When synths met Mao: the wildest cultural thaw you've never heard of.
The Concerts in China was a concert tour by Jean Michel Jarre, notable for marking the opening of post-Mao Zedong China to live Western music, in 1981. Five concerts were held in the two biggest cities, for an estimated audience of 120,000 spectators, on October 21 and 22 in Beijing, and on October 26 through 28 in Shanghai.
Direction
Piddington captures communist crowds discovering laser beams.
Production
The sheer audacity of importing massive synth rigs to 1981 China.
Practical Effects
Zero CGI—just actual lasers, smoke, and analog sequencers.
Director
Andrew Piddington
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
These concerts were negotiated directly with Deng Xiaoping's government as a cultural thaw gesture, making Jarre literally a diplomatic instrument.
Chinese officials initially demanded Jarre perform traditional folk songs; he compromised by adding pentatonic scales to his synth patches.
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