as “Blowin’ (sic) in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’.”

Dylan once described himself as the “greatest disciple” of the truly great American radical folk-singer, Woody Guthrie. Of course, Judas Iscariot was a disciple of Jesus Christ. No doubt Guthrie would have felt equally betrayed by Dylan’s kow-towing to the fascist regime that runs China.

Dylan had agreed, as part of the deal, not to “upset the Chinese people.” Since the Chinese people have never been consulted about anything in their entire history, it is difficult to know what would have upset them. But, just to be on the safe side, Dylan allowed the Chinese authorities to vet his program for subversive material.

He had the brass nerve to sing “Forever Young” as an encore. Songs he did not quite sing included “Hey, Mr. Mandarin man,” “A Hard-Reigning Dynasty’s Gonna Fall,” “It’s All Over Now, Rabid Crew,” and “Ai Weiwei 61 Revisited” (see below).

One most appropriate number was “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking.” The man whose songs were once a clarion call for dissent and defiance had neutered himself for cash.

Meanwhile, in the rest of China, there has been for several weeks a savage clamp-down on dissidents. Human rights lawyers, bloggers and activists had been disappearing into the slavering maw of the Chinese gulag. A frenzied attempt had been made to shut down any source of opposition. Events in Japan, North Africa, and the Middle East provided an ideal cover. And Western governments, terrified of being cut off from the milch-cow of Chinese capitalism, said and did nothing.

Most notable was the kidnapping and detention of Ai Weiwei. He is an artist and curator of art, architect, film-maker and trouble-maker. He is fat, ugly and unshaven—a sort of Chinese Michael Moore. He specializes in investigating government corruption and graft. He made a major nuisance of himself over schools in Sichuan province that collapsed during the earthquake in 2008. He was artistic consultant on the design of the Pekin National Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Ghent in Belgium and, in 2010, he was ranked 13^th (ominously) in a survey of the 100 most influential people in contemporary art, by the publication ArtReview.

On 3 April, three days before the Dylan concert, Ai Weiwei was seized by Chinese police at Pekin Airport and his studio sealed and ransacked. The day after the concert, in response to worldwide expressions of concern by human rights groups, the Chinese announced that the 53-year-old was being investigated for “economic crimes.” The single-sentence report, deleted shortly after it appeared, was published by the Xinhua state news agency.

American readers will recall that when the authorities couldn’t nail Al Capone for real crimes, they finally got him for tax evasion.

Bob Dylan was not available for comment. The press was told: “he’s not doing any interviews.” No doubt, part of the deal by which he earned his 30 pieces of silver.

“Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews and Digital Rants, 2006-2009,” edited and translated by Lee Ambrozy, is published by MIT. His blog was closed down by the Thought Police in May 2009, deleting 2,700 posts. He savaged, inter alia, Chinese TV (“a bunch of phoneys and whores”) and academic conferences (“horseshit cultural forums”). He lived in the US from 1981 to 1993, hence his mastery of the American idiom.

It is unclear at this time whether Bob Dylan has been invited to appear on Chinese TV.