Bus Stop

Our last podcast was on Mao’s Yan’An lectures. If you left that podcast wondering, “Fine, but what’s an example of what Mao considered REALLY bad art?”, then we have a treat for you: Gao Xingjian’s 1981 play “Bus Stop.” A peculiar existential piece very much indebted to Samuel Beckett, it hardly seems the sort of thing that should have brought down the full might of the Party’s wrath, but it did. To this day, Gao’s works are still banned in China. Why? Well, join us as we talk about that very question.