Concerts In China

In 1981 Jarre was invited by the Chinese government to perform five concerts in what was then a very closed country. The five indoor stadium concerts took place respectively in Beijing (two concerts) and Shanghai (three concerts), and the French musician had composed no fewer than seven new pieces especially for them which, stylistically, moved from electro over ambient to Chinese traditional music.

Organising the concerts was a major project in itself, not least due to the cultural differences connected with the official concert tradition in China. The audience at the first show was exclusively comprised of military personnel and for this reason Jarre handed-out tickets to the citizens in the street to enable them also to share the other shows. It has been said that 500 million Chinese listened to the concerts live on the radio when Jarre, as the first Western musician invited officially, performed in early post-Mao China.