Joshua Wickerham

Recent Actions

• Posted The wild wild east? Gun drama at Hongqiao Airport to Shanghaiist
  Yesterday when Shanghaiist arrived at work, the boss said, "pick up a copy of yesterday's China Daily. They've got a story about the gun holdup on [colleague's name]'s flight to Beijing." Holdup? Gun? On an airplane? In China? Let's be clear. The holdup was really a delay. But there was still a man, who claimed that -- because of his position as an "officer" -- he could carry a loaded gun on a domestic flight....
• Posted The greening of de-stinking of Shanghai to Shanghaiist
  Last summer, Shanghaiist snapped this picture of the grassy roofs of the Jin Jiang Hotel on Mao Ming Lu. Hotel workers said the grass had been there "for some time" and that it was "mandated by the district government." Seeing as we'd never heard local cadres require anything as environmentally friendly, water conserving, or money saving as this, we were skeptical of this claim. That is, until Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau announced its new...
• Posted Tea and Ancient Strings: Shanghai's guqin shop to Shanghaiist
  Nestled under plane trees and a thatched roof on Fenyang Lu near the Shanghai Conservatory of Music is a shop unlike any other in the city. Most passersby mistake it for a teahouse, but free tea is only the beginning of what one can savor in its timeless confines. For this place is Shanghai's first and only shop devoted specifically to the appreciation and study of the world's oldest written musical tradition, an instrument known...
• Posted China's first undergraduate gay studies course to Shanghaiist
  While this semester's Fudan University course on homosexual studies is not the first gay-themed course to be offered by the Shanghai institution, it is the first one open to undergraduates. This is also the first year enrollment has surpassed the five student mark. Two years ago, at the behest of Hong Kong-based HIV activist Chung To, Fudan University school of public health professor Gao Yanning offered China's first course on homosexual studies. At that time,...
• Posted Gay ballroom dancing at the nelliest dancehall in town to Shanghaiist
  Being gay is pretty popular amongst the Shanghainese college set. But Shanghai only has one very popular gay bar and gay club. In a city of 20 million, it's not surprising that Shanghai has more tonzhi (同志) venues than say, Milwaukee, but still ... Shanghaiist was surprised to learn of the existence of a gay ballroom. Shanghaiist didn't go there to dance, but to follow some HIV prevention outreach workers from the Shanghai Sexual Minorities...