S2 E5: How Bohemian Rhapsody Rocked China in the 2000s

Loud Murmurs 小声喧哗

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In today’s episode, we dive into the biopic that won Rami Malek an Oscar for best actor -- Bohemian Rhapsody. For our Chinese audience, especially those at home, our first encounter with Queen was likely through ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘We Are The Champions', the memorizable rhythms that accompanied the Chinese National Team as they participated in the 2002 World Cup and 2004 Athens Olympics. But not many are familiar with the backstory behind the band, so we’ve invited scholar Chong Mu to join our hosts Diaodiao and Afra to discuss the behind-the-scenes of our favorite rock band.

Highlights:

• How were Queen’s songs assimilated into the Chinese popular culture context in the early 2000’s?
• How is Bohemian Rhapsody’s LGBT representation tailored towards the mainstream, and why is that problematic?
• What parts of the historical LGBT context did the movie omit and what does that mean? What does the additional censoring in China mean?
• Let’s talk about AIDS -- What was the AIDS epidemic like in the 90s?

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