MCLC: Censorship and salesmanship at US book fair (8)

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Censorship and salesmanship at US book fair (8)
A clear distinction between politics and art, or between “dissidents” and authors, might make sense within the first few ring roads in Beijing (if anywhere). But I can say that life elsewhere for many others is considerably more complicated.
Beyond Liao Yiwu and other examples already noted (I think also of Han Han and his literary mag), here are a few more troubling examples:
http://thetibetpost.com/en/news/tibet/4501-youth-who-wrote-qthe-power-of-the-heartq-arrested-in-rebkong-tibet
http://freetibet.org/news-media/na/china-arrests-young-tibetan-writer
http://freetibet.org/news-media/pr/tibetan-singer-arrested-concert
http://voiceproject.org/post_news/tibetan-singer-sentenced-4-year-prison-term-songs/
http://www.voatibetanenglish.com/content/article/1914322.html
http://uyghuramerican.org/article/uaa-urges-china-immediately-release-information-nurmemet-yasin-s-condition.html
Perhaps Tibet and Xinjiang are just aesthetically unlucky lands cursed by many bad poets and singers? But something tells me the reality is considerably more complex.
In reality, casual ruminations on the distinction between politics and art in China can only be written from a position of extreme privilege. And the problem with such a framework is that while it attempts to celebrate art by bracketing off politics, such bracketing is in the end an immensely political act. One can, I might say, see politics poking through this framework, and it’s not pretty.
And while I don’t believe Abrahamsen intends to contribute to such politics, I could certainly think of many people who would use such an argument to explain away the inexplicable.
The fact that many very creative and thoughtful people have been arrested for speech crimes in China should not detract from the creative accomplishments of those who have not been arrested. But at the same time, the real accomplishments of writers who have not fallen afoul of censorship should not detract from recognition of those who have been less fortunate. It's possible to recognize really interesting work today while at the same time recognizing how much more interesting things could be without a burdensome and anachronistic cultural bureaucracy.
Kevin Carrico <kjc83 at cornell.edu>
by denton.2 at osu.edu on June 19, 2015
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