The Shelter turns four this week and they're celebrating with two nights of sweaty dancing and some excellent international DJs. Speaking of international DJs, DJ Jazzy Jeff is in town this weekend for Hip Hop Hijack at Zeal! If DJs aren't your thing, you can also check out the TGIF party with ECNU students at Node, BEAN's bike crawl for charity, M50's music and art festival, an intro to Peking Opera, plenty of music, and parties galore! And if that's still not enough, head over to our calendar for more! more ›

Hopefully none of you were planning a trip to Tibet in the next few weeks, because China says you can't go. Next week marks the third anniversary of anti-government riots, and travel agents confirmed Monday that they are not allowed to bring foreign tourists to Tibet during March. No word yet whether they will open it back up in April. According to Chinese authorities, the restrictions are to prevent overcrowding during religious festivals, and because Tibet is probably far, far too cold for tourists at the moment. In their standard, bumbling PR, Xinhua insists "Local authorities do not hope there is something wrong with foreign tourists..." more ›

In case you don't know, FREE the WAX is a Shanghai-based bastard child production dedicated to presenting only the frontline of groundbreaking musical pioneers from across the globe. In preparation for their big anniversary party on Friday at Shelter, we chatted with Leo Messias, one of the founders of the musical expedition, about their exciting year, the effect of world-class DJ's on the Shanghai scene, and their love of old Chinese ladies who exercise in the park. more ›

• West miscasts Tiananmen protesters [Financial Times] "To say the demonstrations were to “demand democracy” is an oversimplification. The truth is that the students in the square had only the haziest understanding of western-style democracy."

Perhaps Umbrella Men will become the newest internet meme out of China! Today, Black and White Cat compiled the footage we'd featured on our site into one neat lil' video! For some reason, watching the Umbrella Men's campaign against foreign camera people looks even sillier when its shown back to back to hilarious old timey Umbrella Man music. more ›

• The New York Times brings us in depth with the various photographers (yes, there was more than one) that captured the lone man standing in front of a line of tanks - possibly the most damaging photo(s) to China's reputation ever taken.
• CNN talks to former student leader Xiong Yan, who describes meeting senior government leaders before the government crackdown.
• In case you wanted a play by play run down, the BBC has a timeline of the protests - including the tulmultuous month before the final showdown at Tiananmen.

Censors are cracking down hard on any non-harmonious behavior before the upcoming 20 year anniversary of... you know. All media outlets are heavily censored, access to places such as Tiananmen Square in Beijing is becoming more restricted, so various campaigns are spreading for ordinary people to express themselves in one of the few ways still open to them: fashion. more ›

The folks at Urbanatomy have a great feature up on this very important date in history: when the Communists and Nationalists clashed in this fair city, completely altering its fate forever. It was this day that the Nationalists' final line of defense, up along Suzhou Creek, collapsed. Roughly five months later, Mao Zedong would proclaim the establishment of the People's Republic of China. more ›

Mark MacKinnon, Beijing Bureau Chief of the Globe and Mail wrote about this screenshot, sent to him by his Chinese friend of the most searched terms on google.cn during May 19, 2009. What looks like a string of bad arithmetic is... well, we're sure you can guess. It seems that all the efforts of the 50cent army and net nanny can't dampen the curiosity of certain internet-going segments of the population. more ›

Just two weeks before the 20th anniversary of... you know... that event, China has reportedly freed the last activist that was jailed for "hooliganism" in 1989. Liu Zhihua had been jailed for life after leading a strike at a factory as part of the June demonstrations. He was accused of inciting crowds with anti-government speeches. According to the BBC, he was actually freed in January but news of his release had only now been confirmed. more ›

From the Flickr page (from the Duke University Libraries): more ›

Protesters have clashed with the police in a Tibetan-populated prefecture of Qinghai province. According to state media, dozens of angry people threw small explosive devices at police after a resident was stopped on the road for an identity check. Tensions in the area are running high, since tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the failed Tibetan uprising. The state report did not say whether the protesters were Tibetan. Source: AFP more ›