From New York Times (Paywall)
A Tiananmen Square Musical Worries About China’s Glare
By Christopher Kuo
When it was announced that Zachary Noah Piser would be playing the lead role in “Tiananmen: A New Musical,” he happened to be on a concert tour of five Chinese cities with a group of Broadway actors...
To this day, the Chinese government is vigilant about eliminating discussion of Tiananmen. The word remains one of the most censored topics in the country, second only to President Xi Jinping, said Xiao Qiang, an expert on censorship and China at the University of California, Berkeley.
It does not matter, Xiao said, that this show is being staged at a regional theater.
“Even the word ‘Tiananmen’ would generate fear in the Chinese government and that fear would generate a very repressive action,” he said...
Xiao Qiang is the founder and editor-in-chief of the China Digital Times and a research scientist at the School of Information.
