Think Twice: It’s All Right
On October 13, 2016, the Swedish Academy awarded Bob Dylan, an American songwriter, singer, artist, and writer, the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetic expression in the strong tradition of American music.
On the evening of October 22, China Book Industry Market Data Service Company published a list of the most influential Nobel laureates in Literature in China since 1998, and Dylan topped the list.
A legendary figure in music history, Dylan, born in 1941, is considered one of the most influential singers and songwriters in both folk and pop music. Not only did his work lead the transformation of American country music in the 1960s, but much of his most celebrated work became anthems for American civil rights, anti-war and student movements. He fused music with his own personal insight on social problems in a poetic form. He was previously nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996 and 2006.
Over five decades have passed since Dylan’s first solo album was released in 1961. Across the 55 years, Dylan has won myriad prizes in the United States and the world as a whole for music and literature, including the Grammys Lifetime Achievement Award, one of the world’s top honors for musicians, an Oscar for Best Original Song and a Golden Globe Award.
Dylan is an extensively published writer as well. His notable books include the hyper-realistic novel Tarantula and autobiography Chronicles. He won the Pulitzer Prize Special Citations and Awards in 2008.
Dylan was first introduced to China’s mainland as a writer more than as a musician. In 1978, The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972 was published in China, in which author William Manchester mentioned Dylan many times. In 1985, Chinese publishers released Gates of Eden by well-known American scholar Morris Dickstein, who devoted an entire chapter to Dylan.
Dylan was endowed with stunning creativity. He has released 37 solo studio albums and 240 records of all types. His music was introduced to China during the 1980s, an era in which his solo albums could be found on the shelves of video stores, and covers of his songs, mostly by Asian artists, were all over the radio.
In the latter part of the decade and early half of the 1990s, Dylan’s stories were recounted in Chinese musical journals such as Music Heaven and Audio-Video World. Because his music was never officially published in China, it was only accessible through bootlegs of originals from the United States, leading Chinese music fans to head first into the world of music from Europe and America, with Dylan as a driving force. True fans wouldn’t hesitate to plunk down exorbitant prices for any latest arrival with his name and such enthusiasts became the backbone forces of China’s rock ‘n’ roll as well as some of its most respected music critics.
Nevertheless, few fans knew much about him due to limited dissemination. “I was introduced to him by songs such as ‘Under the Red Sky’ from the albums released during the 1980s and 90s instead of his classics of the 1960s,” explains Zhang Xiaozhou, an eminent Chinese music critic. “Frankly, I was not that impressed because they were not his standouts.”
Yuan Yue, a Chinese columnist who received a master’s degree from the Biological Department of Arizona State University, fondly remembers buying a collection of Dylan records in 1992. “My roommate Andy danced to Dylan’s music after I played some of his other hits including ‘Like a Rolling Stone.’ I later learned the song evolved from a song composed during the 1960s, ‘Positively 4th Street.’ When he started playing rock and roll, Dylan was criticized by folk music fans. He only wanted to express his anger at folk music circles in New York.”
“The addition of electricity only made him more popular,” continues Yuan. “I was totally amazed. I then realized that Dylan was far beyond the folk singer of ‘Blowing in the Wind.’”
From that moment, Yuan became a true fan of Dylan. In 2008, he published the book American Folk Music: The Stories, in which he devoted six chapters to the songs and stories of Dylan. “It is the most detailed, objective introduction to Dylan I’ve ever read in China, with comprehensive details of his wisdom and weaknesses,” commented Wang Xiaofeng, a noted Chinese music critic.
Four specific books played a huge hand in introducing Dylan to China: Chronicles written in 2006 and published in Chinese in March 2015; The Old, Weird America by Greit Marcus, a famous American music critic and culture researcher; Who is That Man? In Search of the Real Bob Dylan by David Dalton, a distinguished American scholar in culture and history; and Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan by Howard Sounes, a British writer. These books were never bestsellers, but they explored the music and life of Dylan from different angles.
Why don’t more Chinese people know about Bob Dylan? “His musical aesthetics don’t mesh despite the fact that he was one of the earliest Western singers introduced to China,” opines Wang Xiaofeng. “His singing style is primitive and rugged and his lyrics were greatly influenced by European and American literature as well as French symbolism and the American ‘lost generation,’ which are odd, abstract, and hard to follow.”
Dylan has never stopped performing. Since 1988 when he began his “Never Ending Tour,” he has gone on stage an average of about 100 performances annually. So far, he has played more than 2,300 shows around the world.
In 2011, about 3,000 Chinese fans attended a Dylan show at Beijing Workers’ Gymnasium, almost the same as the Rolling Stones drew in Shanghai in 2014, including Cui Jian, China’s “father of rock ‘n’ roll.”
“Those who were dying to be considered icons of their eras are all washed up today,” remarked Cui. “Dylan has always kept a low profile and committed himself to performing, from his first song to today. His extensive body of work has exerted a profound influence on the philosophies of all people of the world.”