The Golden Horse Awards (金马奖), considered the Oscars of Chinese cinema, has broken with its 48-year tradition of inviting the previous year's winners to present the next year's awards by announcing its decision to rescind its invitation to Lü Liping (吕丽萍) to its 2011 event. more ›

The Founding of a Party (建党伟业), also known as Beginning of the Great Revival in English, was released last week as part of a 28-movie mega push for party revelry in the lead up to the 90th anniversary of the CPC. As with 2009's The Founding of a Republic, the CCP's latest propaganda picture features a parade of some of the biggest Chinese stars working in film today. Though you might know the faces (Look! It's that fellow from the cell phone/milk tea/moisturizer commercial!), we're sure there's some confusion about the names attached to them. more ›

The spectacular arrest of famed Hong Kong actor Max Mok (莫少聪), 50, by Beijing police for allegedly taking drugs has been widely reported in the media. As this video shows, the actor, best known for his role in the 1990s drama series Once Upon a Time in China by director Tsui Hark, was busted at home in Beijing together with two of his friends, including his manager. Commenters have been horrified at the way Mok has been humiliated on public television for the relatively minor crime of smoking pot, and many have wondered if this wasn't the handiwork of someone else in the industry who reported on him to the police. In the video, a tired-looking Mok insists, "I really didn't do it... Even if you give it to me for free, I don't want any of it." But later when shown the results of his drug test, Mok concedes that he took two hits, but only because there were lots of friends around who kept pushing it to him, and he found it hard to reject them. Mok's buddies also tested positive for ketamine, but their faces were blurred out in the news report. Moral of the story? If you ever get busted for smoking pot some day, then you only really need to start worrying if you're as famous as Max Mok.
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Following in the footsteps of Chinese actress Gong Li, kung fu superstar Jet Li (李连杰) has also confirmed that he has now taken on Singaporean citizenship. more ›

American comedian/actor Aziz Ansari (Tom Haverford on NBC's Parks and Recreation) is visiting Shanghai this week with Parks and Recreation screenwriter Alan Yang (pictured). No gigs or anything, just a vacation. He's already done the obligatory meet and greet with Haibao and eaten an unhealthy amount of our city's famous soup dumplings. As his Twitter bio suggests, Aziz "likes food a lot." He also likes cocktails. He's got a little more time in Shanghai, so if you have any recommendations for either, leave them in a comment. more ›

Sure, you can't have actors pretend to be doctors anymore, but nobody said you couldn't dub over existing actors' voices to make them sound like shills for your product. more ›

Sad news for anyone hoping to play the role of laowai doctor #3, China has issued a law effectively banning actors and celebrities from appearing in medical ads. A new notice posted by SARFT bars people without medical qualifications from making health claims in an attempt to cut down on the snake oil sales tactics rampant throughout the country. The restrictions come after an internet hunt exposed at least 12 fake experts selling medicine under different pseudonyms in Shandong alone. Source:Reuters more ›

Not sure how long this clothing store has been in existence on the northwest corner of Shaanxi Nan Lu and Changle Lu, but we just noticed it on Sunday. The Chinese characters on the sign — 兴昌祥服饰 — means "auspicious, prospering and flourishing clothing." Mr. Deniro's entry into the Shanghai market is further proof of what Shanghaiist has been writing about the actor ever since his 1965 debut: He's been riding Liv Tyler's coattails his entire career. more ›

The Straits Times reports that actress Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) has made her first public appearance since pictures of her canoodling topless with her Israeli fiance Vivi Nevo at a beach hit the interwebs. According to the report, Zhang had a "forced smile" at the show. Also:

She avoided reporters by shunning the red carpet but, in a speech on stage, she appeared to allude to being indifferent to online criticism that she had shamed China by sunbathing topless with Israeli investor Vivi Nevo. more ›

So you might have heard that Jackie Chan (成龙) recently went to Australia to bury his father, who died of cancer at the age of 93.Well, what you might not have known is that Jackie Chan's father Charlie, aka Fang Daolong, had a whole other family (Jackie's mother was his second wife) that he lost touch with and then had to leave behind in 1949. There was an article called "Enter the Parents" written a few years ago that gave some of the background. The video above covers some of the same ground, but was made more recently, as it mentions the thorny issue of why Jackie doesn't want to get in touch with his half-brothers Fang Shisheng and Fang Shide, especially when their father died and there was a funeral to attend. The interviews also broach the question of whether or not they are revealing their identities so openly now in hoping of getting some of Jackie's (and his father's) money. To this question they reply that it would be a lie to say that they aren't hoping for some help (university tuition, jobs for the young uns) but are NOT coveting Jackie's wealth. The video is in Chinese. more ›