Cinéclub Podcast #5: Waldemar Januszczak on 'Beijing Swings'
Content warning: Beijing Swings contains some difficult, disturbing imagery that’s not for everyone. Some of the links on this page should be approached with caution, and this episode of the podcast contains discussion of some of the film’s challenging content.
At 11:20pm on Thursday 2nd January 2003, 3.4 million people in the UK tuned in to watch Beverly Hills Cop II on BBC One. Another 900,000, though, were over only Channel 4, 15 minutes in to the documentary Beijing Swings. I was one of them.
Controversy began even before the programme aired. On 30th December, The Guardian reported that Channel 4 planned to broadcast images of a man, quote, “biting into the body of a stillborn infant”, and, “a man drinking wine that has had an amputated penis marinaded in it.” They quoted the then-Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe, who said, “Jesus Christ said suffer for the little ones to come unto me, not that they should be eaten for public entertainment. This programme sounds hideous.”
The film’s presenter, art critic Waldemar Januszczak, says that such moralising missed the point of the documentary. In our conversation we discuss the changing face of Beijing as it prepared for the 2008 Olympic Games; Waldemar’s ‘participatory’ approach to documentary; his interview with Zhu Yu, the man behind the controversial performance piece Eating People; authenticity in Chinese art; and the sorry state of arts programming on British television today.
You can find the podcast on the following platforms:
Show notes
Kazakhstan Swings, the less controversial (but also very good) follow-up, on Youtube
ZCZ Films, Waldemar’s production company
The Real Thing, a column by Waldemar from 2004, in which he reflects on making Beijing Swings and the then-booming market in Chinese art
Info on the work by Beijing East Village artists at the Tate Modern
Contemporary coverage of Beijing Swings
The Guardian - C4 to show artist eating dead baby (30/12/2002)
Ros Coward - Perverts and narcissists (The Guardian, 1/1/2003)
BBC News - Baby-eating art show sparks upset (3/1/2003)
The Guardian - Reprimand over C4 cannibal ‘art’ (11/3/2003)
Anne Widdecombe’s motion condemning Beijing Swings, tabled in Parliament 3/4/2003