 Dylan 's performances in China in April 2011 generated controversy . Some criticised him for not making any explicit comment on the political situation in China , and for , allegedly , allowing the Chinese authorities to censor his set list . Others defended Dylan 's performances , arguing that such criticism represented a misunderstanding of Dylan 's art , and that no evidence for the censorship of Dylan 's set list existed . In response to these allegations , Dylan posted a statement on his website : " As far as censorship goes , the Chinese government had asked for the names of the songs that I would be playing . There 's no logical answer to that , so we sent them the set lists from the previous 3 months . If there were any songs , verses or lines censored , nobody ever told me about it and we played all the songs that we intended to play . " 
