James Brown Makes Mainland Chinese Debut

Brown is little known in China, and Wednesday's audience was overwhelmingly European, American and Japanese evidence of Shanghai's increasingly international, cosmopolitan complexion.

The singer has shown no signs of slowing down, with the Shanghai concert coming in the middle of an Asian tour that also included a swing through Australia.

In an interview with The Associated Press last year, Brown shrugged off talk of retirement and said his work is the root of much of today's music.