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‘The police were scared there would be riots’: When Wham! took Western pop to China 

The CIA wanted them to spy as well as perform. The Communist Party insisted that fans were not to dance to them or learn their ways. Forty years ago, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were the first Western band to tour China – Mark Beaumont revisits an event that influenced both Cantopop and the rebellion in Tiananmen Square

© LightRocket via Getty Images

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How a grieving museum guard found healing in art – then a bestselling memoir and a play

In 2008, Patrick Bringley took up a post as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art after the untimely death of his older brother. Now, 17 years later, he’s preparing to talk about his experience in an off-Broadway play inspired by his bestselling memoir. Tom Murray joins Bringley where it all began: the Met

© Ariana Baio/The Independent

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