Wednesday 16 April 2008

Fear of a 1920's composer . . .

Brilliant comment from Paper Republic's Eric Abrahamsen on seeing a recent Chinese performance of Puccini's Turandot:

Ping, one of the emperor’s three ministers, stands forward to lament, “O China, o China, che or sussulti e trasecoli inquieta” ("O China, O China, now always startled and aghast, restless"), and what comes up on the Chinese subtitle screen? “O World, O World, now always startled and aghast…”


The simple impossibility of allowing any criticism of China has become such a drag on discourse between east and west as to be unbelievable. No doubt by now the whole Carrefour boycott has its own Wikipedia entry. What can one say in such circumstances?

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