So, the Vagina Monologues is definitely cancelled in both Beijing and Shanghai. Too much publicity too early: the old farts in various bureaus got wind of it. But that doesn't excuse this bare-faced lie in a Joseph Kahn article in the New York Times about the cancellation of the play:

"The challenge to social norms made the play a sensation in the United States. But in China, where the word vagina carries even greater shock value and is rarely spoken in public, "The Vagina Monologues" roiled the wrong people — the country's censors."

Rarely spoken in public? What planet is Mr Kahn reporting from? I hear the slang word for vagina - bi - maybe three or four times a day in Beijing. The clinical term - yindao - is not perhaps something you would say at your grandmother's dinner table, but it is certainly has no greater shock value than the word 'vagina' does in English speaking countries.

The New York Times article is here.

A previous danwei.org post about the cancelled Vagina Monologues performance, including a photograph of Vagina performer Shadow, is here.