Nien Cheng (鄭念), author, has passed away in Washington D.C., according to the Washington Post. The 94-year-old former KMT diplomat is best known for her bestselling autobiography Life and Death in Shanghai, which chronicled the six-and-a-half years she spent as a prisoner during the Cultural Revolution. In one of the most harrowing tales from the book, she finds out that her daughter, a prominent Shanghai film actress, was killed by the Red Guard for refusing to denounce her mother. For summaries and reviews of her seminal memoir, check out the original New York Times book review and this article from Time Magazine. more ›

Yesterday afternoon we attended a talk at the JC Mandarin with Cherie Blair and guest speakers Jane Huang and Sha Sha. The Chinese version of Blair's autobiography Speaking for Myself was launched at the Shanghai Book Fair yesterday. more ›

Fans of French film might be interested to know that Jean-Pierre Melville's 1970 classic Le Cercle Rouge (starring Alain Delon, Andre Bourvil, Gian Maria Volonte and Yves Montand) is being remade in Hollywood by none other than Hong Kong action auteur Johnnie To. more ›