Musician Bob Dylan has finally hit back at all the talk that our government censored his song list for his concerts last month in Beijing and Shanghai, saying he played the songs he and his band always intended to play. And this part is interesting: He also states that he never booked dates to play in China the year before. In 2010, there were rumors whirling about of the "Blowing in the Wind" singer would perform on the mainland but that he was denied clearance by the Chinese Ministry. Dylan says it was all bull and chalks it up to some promoter who promised things he couldn't deliver. Dylan posted up this letter on his official website.

To my fans and followers more ›

In case you haven't seen the numerous advertisements for it, Bob Dylan is playing tonight in Shanghai! As you can imagine, it's kind of a huge deal - the counterculture icon was prevented from coming to this country last year and only made it here this time with a vetted set list. But we weren't the first stop on the China tour - Dylan made an appearance in Beijing first, which allowed Western media to give their thoughts. Apparently most of their thoughts are centered on how much the times are or aren't a changing. more ›

It's shaping up to be an epic weekend. Beijing got the first taste of Bob Dylan but the musical legend is finally in town and ready to rock the stage tonight. However, let's not let that overshadow everything else going on over the next three days. East West Theater is putting on a new comedy, Jiashan is also marking a first: its first farmer's market that is, Andrew Field is debuting his 'Indie in the PRC' film and prolific techno producer Orlando Voorn will be mixing at Shelter. Sunday begins with the Jinqiao 8k race and finally, Chefs Willy and Saito are battling it out Iron Chef style. And if that's still not enough, head over to our more ›

Things are piling up this Friday and Saturday. Bob Dylan is at long last playing Shanghai, but he's up against synth-pop up-and-comers French Horn Rebellion, who are fresh off a Hong Kong show with MGMT. And if that's not enough, Yuyintang's cooking up an entire day of music on Saturday, where like a bazillion people are playing and Break for Borneo is releasing their first album! Read on, or head over to our calendar for more! more ›

With the exciting, exciting news that Bob Dylan is making it to Shanghai, Shanghai Folk Rock United is putting on a show to welcome the musical legend featuring 6 singer/songwriters performing their original songs: Liu Jian, Bai Yu, Jian Bin, Samantha Sprole, Tom Mangione, and Adam Minter. Say whaaat? Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap is a folk rock singer? Since when? We asked one of their organizers and we got this interesting tidbit: Minter used to be a singer/songwriter in the US whose songs were played pretty often on college music radio stations. He even toured over the US and had a cd. more ›

Second time's the charm! After much speculation and a thwarted attempt last year, Bob Dylan is playing Shanghai on April 8th and tickets are going fast! The cheapest two sections are sold out on Smartticket already so you'll have to fork over at least 480RMB now to see the legendary 69-yr old rocker, but still, we wouldn't sit on this one for too long! more ›

According to ISIS magazine, Bob Dylan's doing a run through Asia and Shanghai is on his list of touring cities. Is this great news? You betcha and we'd be really psyched up about it except for one little thing. Last year at this time, Dylan was also scheduled to play on the mainland and his tour dates got scrapped by the government. However, if the information we've got coming through the grapevine is correct, the musician will be performing on April 8th at the Shanghai Grand Stage. more ›

• Shanghai street artist Sail has painted an exhilarating new piece called "plum blossoms." It's a tree that also manages to spell out his tag. Find out more about Sail on Neocha Edge. [Neocha]
• Ever thought 1933 was too far a trek out just to buy some gold lame stretch pants? Luckily, another American Apparel has opened, this one in downtown Huaihai Zhong Lu. [City Weekend]
• Friends passed it by on our way to Spot the other day, but now that someone has talked to the staff, it seems it's official: Ming, that short-lived nightclub on Tongren Lu, has now turned into Maxmo. [SmartShanghai]

• Dead fish have formed a 2-km-long, 2-meter-wide belt in a reservoir in northeast China. "The water has turned dark and stunk since the thick ice layer completely melted early this month. More and more dead fish have appeared, making the odor even stronger," said a worker of the Tuanjie Reservoir in Liaoning. [China.org.cn]
• Gao Zhisheng, in his first exclusive interview since he resurfaced two weeks ago after a year of captivity, said he didn't wish to discuss his disappearance and that he was planning on quitting his activism in hopes that he can reunite with his family. [Associated Press]
• Things are amiss at Foxconn, the company that manufactures iPads and iPhones for Apple. It's had a whopping four suicide attempts by employees in the last month. [Telegraph]

Phew! Today's traffic was busy and bustling thanks to the Qingming Festival - that yearly holiday that the Chinese use to pay respects to the dead by sweeping tombs and burning offerings (sometimes, annoyingly, in your stairwells). Shanghai Daily predicted that there would be traffic jams and overcrowded buses. After all, over 1.4 million people and 127,000 vehicles had already gone to and left cemetaries in the past 48 hours and this would have been the day for all the procrastinators and traditionalists to get their business done. Well, if our misguided attempts to traverse Shanghai's streets were any indication, they were right. But anyhow, hope everybody had a happy Tomb Sweep day! [Shanghai Daily] more ›

As is the way for big acts in China, it seems like they're cancelled as soon as they're announced. Bob Dylan is no longer heading to China, according to Smart Shanghai. Supposedly, this time around, the fault lies with haggling between Mainland and Taiwanese promoters, who all wanted a bigger piece of the folk musician hero. Alas. However, those of you who want to watch grizzled old guys play the guitar are in luck - a reader pointed out to us that Jimmy Page is still planning to headline an Earth Day concert in April. Only, it'll be in Beijing. (Thanks David!) more ›

Musical legend Bob Dylan will be making a short stop in Shanghai this Spring while on his Asia-wide tour. The raspy-voiced guitar pluckin' counterculture icon (before, we suppose, counterculture was corporatized) is scheduled to play on April 6 here, according to China Music Radar. Two days before that, he'll be in Beijing, and two days before that he'll be knockin' on Hong Kong's door. We haven't been as excited for the older generation of music lovers in this city since... er... Eric Clapton? more ›

We are truly blessed by the availability of such a wide selection of affordable bootleg DVDs from around the world. With so many to choose from, though, it's easy to get a little carried away and more often than is probably wise, we find ourselves selecting titles that are ill-advised at the offset. But hey, it's only 7 RMB*, why not? For variety's sake and to satisfy those dark cravings, we often prefer picking up some schlock to throw in the collection just to mix up as well, because a bad movie can often make for a more enjoyable viewing experience (See: Commando) than a mediocre movie trying to be good (See: The Kingdom). more ›

Call us stupid (you wouldn't be the first person) but we were kind of confused upon reading this Shanghai Daily story: more ›

Photo by Monkeyking taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›