This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Gigs & Festivals
Dylan calls off East Asian tour after China say no
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 6 April 2010
Bob Dylan has cancelled a series of gigs in East Asia after he was refused permission to perform in China. The singer had been due to play in Shanghai, Beijing, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong and then a number of dates in Japan, but decided to call off the whole tour after being refused permission for the Chinese dates.
A spokesman for the tour’s promoters told the South China Morning Post: “China’s Ministry Of Culture did not give us permission to stage concerts in Beijing and Shanghai, so we had no alternative to scrap plans for a South East Asian tour. The chance to play in China was the main attraction for him [Dylan]. When that fell through, everything else was called off”.
The spokesman added that Chinese officials are still being extra strict regarding giving permission to Western artists to perform in China ever since Björk’s ‘Free Tibet’ moment when performing in Shanghai two years ago.
