Blocked by China, Bob Dylan Cancels Tour

(CBS)  Bob Dylan has canceled an East Asia tour after Chinese officials refused permission to hold concerts, his promoters said.

The U.K. Telegraph has reported that the 68-year-old singer was due to tour Beijing, Shanghai, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong this month following concerts in Japan.

However, a representative of Dylan's bookers said Dylan had been blocked by the Chinese government, making a continuation of the Asia tour unworkable.

"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 South East Asian tour," Jeffrey Wu, the head of operations for Taiwan-based Brokers Brothers Herald, told the South China Morning Post.

Wu said that the opportunity to perform in China was "the main attraction" for Dylan.

"When that fell through, everything else was called off," Wu said.

The singer's next scheduled tour date is May 29 in Athens.

Wu told the Telegraph that Chinese authorities are increasingly wary about allowing performers who might prove embarrassing - especially one with the counterculture reputation of Dylan.

Two years ago the Icelandic singer Bjork angered authorities by shouting out "Tibet! Tibet!" at the end of a performance in Shanghai.

The Culture Ministry said Bjork's outburst "broke Chinese law and hurt Chinese people's feelings."


For more info:
bobdylan.com
Chinese Ministry of Culture

[Dgunner]

Like kenney chesney all his songs and his singing sound all the same. I have the original copy of the concert for bangladesh in mint condition. Bob sounds the same to day as he did then.I guess you really have to be a die hard fan to drive across town to hear him . if you ever heard him once then you have heard everything he sings.Southeast asia maybe him grasping at straws.Now that they are getting closer to legalizing marijuana maybe his listening audience might expand.

[snksbrown]

They definitely did do Bob Dylan a favor. What was he thinking in the first place, planning to even appear in such a county, one that ships us bad baby and animal food, now tainted drywall, and God only knows what else. They have a new ploy. No longer does "Made in China" appear in tiny letters on many different products, it now reads "Made in PRC," People's Republic of China." Are we really that stupid? "Cheap" doesn't equal "safe."

[thebob-bob]

The promoters screwed up and are trying to blame it on the Chinese Government. Are they repressive? Yes. This time? Doesn't look like it.

[rwsmith29456]

Maybe it's an honor to be blocked from China.

[edgy44]

They ain't missing much. Ticket prices are too high, and he belongs at the county fair.

[debbie1120]

He definately looks older that he is.

[brianbwb2011]

Ironic, this "Black" jazz musician can play in China with no problems, and jazz is, at it's essence, about freedom.

It appears that perhaps it had more to do with the Taiwan booking agency, and their ability to get the proper permits. They should have farmed the job to a HongKong E.O., and just stuck with the Taiwan shows, and perhaps Macao.

[Hosheen]

Dylan is a great songwriter, perhaps the best of his and other generations. As a singer, I wouldn't walk across the street to hear him for free. Whiny, nasal, lousy phrasing, and tone control. If he didn't write stuff better performed by others like Joan Baez and PePaMar, no one would ever have heard of him.

China is, as usual, a bunch of paranoid jerks They should stick to producing knock-off goods and leave everything else to countries like South Korea and Taiwan.

[hockeymom441]

We go to war and spill blood in the name of freedom and human rights (Middle East, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam....) yet we continue to borrow tons of money and import exponentially from this country that is clearly on a different wavelength.

We are such hypocrits.

[ss433]

perhaps they were worried he'd play something from his album "Under the Red Sky"?

[irreverent1-2009]

No concerts until China pays drywall reparations!