Raw Recordings 1984-87 China

For those seriously interested in what a BBC News correspondent based in Beijing recorded and reported during Deng Xiaoping’s pre-Tiananmen years of Jingji Gaige and Dui Wai Kaifang (Economic Reform and Opening Up), here’s a full list of raw cassettes collected during my time in China.

The cassettes have all been digitised, and listed in year and place order, but beyond that, it’s the raw stuff, recorded four decades ago now. (The picture at the top was taken as the 1987 555 car rally  

They’re archived online on OneDrive, and this link will take you there. You’re very welcome to browse around, and if you find anything seriously interesting (bearing in mind that I haven’t listened back to them myself in all these years), feel free to let me know. 

I might add that not so long ago (writing this in April 2025), a documentary film production team found my visiting card in the singer George Michael’s legacy archives, going back to when I interviewed him after Wham’s ground-breaking concert in what we then still called Peking literally 40 years ago this month. 

An interview ensued which might be part of a documentary being put together to mark that anniversary. Momentous times.