China being the oppressive communist nation it is has been known over the years to censor performers who come to put on their act. This includes musicians as well. When musicians perform in China they can't do songs about criticizing or overthrowing the government. Such censorship has recently prevented metal legends Iron Maiden from putting on the full blown show that fans all around the world love.
This has prevented Iron Maiden from pyrotechnics, smoke effects, lead singer Bruce Dickinson waving the Union Jack during The Trooper, etc. In a recent performance done in China, a fan caught video of Dickinson saying:
“They did say ‘no cameras.’ Do I care? Everybody take out your camera device – take a picture. It’s great to be in China tonight. We ripped it up in Beijing, and we thought, ‘That was a bit serious.’ They had a few rules, so we kind of stuck by the rules and we didn’t do any swearing. There’s another thing I can’t do – see if you can guess what it is later on.”
Mouthing all the swears, Dickinson then says:
“We don’t really give a shit about all that, because the most important thing is the music. The most important thing is that we’re here, and you’re here, and we’re going to have a great fucking time.”
Dickinson then refers to a TV interview he did, saying:
“They’ve got these great pictures of the show with flames everywhere, dry ice and smoke. I thought, ‘That’s a fucking shame, because we can’t do that – we got a little bit restricted.’ Next time we’ll have a word. Next time we come back to China.”
It's kind of ridiculous how blatant China is about how they try to keep their people down. I really hope that for their sake some day the communist government comes crumbling down so that then democracy or some more fair system of government can take its place. When you're having to censor your concerts and art all around, it just goes to show how insecure they really are. If the people got truly inspired they might actually stand a chance.
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