George Michael's Wham China trip: Ridgeley's surreal tale
In 1985, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley became the first Western pop act to tour China. A new documentary, Wham! 10 Days in China, revisits the surreal trip Ridgeley once thought stood "a cat's chance in hell"—a calculated PR move that boosted Wham! in America. According to The Guardian, the brief 1985 visit is revisited in Wham! 10 Days in China, due in theaters July 28.
Key Takeaways
- Wham! — George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley — became the first Western pop act to perform in China in 1985.
- Manager Simon Napier-Bell pushed the tour as a shortcut to elevate Wham! in the United States without a punishing U.S. arena slog.
- Ridgeley doubted the plan but says it worked: national U.S. news coverage followed, then stadium shows.
- A new Mike Christie documentary uses previously unseen archive footage and fresh interviews about the surreal trip.
- Lindsay Anderson's original film was rejected; George Michael opposed releasing it publicly.
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Why did George Michael and Wham! go to China?
The trip looked cultural. Ridgeley says the logic was commercial. George Michael was "pretty immovable" on not doing the long U.S. tour that might have risked his voice.
So China became, in Ridgeley's words, "China or bust." He thought it did not stand "a cat's chance in hell," but reluctantly agreed. USA Today reports Wham! already had U.S. No. 1s with "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" and the album Make It Big; the goal was matching British-level stature in America.
"And it worked," Ridgeley told The Guardian. Afterward, he says, Wham! reached American living rooms in a way a conventional tour could not—and returned to stadium dates.
What made the China concerts so surreal?
Beijing and Guangzhou crowds had little idea how to react. Audiences were told to stay seated. The band walked out to silence. Some fans danced; one man was removed by police for being too exuberant.
Even performing "Freedom" risked being read as political. Ridgeley later joked about plugging the song as a potential China No. 1, saying in hindsight he might have been more careful—though "nobody got shot."
Michael bristled at embassy formality and staged fan meets, once vanishing after awkward shop-floor chat. Ridgeley faced press hostility, refusing to remove sunglasses on the Great Wall. Both felt chaperoned and "slightly restricted" in Beijing.
Chinese singer Cheng Fangyuan, who recorded Chinese-language Wham! versions for ticket holders, calls the visit "a historical event"—"like opening a window."
What happened to the original George Michael China documentary?
Management hired high-minded director Lindsay Anderson—an odd pairing Ridgeley called "bloody ludicrous." Anderson injured his knee early; the band later rejected his cut as "dull as dishwater."
Video director Andy Morahan reworked footage into Wham! in China: Foreign Skies, screened for about 72,000 fans at Wham!'s final Wembley show in June 1986. Anderson's rejected film, If You Were There…, stayed largely unseen; Michael blocked public release. After his 2016 death, it screened at a 2024 BFI Anderson season with estate and Ridgeley blessing.
Director Mike Christie began in September 2024, recovering more than 20 hours of Super 16 material from 100-plus cans. Ridgeley, now 63, says keeping Wham! in the musical consciousness matters—and that George remains "ever-present" as that legacy work continues.