Shanghaiist Reads: SH

Shanghaiist Reads returns—to the delight of some, to the dismay of others—with a blow-by-blow markup of the Oct. 20, 2006 issue of SH. Get your highlighters out, kiddies:

• FBC (Foreign-Born Chinese)—it’s a way of life, not an identity crisis. Mercifully, SH steers their coverage away from asking, “But do they truly fit in? Those poor, confused FBCs?,” by presenting a varied cast of entrepreneurs, talk-show programmers, and marketing consultants. Of course, dreaded buzzwords like “roots” and “integration” and “identity” are uttered, and we would’ve liked to see a couple more examples of those not in the world of business/finance. But we’ll leave the nitpicking to someone else, and leave you with this doozy from entrepreneur Phillip Man: “Being in the right place at the right time is what’s important. You have to seize the chance and not screw it up. Nobody here will be telling you what to do.” Our thoughts exactly. [Cover story]
• Now that Attica has officially been crowned as the big bully of the Bund, how come we’re still not convinced that it’ll ever be at full capacity? [Page 3]
• We don’t know much about beauty masks, which is why it’s good to have someone around who does. [Home]
• Certain combinations of food are apparently very bad for you. Like, gastrointestinal-discomfort, lose-your-hearing-bad. We applaud the moxie on the part of SH’s intrepid taste-testers, though we’re still scratching our heads as to what the point of the article is. That persimmon is a strange yet delicious fruit? [Dining feature]
• The Japanese restaurants on Yan’an Lu are like those three bears Goldilocks befriends: too hot, too cold, just right. [Restaurant reviews]
• The theme for the latest edition of Open Bar: dark, dank, swanky. Any club owners in Shanghai looking for a different business model? [Open Bar]
• 2006 Popularity Prize winner Shi Yang sure likes to spout off those clichés: “We’re all just ordinary people.” “Just be yourself! Show your true colors.” “Success becomes less important as you gain happiness and friends.” [First Person]
• Oh, and that bright orange bubble text on the cover: still an eyesore.

Image from SH.