"If criticizing the Chinese government means being ‘anti-China,’ then most American media would be 'anti America'. The China in the term anti-China media refers to a country with a 5,000 years of history, a very vast land. It is not someone's dynasty or career, nor some party's reign. If you hear people talking about "anti-China" media again, you may think this way: he may be smoking Zhonghua cigarettes, but even Zhonghua does not represent the country of China. Who does he think he is to represent the country?" more ›

"The fall of Bo Xilai, like the fall of the Gang of Four, was a non-normal process. It only goes to show that the Chinese Communist Party has failed to evolve even by a hair's breadth over the last three decades. In countries under the rule of law, problematic officials are dealt with using legal measures. China, on the other hand, operates within the black box. Bo Xilai may not be evil, but his opponents Hu and Wen are no saints either. It gives me goosebumps to hear people like Wang Kang praising Wen, like someone has just let off a foul odour. more ›

Former Goldman Sachs partner Peter Kiernan, author of Becoming China's Bitch: And Nine More Catastrophes We Must Avoid Right Now, on CNN sharing his concerns about China replacing the U.S. as the world's top economy. more ›

In a place where most people have never even seen ballot papers, there's always someone who'll always say that the one-person one-vote is dangerous. The 'good citizen certificates' of yesteryears were the same as now. The (Japanese) devils said, "We can't issue 'good citizen certificates' for everyone, or else the Eighth Route Army would penetrate." I'm not talking about representative systems to you. I'm just telling you that the one-person one-vote is a right right. We're not talking about one-person one-gun here. What are you so afraid of?" more ›

Literary badboy and rally driver Han Han (韩寒) is set to take anti-fraud crusader Fang Zhouzi (方舟子) to court for claiming online that some of his works were probably ghost-written. more ›

Chinese author Murong Xuecun, described by some as being the best in his generation, recently popped up on Shanghaiist's radar for his account of an attempt to visit Cheng Guangcheng with a few of his friends. His profile in the New York Times, written by Edward Wong, was much discussed among China observers. Here's a video by Jonah Kessel which appeared together with the report more ›

On Monday morning Peter Hessler, former New Yorker correspondent and author of a handful of books all considered "must reads" in the Sinosphere, was awarded a genius grant for long-form journalism from the MacArthur foundation to the tune of $500,000! Like most recipients of the award, it came as a total shock, and he told Denver Post that "When they called, I said this would be the first time in my life I'd had a regular income since I earned $125 a month in the Peace Corps." We'd like to say congratulations from Shanghaiist! The author of Oracle Bones, River Town, and Country Driving will soon be moving on to Cairo, and plans to examine the aftermath of the Arab Spring. more ›

Zhang Lijia, author of the book Socialism is Great, says that despite her great respect for Ai Weiwei, she disagrees with some of the things he said about Beijing in his recent article for Newsweek. In the article, Ai had described the city as a "constant nightmare" in which he had "no favorite place" left anymore. more ›

Zhang Lijia, author of the book Socialism is Great, offers us a personal anecdote on the identity of her mixed-race kids. She writes of a recent trip to Bangladesh with her daughters:

Everywhere we went, people asked us which country we were from. At point, May, my older daughter, aged at 14 (but going on 18) replied without thinking: “We are from England.” I immediately contracted her: “I am from China and my daughters are half-Chinese.” Later I pulled May aside and asked: “You were born in China; you spent 10 out of 14 years in China and you are living in China. How does it qualify you as ‘English’?” May blinked her big round eyes. “Well, if I tell people I am Chinese, people wouldn’t believe me.” more ›

The last time we heard about Mark Ndesandjo, the China-based half-brother of US President Barack Obama, he was still busy raising funds for the orphans in Shenzhen. more ›

Sure the Shanghai International Literary Festival doesn't actually start until March, but books take quite a while to read (even if you're speed readers, like us). That's probably why the M Restaurant Group has wasted no time getting us the almost completely confirmed list of books and authors appearing at this years readings - stick your nose in any one of these 40+ tomes so you'll actually have something to discuss when one of your personal writing heroes (like say... Peter Hessler or Su Tong) come into town. more ›

Didn't manage to make it to all the Shanghai Lit Fest authors you wanted to see? CityWeekend, already having done us a great service by liveblogging the event, was nice enough to record a bunch of podcasts for everyone who couldn't be there. Currently, they've got Week 1 and Week 2's writers up, and Week 3 is supposedly going to be added soon. Head over there to listen to the people you couldn't catch live... or just the people you want to hear again. We know we'll be re-listening to the James Fallows podcast. Maybe on repeat. more ›

Let's make this as short and sweet as possible. You've had three weeks to pony your lazy arse to Lit Fest, so if you miss it, don't blame us for not keeping you blissfully well-informed. And if you miss out, you really ARE missing out--if not just for the fabulous view out the window of Glamour Bar in broad daylight. more ›

When we first arrived in Shanghai a long, long time ago, all there was to do on weekends was vogue at Bar Rouge---balancing champagne glasses and tottering around on stilettos while trying to not catch our hair on fire. Well, things have changed. Champagne is no longer as popular and now there is a Barbie shop to vogue around at, plus this weekend our Pearl of the East has oystered out an arts scene involving more than the usual bomb shelters, beer and beavers. more ›

The live music selection may be amazing this weekend, but it's not the only thing going on! Today also marks the beginning of two super special events and if you're a fan of sexy things or literary things (or sexy literary things), you've got great reason to be psyched. more ›

Go here to listen to Terry Gross' interview with Beijing-based (and formerly Shanghai-based) writer James Fallows, The Atlantic's "man in China." Fallows discusses a variety of topics, including China's extensive investment in the United States (see his Atlantic story on the topic here), his new book of China essays (excerpt on Danwei), internet censorship and his recently deceased father. Around the 24-minute mark, Fallows makes some interesting statements about how he thinks Chinese people would have voted in the recent U.S. election — we're curious how his observations compare to what Shanghaiist readers saw and heard leading up to November 4. more ›

Xu Xi, author of Evanescent Isles talks to Zhang Lijia, journalist and author of the book Socialism is Great. In her book, Zhang tells her fascinating story of how she worked as a teenager in a Nanjing factory which produced missiles designed to reach North America, participated in the Tiananmen Square protests and eventually became a journalist. more ›

In this latest episode of Sexy Beijing, Sufei meets up with Shanghai-born Qiu Xiaolong (裘小龙), author of the award-winning Inspector Chen series of mystery novels, Death of a Red Heroine (2000), A Loyal Character Dancer (2002), When Red Is Black (2004), A Case of Two Cities (2006), and Red Mandarin Dress. Qiu currently lives in St Louis, Missouri and writes all his books (and poetry) in English, and only recently have his works been translated in Mandarin. His Wikipedia entry includes the following tidbit:

He originally visited the United States in 1988 to write a book about T. S. Eliot, but following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 a newspaper reported on his previous fundraising efforts for Chinese students, and he was forced to remain in America to avoid persecution by the Communist Party of China.

One of our favorite Chinese sites seems to have run afoul of the net nanny: vip.bokee.com has been on again off again, but perfectly viewable with a proxy. Using the proxy we saw an article about a list published in a Chengdu newspaper of the top-grossing authors in China, at least based on royalties from the sales of their books. At the top of the list was a Guo Jingming, a young author (born in... more ›