Written out of China's culture

NO PLOT INVENTED for the theatre of the absurd is ever more absurd than what actually happens on the mainland. After years bitterly complaining that Chinese writers are ignored, a Chinese writer wins the Nobel Prize for Literature but no one is permitted to talk or write about it.

The prize goes to a playwright whose plays cannot be performed in a country where the leaders are emptying state coffers building lavish new theatres in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities. These monuments are being built at a time when existing theatres are empty and collapsing from a lack of state subsidies.

The day after Gao Xingjian's literature prize was announced, the Beijing Morning Post actually ran an indignant article under the heading 'The Nobel Prize has ignored China for too long'.

'It would have been too complicated to change the page layout after the news broke,' explained Wu Ying from the editorial desk. 'Anyway, we felt we could still print it because Mr Gao's no longer Chinese, right? He lives in France now.'

A spokeswomen at the Department of Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said: 'I cannot say anything. The Government and the Writer's Association have already given their verdict on this. If I say more, I might get into trouble.'

The Chinese Writer's Association complained that the Nobel Prize Committee ignored the many 'excellent writers and works of literature inside China' and accused it of using the prize for 'political purposes with ulterior motives'.

That was the phrase used by the Foreign Ministry. To make sure no other view gets across, government cyber-censors have been busy methodically deleting articles on Chinese-language portals like Sina.com expressing enthusiastic views.