China Girl (song)

" China Girl " is a song co-written by David Bowie and Iggy Pop during their years in Berlin, first appearing on Pop's album The Idiot(1977). The song became more widely known when it was rerecorded by Bowie and released on his album Let's Dance (1983) and as a single.

Paul Trynka, the author of David Bowie's biography, Starman, claims the song was inspired by Iggy Pop's infatuation with Kuelan Nguyen, a beautiful Vietnamese woman.[ 1 ]

The UK single release of Bowie's remake reached No. 2 for one week on 14 June 1983, behind "Every Breath You Take" by The Police, while the US release reached No. 10.

7": EMI America / EA 157 (UK)

 * 1) "China Girl [Edit]" (Bowie, Pop) – 4:14
 * 2) "Shake It" (Bowie) – 3:49

12": EMI America 75038 / 12EA 157 (UK)

 * 1) "China Girl" (Bowie, Pop) – 5:32
 * 2) "Shake It [Re-Mix]" (Bowie) – 5:21
 * On the US 12", "Shake It" is called the "Long Version," although it's identical to the UK's "Re-Mix"
 * The UK 12" single's cover was slightly different from the US cover (they're mirrors of each other), and the flip side of the UK 12" includes dates for the 1983 Serious Moonlight Tour in the UK (specifically the London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Milton Keynes shows).

Music video (Bowie remake)
The music video, featuring New Zealand model Geeling Ng, was directed by David Mallet and shot mainly in the Chinatown district of Sydney, Australia. Along with his previous single's video for "Let's Dance", Bowie described the video as a "very simple, very direct" statement against racism.[ 2 ] Although the video consciously parodies Asian female stereotypes, it was nevertheless criticised by Ellie Hisama for failing to give the female character a personality and voice.[ 3 ] The original video release includes the two lying naked in the surf (a visual reference to the film From Here to Eternity),[ 4 ][ 5 ] though versions of the video included on subsequent video and DVD compilations are slightly censored to remove the nudity. The original video went on to win an MTVvideo award for Best Male Video.[ 6 ]

Live performances
The song was a regular for Bowie's live shows for the rest of the 1980s (appearing on concert videos in 1983 and 1988 -- Serious Moonlight and Glass Spider, respectively). It was rehearsed for his appearance at the 1985 London Live Aid concert but along with the songs "Fascination" and "Five Years" was eventually dropped due to time constraints. Additional live versions of the song appear on 2009's release of a 1999 performance for VH1 Storytellers and on a 2010 release, entitled A Reality Tour, recorded at Bowie's November 2003 concerts in Dublin, Ireland.

Musicians

 * Iggy Pop – vocals
 * David Bowie – piano, synthesizers, saxophone
 * Carlos Alomar - rhythm guitar
 * Phil Palmer – lead guitar
 * George Murray – bass
 * Dennis Davis – drums

Producer

 * Nile Rodgers

Musicians

 * David Bowie: Vocals, Piano
 * Stevie Ray Vaughan: Guitar
 * Nile Rodgers: Guitar
 * Carmine Rojas: Bass
 * Omar Hakim: Drums
 * Rob Sabino: Keyboards

<span class="mw-headline" id="Other_releases" style="box-sizing:border-box;">Other releases

 * The single edit of the song has appeared on the following compilations:
 * Changesbowie (1990)
 * Bowie: The Singles 1969-1993 (1993)
 * The Singles Collection (1993)
 * Best of Bowie (2002)
 * The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987 (2007)
 * Nothing Has Changed (2014)
 * The soundtrack for the film The Wedding Singer featured "China Girl".
 * The original Iggy Pop version is included in Pop's compilation A Million in Prizes: The Anthology.

<span class="mw-headline" id="Cover_versions" style="box-sizing:border-box;">Cover versions
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2014)*Nick Cave - Live recording in Melbourne, 1978.
 * James - Single (1998)
 * James Cook - Ashes to Ashes: A Tribute to David Bowie (1998)<span class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:0.6em;line-height:0;position:relative;top:-0.5em;">[ 7 ]
 * Trance to the Sun -Goth Oddity: A Tribute to David Bowie (1999)