n early December 2021, we encountered local culture bureau officials for the first time, who had questions about our fall 2021 exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) at NYU Shanghai, “Do Rocks Listen?” (scheduled: 10/14/21–12/18/21) a survey of films by the Indigenous media group Karrabing Film Collective. Our exhibition was subsequently closed two weeks earlier than scheduled. Perhaps I was naive to think that this was a simple jurisdictional misunderstanding. Until then, I had thought that our modest university art gallery program was shielded from censorship, overseen by
