Bob Dylan in China: a simple twist of fate?
Days after arrest of dissident artist Ai Weiwei, singer who became synonymous with protest movement plays Beijing
- guardian.co.uk,
- Article history
Bob Dylan performs in Beijing - 'strictly according to an approved programme'. Photograph: Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images
In China, irony is usually just around the next corner. In the week that Ai Weiwei, the artist and activist, was arrested, Bob Dylan was allowed in to play Beijing.
Nobody knows for certain why either decision was taken – but that didn't bother the 6,000 people who filed into the Workers' Stadium Arena last night to hear the grandfather of the protest song play his first gig in the land that brooks no dissent.
Dylan gigs are famously variable: songs are often transformed beyond recognition. Last night, however, he was singing to the culture ministry's tune: the concert was performed "strictly according to an approved programme", a sign of official nervousness that has persisted since Björk's 2008 Shanghai concert, when she chanted "Tibet! Tibet!" while singing her song Declare Independence.
That outburst resulted in a dearth of big-name performers in China. Apart from Beyoncé in late 2009 and Usher in July 2010, they have mostly been B-list acts. Last year, Dylan himself was refused permission to play.
Why the change of heart? One former culture minister told the Guardian it may be something as simple as a change of heart in the Chinese embassy in Washington, where officials pore over the record of any artist hoping to play in China, examining their biography, opinions and – above all – previous comments on China. "As personnel change all the time, changes in decisions often only reflect who is in charge. Some are bold, some are cautious," Shi Baojun says.
That doesn't entirely explain why now, though: "You have to understand the government's always balancing the need to look liberal with the need to keep control," says Shi. "They have so many audiences, and there's often no point in looking for logic because there isn't much, or any."
The set-list featured some Dylan standards, greeted with increasing enthusiasm by the audience - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, Tangled Up in Blue, Simple Twist of Fate. He also showcased some more recent work - Lovesick, Thunder on the Mountain, Beyond Here Lies Nothin'.
From a distance, in his white stetson and drainpipe trousers with a military yellow stripe down the side, he could still pass for the slim youth of decades past. He still has the same tripping, graceful step, although he handles his voice with care now, as if it's a fragile instrument he doesn't quite trust. Still, as he growls, rasps, whoops and slides through his repertoire, the effect is still authentic, the attack and the attitude still, as ever, disconcerting and compelling.
A guy in his early thirties sitting next to me, Song Xiao Feng, remarked coolly: "We're not here for the music, we're here for the legend." But by the time Dylan reached his encores – Like a Rolling Stone, All Along the Watchtower and finally, Forever Young – most of the audience – about two-thirds Chinese, one-third foreign – were finally on their feet. He wasn't for everyone – one Chinese guy behind us said: "He's not singing, he's talking." But to most, it looked like he was nailing it.
The only words Dylan spoke during the whole evening came at the end, when he introduced the band members. Yet he never seemed the sometimes reclusive and withdrawn performer of recent reports. He looked just like the legend that had drawn most of the audience to pay what are, for Beijing, serious prices – ranging from £30 up to £200.
As he left, a young Chinese man, Gong Ping, used a very distinctive Chinese word of respect: "People say he's out of date, but he has experience and wisdom. He's a 'sheng ren' – a sage, like Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King." As the audience clapped and cheered at the end, the feeling was that we'd seen a unique event for the first, and perhaps last, time in China.
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