This piece has some discussion of exactly why they cancelled Ibsen’s play — the government got scared, as usual:
An Enemy of the People is ‘not welcome’ in China. By Grace Tsoi. Inkstone (Sept 12, 2018).
https://www.inkstonenews.com/arts/classic-ibsen-play-enemy-people-censored-china/article/2163896
Two thoughts:
This brings back nostalgic memories of when I helped set up August Strindberg’s Miss Julie, in Chengdu in 1987, directed by the late Zhang Fushen. I wrote about it in the Swedish daily, Svenska Dagbladet, on Jan. 14, 1987.
Also, wondering about this Inkstone. It is paid for by the Chinese state. They sometimes seem to want to balance on the line of the forbidden. Is it that they want to project a fantasy about the censorship situation, to ignorant foreigners, by way of seeming a little daring? How much of it is it available inside the firewall?
yrs. Magnus Fiskesjö, nf42@cornell.edu