See the article here about how some of Dylan’s songs were deemed unacceptable to the Chinese government. The article concludes:

These are not the manifestations of a secure or confident society, especially one considered in the west to be the coming masters of the new century and a phenomenon almost as terrifying as that of globalised Islamism.

Ultimately, it all comes down to fear and paranoia. In the west, we’re scared of Islam and China; in China they’re still scared of Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, who are considered over here to be a bunch of eccentric pensioners who shot their respective bolts half a century back. Everybody concerned needs, essentially, to grow the hell up… and lighten the hell up. The times are always a-changin’, just neither as much as some of us hope, or as much as some of us fear.

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