Wham!’s Groundbreaking Chinese Adventure Revisited

The 1980s pop band Wham! only existed for five years, from 1981 to 1986. Yet in that short time, they accumulated an impressive list of achievements. Made up of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, the duo amassed three studio albums, four number one songs in the U.K., three here in the U.S. and several tours. One of their biggest, if less-remembered, triumphs was their mini-tour of Communist China in 1985. The absorbing new documentary “Wham! 10 Days in China” chronicles this historic occasion, which represented the first time a Western pop act had performed in the communist country.In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a few years after President Nixon’s visit and Mao Zedong’s death, the Chinese government established a series of modernizing measures, which opened up the country to international investment and other “foreign influence.” Yet, other than investors and politicians, not many Westerners traveled to the People’s Republic, and certainly not pop bands. One of the documentary’s best elements, besides the concert footage, is the b-roll showing how Communist China was back then — mostly agrarian and grim —and how this contrasts with George and Andrew’s sense of style and personalities. Other great moments involve interviews with Chinese concertgoers, then and now, who speak about the impact the concerts had on them.The tale of why the tour was conceived and how it all turned out also proves engaging. Ostensibly to promote economic and cultural exchange, the real reason for the tour was to break the duo in the U.S. Lead singer George Michael was eager to embark on a bigtime tour of America, but despite a few hit songs here, the group needed more exposure in order to play larger venues. Band managers Jazz Summers and Simon Napier-Bell envisioned that a Chinese tour would guarantee massive media coverage in the States, thereby fast-tracking Wham! to stadium status, which worked in the end.With the Chinese sojourn conceived as a publicity stunt, the band ended up making a “Faustian pact” with the media, as Andrew puts it in a contemporary interview. Mr. Napier-Bell assembled a press core of reporters and photographers who made the trip as well and who dogged the duo everywhere they went. Representing both the tabloid press and more reputable outlets, these journalists weren’t the only ones along for the ride; also included was a documentary crew headed up by Oscar-winning English filmmaker Lindsay Anderson. That documentary never came out in the ‘80s, except as a heavily re-edited concert film, due to disagreements with the band and its handlers. But the current documentary’s director, Mike Christie, relies heavily on the footage shot by Mr. Anderson’s team for his film’s behind-the-scenes look at the tour and for its take on Chinese society back then.Of course the doc’s main attraction is the pop group’s lead creative force, George Michael, who died in 2016 at the age of 53. With his good looks, teased blond hair, dynamic onstage presence, and quietly confident demeanor off-stage, he is captivating throughout. Unfailingly polite, especially with the media, he also had an irreverent side, which we get to see particularly when Andrew is close by. While their friendship feels genuine and the sharing of promotional duties balanced, one gets a sense of how George needed Andrew so that he could escape from the limelight and media scrutiny.While a 2023 Netflix documentary tracked the duo’s young lives and their time in Wham!, it devoted only a few minutes to the eventful Chinese tour. Additionally, that doc included only snippets from the band’s various tours, something “Wham! 10 Days in China” remedies by highlighting near-complete performances of some of the songs they played at the two concerts. For the first concert in Beijing, Mr. Christie features a couple of songs, including their irritating smash hit “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.” Despite heaps of energy, though, the Chinese crowd’s reaction is muted, a result of an announcement made before the band went on for the audience to stay in their seats. Apparently, some audience members resisted and were taken away by police. In one of the doc’s best, and most tense scenes, both musicians are asked at a press conference the next day to explain their ignorance of the government’s stance on dancing, with Andrew sniping defensively while George maintains a smooth and conciliatory tone.Perhaps another reason why the Beijing audience was generally non-reactive was due to their social conditioning and lack of cultural context. As one now middle-aged concertgoer describes it, “Most of us wanted to move, but we didn’t know how.” Nevertheless, the clapping and cheerful smiling faces of the concertgoers afterwards attest that a good time was had by many and that a positive impression was made. Indeed, some were even inspired to pursue careers in music.The second concert in Guangzhou goes much better, possibly because the city was more modern and closer to Hong Kong, still ruled then by the U.K. Despite a touring band member’s mental health episode and suicide attempt just a couple of days beforehand, the duo, their backup singers Pepsi & Shirlie, and the rest of the crew pull together and pull off a great show, to which the crowd joyfully responds.In the end, Mr. Christie doesn’t address the tour’s legacy on Chinese-Western relations, at least in terms of culture. Viewers are left to wonder if George and Andrew’s brief roles as cultural ambassadors were but a blip, if the country’s entrenched communist and conformist values were not easy to shake even as it attempted to liberalize aspects of its society and industry. Still, that the tour represented a new way of thinking and viewing the world for many young Chinese is undeniable. The saxophone strains of “Careless Whisper” may have signified romance to millions, but to those on the other side of the world they sounded like revolution.

Wham!’s Groundbreaking Chinese Adventure Revisited

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