Nathaniel already looked at his favourite George Michael songs in tribute to the man's passing at age 53, and today a 1985 tour documentary featuring the finest male vocalist of his generation.
Three decades ago when China figuratively opened their doors to western culture, the first to arrive were… Big Bird and Wham! Two fey, energetic, hyper-coloured performers who sought a mutual exchange through music and film. The yellow Sesame Street character had Big Bird in China, while George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley got Wham! In China: Foreign Skies.
It’s a peculiar film, and not an especially good one. Half Chinese travelogue for the western audiences fascinated by the newly open China with their bustling food markets, seas of grey fashion, and their Great Wall; half concert film focusing, rightly, on the energetic and handsome George Michael sashaying around on stage like nobody had ever seen before.
It’s a slice of history more than a great of the sub-genre, most likely because of the production woes involving the acclaimed and Palme d’Or-winning director at the helm: Lindsay Anderson.
Is Anderson’s original 80-minute film as “dreadful” as Andy Stephens, George Michael’s manager, says, or was it simply counter-productive to the squeaky clean image of the Wham! Boys that the record company wanted to adhere to? I guess we’ll never know – unless you can get to the University of Stirling, which has an archive copy that George Michael refuses to allow public screenings of – but one does have to wonder what everybody was thinking in hiring the director of If…. and Britannia Hospital in the first place. Jonathan Demme he was not it would seem.
A film of two distinct halves that leans heavily on the oriental fetishism that was popular at the time – think Cyndi Lauper’s “Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)”, The Flirts’ “Oriental Boy”, David Bowie’s “China Girl”. There is brief amusement from watching Ridgeley put a cassette of “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” on in a busy market, there’s less fun to be had in an early tai chi montage set to a flurry of mandolins and other clichéd sounds, a kung fu montage against Wham!’s early single “Bad Boys”, or the general sense of mockery that comes across through interviews with locals through broken English.
It’s a particular shame since the concert sequences, filmed at arenas in what was then Peking and Canton, have a real power to them, especially today. Showcasing George’s expert vocals and supreme stage presence, I just wish there had been more. Wonderful editing showcases the slinky grooves of their R&B classic “Everything She Wants” at its best as George jumps around the stage and camera attempts to keep up, while “Careless Whisper” is lent a subtle shimmer as pink and blue lights filter through feathered hair and reflect off saxophones. Interspersed throughout a crowd reaction shots, a mix of extravagant enthusiasm, quiet reservation (apparently, dancing was banned by authorities) and outright confusion at the Brits’ antics, not to mention the fact that their music was heavily influenced by traditionally black music including rap and girl groups of the 1960s that went against their appearance and Michael's front as a tanned, blond-haired matinee idol.
Despite all of these issues, Wham! in China: Foreign Skies is an important cultural relic. Much like George Michael in general, Wham!’s impact is not to be underestimated. These concerts not only helped usher a modern China into the world, but ushered popular music into China in a way that was immediately felt among the nation’s youth. Of course, Anderson and his team weren’t psychic and likely could not have foreseen just how vital this concert would ultimately prove to be in the country’s development or how massive George Michael would prove to be. For anybody wanting to see George Michael in his element, then this is at least a unique and rarely spoken of way to do so.
Wham! in China: Foreign Skies can be viewed on YouTube. There are also higher quality versions of the performance sequences here.